PALEOLITHIC ARTIFICIAL MEMORY SYSTEMS:

We have long considered ancient rock art including cave paintings to be data. I also include carved bone and ivory as well as portable carved and modified stones. The authors of this new paper have a modified way of looking at these records. They refer to them as Artificial Memory Systems (AMS), suggesting that after they had been created they could be visited again later to retrieve data from them.

While they focused on bone and ivory it seems to me that their approach could just as well be used looking at painted caves, or any other rock art. “Artificial Memory Systems (AMS) encompass devices that record, store, transmit, and retrieve coded information beyond the brain, via external representations. AMS can be anything from the notches on a gunslinger's pistol, tracking past success, to the symbols on and data encoded within the Voyager spacecraft's golden record, detailing a snapshot of Earthling knowledge and culture.” (Jackson 2025) This is all true, although it is a pretty broad field of examples.

 A. and B. – marks on bone made by modern butchery. From Courtenay et al., 2025,  Figure 1, page 3.

The methodology the team used will be to analyze two groups of marked artifacts, the Paleolithic and what they refer to as ethnographic. The ethnographic artifacts are much more recent and we have actual ethnographic data about their meanings. “Current scientific knowledge suggests humans are the only species to manufacture and use these tools. While a number of artifacts dating back to the Middle Paleolithic have been considered to be early instances of AMS, conclusive and systematic evidence of this function is absent. Here we contrast the spatial distribution of markings on these potential early AMSs to other Paleolithic artifacts displaying butchery and ornamental marks, as well as ethnographically recorded cases of AMS. We find that both eth­nographic and Upper Paleolithic AMSs are endowed with systematically different signatures that distinguish them from the other artifacts. These findings suggest that modern humans in at least Africa and Europe had sophisticated cognitive capabilities for information storage and retrieval, providing insights into the possible development of quantity-related cognition.” (Courtenay et al. 2025) Many researchers have considered the question of numeration in these examples of ancient art, from dots and lines among the animals on cave walls, to grooves on a boulder as a given but the question of what they do or do not count is constant.

 

C.and D. – decorative engraving in the form of zoomorphic (C) and geometric (D) motifs. From Courtenay et al., 2025,  Figure 1, page 3.

Statistical analysis was applied to the Paleolithic bone markings. “The present analysis has shown that the spatial distribution of different types of markings on bone are separable, with distinct patterns emerging for butchery activities, figurative or abstract representations, and potential AMSs; whether the latter be ethnographic examples, or Paleolithic instances interpreted as such from previous studies. These studies have proposed that four distinct factors, in isolation or com­bination, may play a role in creating codes allowing for the storage of information in an AMS; the number of marks, the accumulation of marks over time, their spatial organisation and arrangement, as well as their morphology. To date, the identification of potential Paleolithic AMSs has been based mainly on the technological analysis of marks.” (Courtenay et al. 2025)

E.  and F. – possible AMS. From Courtenay et al., 2025,  Figure 1, page 3.

Having used statistical methods to analyze the Paleolithic examples, the team then used the same methods on more recent artifacts for which ethnographic records are available. “The examined ethnographic datasets included examples of notched sticks, some of which exhibit quantity-related representations, and some that strongly suggest some form of expressive quantification. They are documented from 20th -century artefacts from Muacapenda and Muatchondo (Angola), tally sticks from Medieval England, as well as 19th -century notched wooden artifacts from the Yakun­bura community of the Dawson river (Australia). This raises a plausible interpretation for these artifacts, related with the emergence of quantitative cognition in our species. Although these artifacts present no additional discernible information about their function based solely on the mark­ings beyond the data that has been collected ethnographi­cally or historically, our statistical analyses show that they share many properties with the potential Paleolithic AMSs in our sample. An important remaining question, however, is to determine what aspects of expressive quantification might be involved in Paleolithic AMSs, since quantifica­tion is a multifaceted phenomenon that encompasses a wide range of features and cognitive mechanisms.” (Courtenay et al. 2025) Comparing the results of their study of both groups of artifacts, the team concluded that the Paleolithic markings were indeed capable of recording data, but since we have no knowledge of their languages it is unlikely that we will ever be able to retrieve that data.

G. and H. – known AMS. From Courtenay et al., 2025,  Figure 1, page 3.

Of course we are still using AMS, we just have very technologically different systems nowadays. “Writing systems, recorded music and images stored digitally in computer code represent the most modern form of AMS, utilizing the most complex mix of language and technology ever created, while essentially relying on the simplest binary system of notches and dots to encode.” (Jackson 2025) Of course writing systems, recorded music and digital images rely on considerably more complicated tools to achieve their function. Indeed, I am typing this into a Lenovo laptop computer. My actions in this are not really more complicated than carving notches in a bone would be, but I am only able to do this because someone went to considerable trouble to manufacture my tool, much more complicated than a rock flake.

So, do these markings encode data? If the obvious fact that the marks were produced on purpose by someone with an idea behind them can be considered data, then yes, they do. I really don’t know what this gets us, however. We already believed this. It sort of strikes me as arguing about the difference between red and scarlet. I suppose it is comforting to know that their statistics back up what we believed all along.

REFERENCES:

Courtenay, Lloyd Austin, Frencesco d’Errico, Rafail Nunez, Damian E. Blasi, 2025, Identifying potential palaeolithic artificial memory systems via Spatial statistics: Implications for the origin of quantification, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 17 (171). https://doi.org.10.1007/s12520-025-02286-4. Accessed online 5 August 2025.

Jackson, Justin, 2025, Searching for Artificial Memory Systems in ancient humans with spatial statistics, 5 August 2025,  Phys.org online. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-artificial-memory-ancient-humans-spatial.html. Accessed online 5 August 2025.

