An observational record and learning from 30,000 years ago

"A fascinating example is the shoulder blade of an ox unearthed in the 1980s (Figure 1) by archaeologists investigating a stone age encampment in the south of France. Carbon dating showed this to be approximately 30,000 years old. The bone was marked with inscriptions that the archaeologist couldn't decipher. It was clear they were neither a tally, nor a pattern, nor any recognisable form of writing. Late one night one of the archaeologists noticed the moon, and something in its shape caught his curiosity.

Aurignacian Lunar Calendar / diagram, drawing after Marshack, A. 1970; Notation dans les Gravures du Paléolithique Supérieur, Bordeaux, Delmas / Don’s Maps
Figure 1 my source: https://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/oldest-lunar-calendars/

Then it struck him. Here, on this fragment of bone, was a lunar calendar complete with 72 observations ... something like 1,600 generations ago. One of our common ancestors (statistically, all of us can claim a relationship to this thoughtful person) 30,000 years ago had the intellectual curiosity to watch the moon, night after night, and then transcribe these movements, at scale, onto the stone age equivalent of the back of an envelope, as he (or she) attempted to "think it through". What makes us human is our ability to think, learn and adapt to our changing environment. The story of the stone age learner gets even better when you imagine a small community of people (adults, adolescents, children on their laps) sitting around a campfire every night working out the meaning of the lunar phases together." pp.72-73.

Abbott, J. & Ryan, T. (2000). Chapter 4, How mass education eclipsed apprenticeship, The Unfinished Revolution: Learning, Human Behavior, Community, and Political Paradox, Stafford, UK: Network Educational Press. (The figure in the book does not include the bone.)

Previously: 'diagrams' , 'archaeology'

[I am also still trying to clear papers and books, as some posts will suggest.]