(ANSA) - BELGRADE, FEB 25 - Writing originated 40,000 years ago, according to analyses of over 3,000 signs on 260 objects discovered in caves in the Swabian Jura, in present-day Germany. The discovery, published in the journal of the United States Academy of Sciences, PNAS, dates the first forms of proto-writing back approximately 30,000 years and demonstrates that Neolithic human communities already possessed highly developed cognitive abilities. The research, led by Christian Bentz of Saarland University in Germany and Ewa Dutkiewicz of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin, shows that the enigmatic sequences of signs found on the objects are as complex as the first examples of proto-writing that emerged many millennia later. Writing is known to have originated in Mesopotamia around 3,500 years ago, spread rapidly from there, and emerged gradually rather than suddenly. It is thought to be the culmination of various forms of proto-writing, a collection of more or less complex symbols that were not a true graphic representation of spoken language but were instead intended to convey information. The new study is based on the analysis of hundreds of objects from 34,000 to 45,000 years ago, such as mammoth figurines or depictions of lion-human hybrids, which are surrounded by signs such as lines, notches, dots, and crosses that are intended to convey information. Although the meaning of these signs is not yet clear, statistical analyses show the presence of patterns and repetitions common to information content. The patterns are very similar in form to the proto-writing that originated in Mesopotamia tens of thousands of years later: "In terms of complexity," Bentz stated, "the sequences of signs are comparable." (ANSA).