A New Model and its Implications for the Origin of Writing
The La Marche Antler Revisited
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6044561 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Francesco D’errico (0000-0002-2422-3079, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, corresponding author), Francesco D''Errico (0000-0001-8988-3572), Francesco D'Errico |
| Year | 1995 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 163-206 |
| Publication date | 1995-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cambridge Archaeological Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0959-7743 • E-ISSN: 1474-0540 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s095977430001502x |
| OpenAlex | W2130768787 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 36 |
| References cited | 35 |
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
Antler · Archaeology · Art · Code (set theory · Cognitive science · Engraving · Linguistics · Morphology (biology · Notation · Object (grammar · Process (computing · Programming language · Range (aeronautics · Visual arts · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Computer Science · Engineering · History · Image Processing and 3D Reconstruction · Philosophy · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence · Geology · Paleontology
Proximate–Ultimate Causation in Human Evolution? Implications from Archeology
Art in time. Diachronic rates of change in the decoration of bone artefacts from the Beagle Channel region (Tierra del Fuego, Southern South America)
Archaeology Through Ethnography
Paleolithic Finger Flutings and the Question of Writing
Technological complexity and the global dispersal of modern humans
Signs of Life
Notational Sequences Theory from Its Introduction to Present Day
A new notational artifact from the Upper Paleolithic? Technological and traceological analysis of a pebble decorated with notches found on Monte Alto (Velletri, Italy)
On the Attribution of Palaeolithic Artworks
Climatic variability and pictorial oscillation
Paleolithic Art
Stone Age technologies and human behaviors as reflected in decoration of osseous artefacts from the northern part of East-Central Europe
The Art of Taphonomy and the Taphonomy of Art
Implications of the Marked Artifacts of the Middle Stone Age of Africa
Cutting decaying bodies
Cro-Magnon personal ornaments revisited
A Middle Palaeolithic incised bear bone from the Dziadowa Skała Cave, Poland
A new ornamented artefact from Poland
The Ebro Basin in NE Spain
Uluzzian bone technology and its implications for the origin of behavioural modernity
Application of 3-dimensional microscopy and micro-CT scanning to the analysis of Magdalenian portable art on bone and antler
An engraved bone fragment from c. 70,000-year-old Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa
Archaeological Evidence for the Emergence of Language, Symbolism, and Music–An Alternative Multidisciplinary Perspective
Sequential Incisions on a Cave Bear Bone from the Middle Paleolithic of Pešturina Cave, Serbia
Identifying regional variability in Middle Stone Age bone technology
The La Marche Antler Revisited
Evaluating the Evidence for Lunar Calendars in Upper Palaeolithic Parietal Art
An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar
Type and Token in the Prehistoric Origins of Numbers
Additional evidence for bone technology in the southern African Middle Stone Age
Trajectories of cultural innovation from the Middle to Later Stone Age in Eastern Africa
Initial Upper Paleolithic bone technology and personal ornaments at Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria)
The writing of numbers
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A case for idle graffiti
Keeping count
The roots of civilization
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Applications of Scanning Electron Microscopy to Taphonomic Problems
Industrie microlithique du Magd. III et Industrie lithique du Magd. IV-V, 8e Publication, Grotte de La Marche, Com. de Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne)
Numbers in Paleolithic Graphic Art and the Initial Stages in the Development of Mathematics [Part 1]
Early Writing in Sumer
Dokumente und Beweise der Fahigkeiten des fossilen Menschen zu zahlen im mahrischen Palaolithikum
La gravure sur os au Magdalénien
Before Writing. Volume I
La Marche, commune de Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne)
La Vie Sociale De l'ART Mobilier Paléolithique. Manipulation, Transport, Suspension Des Objets on Os, Bois De Cervidés, Ivoire
Notation versus Decoration in the Upper Palaeolithic
Surface modification on bone
A replication technique for scanning electron microscopy
Mechanical surface analysis of bone
Interpretation of scanning electron microscopic images of abraded forming bone surfaces
Microscopic criteria for the determination of directionality of cutmarks on bone
On African Symbolic Messages
Interprétation d'un ossement encoché de la préhistoire syrienne
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New hypotheses concerning two engraved bones from la grotte de Remouchamps, belgium
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Language and Its Structure
An Experimental Study of the Morphological Characteristics of Tool Marks
The Ancient Quipu, a Peruvian Knot Record
Technology, Motion, and the Meaning of Epipaleolithic Art
Palaeolithic Lunar Calendars
Cognitive Aspects of Upper Paleolithic Engraving
| Unique citing works | 36 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,2 |
| Citation span | 1996 - 2026 (31) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 36 |