The history of writing down thoughts and feelings could be tens of thousands of years older than previously believed, surprising archaeologists who made the discovery.

The researchers discerned patterns of meaning in lines, notches, dots, and crosses on objects like mammoth tusks as old as 45,000 years in caves in Germany. (see image courtesy University of Tübingen / Hildegard Jensen).

Traditionally historians date the first written words to proto-cuneiform scripts made around 5,000 years ago in ancient Iraq, or Mesopotamia.

The precise meaning of the symbols in Germany remains a mystery.

Read more here (courtesy BBC Science reporter Georgina Rannard)