A New Model and its Implications for the Origin of Writing: The La Marche Antler Revisited

Abstract

Current models for the origin of writing do not pay sufficient attention to the origin and early development of means adopted by modern humans to record, transmit and process information outside the human body. The present article attempts to fill this gap by elaborating a theoretical model able to classify and describe the variability of these systems. The model is applied to the study of the engraved antler from La Marche, one of the better-known Palaeolithic objects to have been interpreted as an early system of notation. Technical analysis of the marks, through application of a range of experimental criteria, suggests that the sets of marks carved on this object should be interpreted as an artificial memory system with a complex code based on the morphology and the spatial distribution of the engraved marks. These results have important implications for current theories on the origin of writing.