Thousands of marks carved into Paleolithic artifacts suggest that early modern humans were using structured symbols to communicate as far back as 40,000 years ago, a detailed analysis has found. The marks, made by people of the Aurignacian culture between 43,000 and 34,000 years ago, are not complex enough to qualify as writing in the strict sense – they do not directly represent spoken language. But the way they were arranged on various objects shows measurable structure comparable to the