Amateur Sleuth Helps Unearth A 'Surreal' Finding In Cave Drawings

A London-based independent researcher has helped uncover a fascinating meaning behind Ice Age hunter-gatherers’ 20,000-year-old markings in cave drawings, The Guardian reported.
An analysis of European cave markings, which include lines, dots and y-shaped symbols, suggested they were a method of communication for hunter-gatherers, according to a study published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal.
The markings, when closely associated with animal images, further appeared to represent numbers for months on a lunar calendar and helped communicate the reproductive cycles of animals, the study noted.
Researchers referred to the markings, which appeared in 600-plus Ice Age images, as part of a proto-writing system, or a system that communicates information through markings. 
The study comes after furniture conservator Ben Bacon spent “numerous hours” researching drawings online and at the British Library, the BBC reported, as he looked for repeating patterns.
Bacon noted that a y-shaped sign in select drawings possibly symbolized giving birth as it showed a line growing from another line, according to the BBC.
Amateur Sleuth Helps Unearth A 'Surreal' Finding In Cave Drawings