PORTABLE X-RAY FLUORESCENCE ANALYSIS OF PIGMENTS IN CAVE PAINTINGS:

Entrance to Font du Gaume cave, France. Photograph by Don Hitchcock, Donsmaps.com.

An important development in the potential dating of European cave art has been made by the use of portable x-ray fluorescence equipment to analyze the pigments used in the paintings. If the black paint is based on Manganese dioxide there is no possibility of radiocarbon dating it, however, if black paint is based on charcoal can be identified, then the possibility of radiocarbon dating does exist. The scientific team carried this analysis out in Font de Gaume Cave in France.

A variety of photographic techniques were used to enhance variations in black pigments in the paintings. These small variations were assumed to be perhaps related to the use of different black pigments which could then be analyzed with the portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF), and micro-raman spectroscopy.

Painted bison, Font du Gaume, France. From Leroi Gourhan.

“From a technical and a stylistic perspective, two types of animal representations can be distinguished. On the one hand, we have lifelike painted bison treated with bi- or polychromy, where painting and engraving are associated with the relief effects of the wall for an exceptional rendering. Different shades can be observed, ranging from black to brown and from red to yellow as well as the designs being mainly done in black and red. The archetype of “hyperbison” is found in many of these individuals. There are also drawn naturalist bison with black lines. On the other hand, there are graphical entities of different animals as well (bison, horse, deer) that are drawn and exhibit a more schematic style. Capitan et al. hypothesized at least two different styles of representations right after the discovery of the cave art in Font-de-Gaume. Leroi-Gourhan also stated that at least two creation steps are noticeable from the outset in the Font de Gaume cave. Evidence of different creation steps of the ornamentations have also been provided for the Bull Rotunda in the Lascaux cave and Pech-Merle, Lot, France–Henri Moissan, a French Nobel prize winner, identified in 1902 Fe and Mn oxides in the coloring matter samples from the Font-de-Gaume decor. Today, this UNESCO world heritage site is protected and sampling is only allowed by authorities in highly exceptional cases. The awareness of the fragility of decorated cave sites has led to a transition from micro-sampling to non-invasive analyses, carried out in-situ. Scientific imaging was used to record figures and panels of the Font-de-Gaume cave. Areas of interest could be selected for in-situ point analyses by portable X-ray fluorescence analyses (pXRF) and micro-Raman spectroscopy.” (Reiche et al. 2023:1-2)

Figures photographed in different spectra of visible light. Font du Gaume, France. Photographs by A. Maigret.

Along with the pXRS and micro-Raman spectroscopy, the rock art was photographed with a range of color filters which also helped enhance the analysis of some pigment differences. “Photographic imaging allows observing coloring matters at the scale of the panels and figures in the cave. The points for chemical analyses by pXRF and for mineralogical analyses by portable micro-Raman Spectroscopy can be judiciously chosen. This also limits the number of analyses required per figure and allows extrapolating the results of the physico-chemical analyses to the whole figure or at least the remaining visible part of it. The results of the analysis can therefore be read and discussed in the prehistoric context at the scale of a figure, a panel or even an area in the cave.” (Reiche et al. 2023)

“Portable XRF analyses were conducted in-situ in the cave with the portable ELIO device of the brand XG-Lab/Bruker® of the C2RMF fixed on a tripod with two axial translations (forward and backwards as well as left to right) and three rotation axes. This standardized device holds a 50 kV X-ray tube with a Rh anode that can deliver a power of 4 W. The detector is a 17 mm2 SDD whit an energy resolution of 140 eV at the Mn Kα line. It is also equipped with a collimator able to focus the beam into a 1 mm spot, two lasers, a positioning system and a tripod. The distance between the measuring head and the wall is 5 mm. It also benefits of a camera for the observation of the measurement spot. The experimental conditions were 600 s of acquisition time with 40 kV and 40 μA delivered by the X-ray tube.” (Reiche et al. 2023) The first known use of pXRF equipment to analyze pictographs was by Bonita Newman and Lawrence Loendorf in 2005. (Newman and Loendorf 2005)

Font du Gaume reindeer, France. Image from Pinterest.

“The mobile Raman measuring device used was developed by Jobin–Yvon HORIBA and consists of components that can be easily moved during a measurement campaign. The device is equipped with a “Superhead SH 532” measuring head with an Olympus “long working distance” objective. In-situ Raman measurements require an arrangement with high flexibility and high stability at the same time. A working distance of 10 mm between the head and the wall guarantees the safety of the painted wall.” (Reiche et al. 2023) Raman spectroscopy detects the vibrational frequency of molecules, and since the molecules of each element vibrate at different frequencies the various elements can be distinguished. Micro-raman spectroscopy is raman spectroscopy through a microscope so a very small area can be analyzed, like a painted line or dot.

These studies determined that some black lines, dots, and areas were created using charcoal as the black pigment meaning that these could also be dated using radiocarbon (C¹⁴) dating. These techniques could be reasonably expected to be reliable in other instances of painted pictographs as well.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Baum, Stephanie, 2023, First discovery of carbon-based cave art in France's Dordogne region could pave way for precise radiocarbon dating, 18 December 2023, https://phys.org/news/2023-12-discovery-carbon-based-cave-art-france.html. Accessed online 29 December 2023.

Reiche, Ina, Yvan Coquinot, Antoine Trosseau and Anne Maigret, 2023, First discovery of charcoal based prehistoric cave art in Dordogne, 14 December 2023, Nature Portfolio, Scientific Reports, 13:22235, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-47652-1. Accessed online 29 December 2023.

SECONDARY REFERENCE:

Newman, Bonita, and Lawrence Loendorf, 2005, “Portable X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis of Rock Art Pigments.” Plains Anthropologist, vol. 50, no. 195, pp. 277–83. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25670828. Accessed 9 Sept. 2024.