Discussion

Humans 40,000 y ago developed a system of conventional signs

truhistory: This article is just pushing the tired narrative that civilization rose up out of Africa 40000 years ago. We already have the 700000 year old artifacts from Ireland and the U.K. indicating it emerged from seafaring cultures known as Atlantis that existed up to a million years ago until being wiped out in battle against ancient Athens as related to Plato from ancient Egyptians.This info will be flagged by those who want you to go to war for their gods.

SetTheorist: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-3586318612,500 years ago seems to be a more sensible and evidence-based estimate.

truhistory: Take a look at the Waterford Axe and others. The ice age wiped out most of history.

iberator: Ha! And someone today at HN laughed at the research of monkeys playing with crystals...Maybe one day we could communicate with monkeys with marbles and crystals and stuff as SIGN language.Imagine monkey soldiers becoming reality in AI WARS.

WalterBright: They could also be simply idle doodling or decorations.

bryanlarsen: Too bad we don't have a paper that applies information theory techniques to answer that question. Oh wait...

WalterBright: I remain skeptical. Pictures in clouds.