Amateur Archeologist Deciphers Code from Ice Age Paintings

With over three decades of experience in education, Mary E. Streshly is dedicated to promoting scientific literacy and helping students succeed. The executive director of educational services for the San Mateo County Office of Education, Mary Streshly has a passion for history and archaeology.

An amateur archaeologist and professors from two institutions have successfully interpreted markings on 20,000-year-old paintings across Europe. Archeologists already knew that the paintings were created by Ice Age hunter-gatherers in Europe, but special markings on these paintings had puzzled researchers for years.

A furniture conservator from London, Ben Bacon, suggested that the sequence of dots and shapes alongside depictions of animal species such as fish, bison, and wild horses might reference a calendar. He presented his idea to two professors at Durham University and University College London, who welcomed his thoughts and worked with him to decipher the markings. Using the corresponding birth cycles of the depicted animals, the research team linked the markings to a record of breeding months for each of the species depicted.

According to the findings, Ice Age hunter-gatherers may have been the first people to use systematic calendars and marks to record major ecological events. The Cambridge Archaeological Journal published the study.