What drew von petzinger to study cave art? how did she go about studying this specific aspect of cave art? describe the steps that von petzinger took.

When she first saw the necklace, Genevieve von Petzinger feared the trip halfway around the globe to the French village of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac had been in vain. The dozens of ancient deer teeth laid out before her, each one pierced like a bead, looked roughly the same. It was only when she flipped one over that the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. On the reverse were three etched symbols: a line, an X and another line.

Von Petzinger, a palaeoanthropologist from the University of Victoria in Canada, is spearheading an unusual study of cave art. Her interest lies not in the breathtaking paintings of bulls, horses and bison that usually spring to mind, but in the smaller, geometric symbols frequently found alongside them. Her work has convinced her that far from being random doodles, the simple shapes represent a fundamental shift in our ancestors’ mental skills.

The first formal writing system that we know of is the 5000-year-old cuneiform script of the ancient city of Uruk in what is now Iraq. But it and other systems like it – such as Egyptian hieroglyphs – are complex and didn’t emerge from a vacuum. There must have been an earlier time when people first started playing with simple abstract signs. For years, von Petzinger has wondered if the circles, triangles and squiggles that humans began leaving on cave walls 40,000 years ago represent that special time in our history – the creation of the first human code.

If so, the marks are not to be sniffed at. Our ability to represent a concept with an abstract sign is something no other animal, not even our closest cousins the chimpanzees, can do. It is arguably also the foundation for our advanced, global culture.

The first step to check her theory was to fastidiously document the signs, their location, age and style, and see if any patterns emerged. For this, von Petzinger would have to visit as many caves as she could: archaeology’s focus on paintings of animals meant the signs were often overlooked in existing records.

Explanation:

From ancient times Human beings evolved from a simple form to a less perfect form. As they developed how to hunt and then learned how to communicate with each other through using various gestures and signs.

Million of year ago they learned to leave back there history and stories, while writing and drawing sketches on walls in the ancient caves. A Canadian archaeologist  Von Petzinger was much interested in studying these sculptures and writings in these caves, as she wanted to explore the mental development of humans from million of years. She had this craze of knowing more about a person who told their  story while writing symbols on wall along with the paintings.

As she traveled to different regions to continue her research and work on the development of human behavior and mentality from million of years, as she takes interest in the evolution that occurred in the human mental level.

Explanation:

The first step to check her work or theory was to study and do research in a more scientific and research based method.As she thoroughly studied and observed the ancient archaeological sites i.e caves.

Steps taken:

As she has a very systematic way to analyze all the signs and the ways how someone drew such sketches inside a cave.