The World's Oldest Writing?

Researchers in South Africa have found what they believe might be the oldest human writing, or at least the oldest attempt to convey information graphically. The writings, 60,000 year old ostrich eggs with regular patterns of scratches in geometric shapes, look very intentional and quite different from random markings.

Linguists, pointing to the fact that current residents of the area used to mark ostrich shells with geometric patterns to show ownership, suggest that the decorated eggs are in fact an extremely early evidence of human language. The speculations, reported in New Scientist, contrast with the traditional view that true language began about 50,000 years ago.

While some have always held that some sort of symbolic representation of communication must have been present among homo sapiens as part of the definition of the species, putting the origin of language at about two million years ago, writing has been thought to be a much later development.

Having seen the images, we think that they may be the forerunners of the "Picturesque" design of Sweetique Chocolate Easter Eggs, which you can see in the photo above, on the right.