Amateur Archaeologist Ben Bacon has found what could be the true meaning of the lines and dots and symbols next to animals in cave drawings in Europe. The dots, dashes and ys’ may be tracking gestational periods of animals.

Ben Bacon would normally be found restoring furniture but in his free time, he decided to take up archaeology. He then discovered a pattern within the markings next to animals in cave drawings. Hanna Devlin says “He approached a team of academics with his theory and they encouraged him to pursue it, despite him being “effectively a person off the street”, he said.”, according to The Guardian. Ben Bacon continued looking into the patterns and reached out and collaborated with a team including two professors from Durham university and one from University College London. The Guardian article says “Prof Paul Pettitt, an archaeologist at Durham University, said he was “glad he took it seriously” when Bacon contacted him. “The results show that ice age hunter-gatherers were the first to use a systemic calendar and marks to record information about major ecological events within that calendar,” he said.” (Hanna Devlin, Jan 5). 

Up until Ben Bacon’s findings, archaeologists knew that these markings next to the animals had meaning but till now they didn’t know what it really may have meant. The Guardian said, “By using the birth cycles of equivalent animals today as a reference point, the team deduced that the number of marks associated with ice age animals were a record, by lunar month, of when they were mating. They believe the inclusion of a “Y” sign, formed by adding a diverging line to another, meant “giving birth”. Ben Bacon was figuring out what markings from 20,000 years ago meant. BBC article says, “Prof Pettitt said: “The results show that Ice Age hunter-gatherers were the first to use a systematic calendar and marks to record information about major ecological events within that calendar.” (Jan 5). 

Cave People may have been more evolved and intelligent than we have ever thought before. These new finds by Ben Bacon about cave drawings are leading us to learn more about human ancestors.