"Hand is the visible part of brain", Kant

The areas in the caves were sacred. Leaving a hand print was a way of becoming part of this special place. The figures on the cave walls became permanent records and the first written language -just as children today use their drawings to tell stories long before they learn to read or write the words they need to express their thoughts.


Paleontologists are presently checking fossil bones of the neck and mouth in ancient humans, rather than focusing primarily on the brain cavity, in search of clues on the development of language.

Despite the fact that soft lingual tissues don't ossify, modern scientists still insist on bony fossils dating the genesis of language. In ancient caves, the lime-plastered frescoes should be thought of as "art fossils", and this calcified record considered along with other theories of language development.

And linguists, accustomed to thinking of language only in terms of sounds, may want to think about the reasons words were needed, and the mental images and imitative behaviors that probably lie behind the invention of words.