A study published PNASThe journal of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences is poised to overturn the previously accepted chronology of the emergence of the first forms of writing. According to this research, the earliest examples of writing appeared 40,000 years ago, inscribed by our ancestors on stone objects. Until now, the earliest known examples of writing were placed around 3000 BC. Therefore, this discovery pushes back the emergence of writing by 35,000 years.

It's not just a theory; a scientific team from the University of Barcelona and the University of Alcalá has been able to prove it by tracing the trail of cut stone tools recovered from the Peña Capón site (Muriel/Tamajón, Guadalajara): 25,000 years ago, the hunter-gatherers of the Peña Capón area. The researchers followed the trail of flint tools that different groups of hunter-gatherers exchanged over the years and found evidence that the stones traveled a distance of about 700 kilometers. They originated in the area where Saint-Sulpice-de-Excideuil and Mauprévoir are located today, in the Dordogne department of southwestern France, and ended up at Peña Capón, in the center of the Iberian Peninsula. The authors of the study argue that the social networks reached an area of ​​nearly 89,000 square kilometers. The tools would have been exchanged between interconnected groups. "One of these pieces traveled inside a leather bag and was not used for hunting or cutting. That's why we believe it had symbolic value," says Marta Sánchez de la Torre, professor at the University of Barcelona and co-author of the article published in the journal Science AdvancesThe tools would have been used to strengthen social alliances and maintain contact between different groups during the Last Glacial Maximum, when conditions were very harsh due to extreme cold and food scarcity. "We have also been able to verify, at other sites such as Montlleó, in the municipality of Prats i Sansor, in the Cerdanya region, that the colder it was and the worse the conditions, the greater the interconnection and exchange," says Sánchez. "There was not only an exchange of tools, but also of people, and that was key to the survival of these groups, which were quite small, usually consisting of 20 or 30 people," he adds.

Pla de l'Estany is one of the regions with the richest archaeological heritage in Catalonia. The Neolithic site of village of La DragaDating back some 7,000 years, this site is one of the most important on the Iberian Peninsula and is very close to the Serinyà burial caves and the Roman settlement of Vilauba, both of great interest. In recent times, exceptional remains, often remarkably well-preserved, have been discovered at all these locations, having remained hidden beneath the pond's waters for centuries. Now, all these finds will be exhibited in the renovated Banyoles Regional Archaeological Museum (MACB), which, after nearly 16 years of museographic redesign and renovations, is reopening its doors to help visitors understand 45 million years of history. The new space, spread across the upper floors of several heritage buildings in the town center, features more than 1,600 original pieces, many of which are being shown to the public for the first time. The previous museum displayed numerous replicas for security and conservation reasons. Bones of fauna dating back 40 million years, such as crocodiles and marine sirenians, or exceptional Neolithic objects containing organic material like wood or cord, fill the display cases of the renovated Banyoles museum.