ANCIENT bones found in an excavation in Bulgaria have deliberate parallel markings that may be the earliest example of human symbolic behaviour, the BBC has reported, citing information from a symposium in Rennes, France.

A series of parallel lines on the bones have been calculated at being between 1.2 million and 1.4 million years old.

"These lines were not from butchering; in this place (on the animal) there is nothing to cut. It cannot be anything else than symbolism," Jean-Luc Guadelli, of the University of Bordeaux, in France, told the BBC.

The discoveries include an 8-cm long bone with less than 10 marks and another animal bone found at the site, incised with 27 marks along its edge.

The French and Bulgarian researchers, who have been excavating at Kozarnika cave in north-western Bulgaria, said the parallel cuts were too precise to be the result of hacking at the animal to strip away meat. However, many researchers believe the capacity to create symbolism occurred about 50 000 years ago, therefore the evidence of symbolism from a much earlier species is controversial.

The excavation project was launched by Bulgarian and French scientists in Kozarnika cave in 1997. The project, entitled "Earliest Human Occupation and Pleistocene environment of the Balkans" united the efforts of Institute of Archaeology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Institut de Prehistoire et de Geologie du Quaternaire, Bordeaux.

At a later stage, a series of discoveries persuaded the scientists that it was worth continuing digging for early human traces. Geological studies and pollen analysis were conducted both outside the cave, to define the actual regional context, and inside the cave to interpret the fossilised layers. The study of the lithic industries showed that the Gravettian culture appeared earlier than it was thought or 35 000 years ago.

The palaeontological and archaeozoological data showed the presence of early, Early/Middle Pleistocene species that indicate an age of layers in which they were found ranging from 700 000 to a million years. In these layers early human occupation was registered. It is marked by presence of proto levallois forms and small bifacial forms. An anthropological study was done of the skeleton uncovered in front of the cave.

The significance of the archaeological finds and research at the Kozarnika cave was demonstrated during Bulgaria's exhibition at Europaglia in Brussels, in 2002. Bulgaria was declared one of the places of the earliest human civilisations in Europe. But, in October 2002, when President Georgi Purvanov was proudly opening the exhibition of the historical and archaeological riches of Bulgaria, no one in Brussels, or anywhere else in the world, knew that the cave in Stara Planina (the Balkan Range) had a lot more to show in its oldest archaeological layers.

After the most recent discoveries, announced a few weeks ago, the French experts said that no practical process, such as butchering a carcass, could explain the markings. Despite the fact that many researchers believe the capacity for true symbolic thinking arose much later with the emergence of modern humans, or Homo Sapiens, the discoveries at Kozarnika might challenge the perceptions of even the biggest pessimists.

When early humans butchered animal carcasses for meat, they left cut marks on the bones made by the stone tools they used to scrape away the flesh. However, this is not the current case. The French and Bulgarian researchers who have been excavating at Kozarnika claim the parallel cuts on the bones are too precise to be the result of hacking at the animal to strip away meat.

"Now, what is the meaning of these symbols? It is impossible to know. But they put on this bone something they wanted to explain: 'I saw 16 animals in this place'. It could be something like language," Guadelli said, quoted by the BBC.

Many researchers see the capacity for symbolism in humans as something that only became widespread after about 50 000 years ago in our own species. Therefore, evidence of this capacity in an earlier species of human is highly controversial.

"There is no precedent for this at all - if in fact they are incised markings rather than butchery marks. This would be a very welcome thing if it is confirmed," BBC quoted Paul Bahn, an expert in ancient art. "I see a very long evolution for art and I see absolutely no credence in the view whatsoever that it magically appears with our sub-species through a genetic mutation," he added.

Guadelli and his Bulgarian colleagues have also discovered a human molar tooth of a similar age to the incised bones. It belongs to a species of early Homo, but the researchers are unsure of the exact species. A good candidate would be Homo Erectus, a species of hominid that was spreading beyond its homeland in Africa at the time the bone markings were made.

The incised bone seems to have belonged to an unknown bovid mammal, the group that includes sheep, cattle and antelope. It comes from ground layers dated using palaeomagnetism, which determines age using past patterns of reversals in the Earth's magnetic field.



Explanatory notes:



GRAVETTIAN CULTURE: Upper Paleolithic culture that is named after the site of La Gravette in Dordogne in France. The lithic industry is especially characterised by the Gravette point, a narrow elongated blade, one edge of which has been transformed into a back through continuous retouch. This culture followed the Aurignacian between 28 000 - 22 000 BP.



LEVALLOIS FORMS: Comes from Levalloisian Method: A method that allowed flake tools of a predetermined size to be produced from a shaped core. The toolmaker first shaped the core and prepared a "striking platform" at one end. Flakes of predetermined and standard sizes could then be knocked off. Although some Levallois flakes date from as far back as 400 000 years ago, they are found more frequently in Mousterian toolkits.