Project Description
2024-2028
Humans store information outside of their minds. This capacity for information encoding is reflected in symbols and written language, and it underlies artificial computing systems. It is a hallmark of human evolution. Traces of this capacity have "fossilized" in the archaeological record reaching back into the Paleolithic of c. 400 000 to 11 000 thousand years ago. The EVINE project (Evolution of Visual INformation Encoding) proposes to digitize large scale samples of paleolithic finds, and to compare their information encoding potential to ancient and modern writing. This enables us to pinpoint the transitions in information encoding from the first signs to the information age.
This project is funded by an ERC Starting Grant (ERC, EVINE, 101117111).
International Conference, PETRI Berlin
May 6-8Ewa Dutkiewicz, Christian Bentz, and Éva David organized the International Conference on ``Engraving Bones'' at the PETRI Berlin. Many thanks to Marieluise Hahn and Carla Olabe for their support with conference organization. Finally, thanks also to all the participants for making this an inspiring meeting!
Visit at the Seminar für Ur- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie, Universität Jena
March 2026Ewa Dutkiewicz and Chris Bentz visit the Seminar für Ur- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena for data collection. Thanks to Clemens Pasda and Enrico Paust for hosting us.
