A bone from Abri Blanchard (38,000 years old) bears tiny marks interpreted as a lunar calendar, the strongest decodeable proto-writing candidate yet.
Abri Blanchard bone: 35,000-year-old lunar calendar candidate
Site mentioned
📍 Abri Blanchard🌍 Show on the globe
Key facts
- Bone from Abri Blanchard in France, approximately 35,000 years old
- In a small area (size of a wristwatch), 69 tiny marks were made
- Alexander Marshack interpreted this as a lunar calendar recording moon phases
- French ethnologist/astronomer Shantal Jagis Wukiwise confirmed coordinates matched lunar positions
- This represents different symbols for different lunar phases laid out in figure-8 pattern
- Unlike tally marks, this appears to encode specific astronomical information
- This is considered the strongest candidate for proto-writing due to decodeable meaning
Sources
link.springer.com
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