Independent researcher Bennett Bacon used the British Library to make an extraordinary discovery. Examining marks found on cave paintings from the Ice Age, he found what seemed to be a proto-writing system, dating 20,000 years earlier than any other writing ever identified. Bacon collaborated with academics to research and write a paper about his findings. 

There are absolutely millions of signs and marks from the Ice Age, and there have been various explanations of them. Some people think they're magical. This project started when I was looking at a painting of an aurochs with four black dots from the Lascaux Cave, and wondering what the dots meant. I noticed that all of the aurochs in the paintings have four dots, and I decided they might be numbers, relating to a lunar calendar. I put the calendar together in about three to four weeks, then contacted a calendar expert: Dr Tony Freeth at University College London. 

A cave painting of an aurochs with four dots on its body, on the wall of Lascaux Cave (Dordogne, France), created around 21,500 years ago. Credit: JoJan

You have to find a pattern in nature

Four dots appear alongside each auroch and three with each fish. Interval analysis is the only logical way to work it out. The interval between a fish, with three, and an aurochs, with four, is one. The interval between an aurochs, and red deer, who normally have six, is two. You have to find a pattern in nature that matches that pattern. You lay out modern mating intervals and it's a perfect match, across 32 different species. 

Tony said, ‘We need a lot more evidence.’ After a couple years’ more research, we took our theory to Paul Pettitt, an archaeology professor at Durham. He offered to give us all the help we needed, and involved his colleague Professor Robert Kentridge, too. 

Each one of the lines represents a month

The Upper Paleolithic artefacts are engraved pieces of slate or rock. They are local to the cave where they are found, and it appears that they record information about that cave. The writing system is like this: each one of the lines represents a month, four lunar cycles. The calendar starts when the snow melts and the grass comes back on the mountainsides and the world comes alive. It's spring. 

Bacon's notebook

You can show that the animal, chamois, is in the south-east in month one. In month two, it gives birth. In month three, it's leaving the cave. 

A sign can go in any one of these positions, but depending where it is, its value is altered. So if we add a sign ‘Y’ in position six, it simply means that an animal, let’s say salmon, gives birth in the sixth month after the start of spring. It's a combination of mathematics, science and metaphor. ‘Y’ means that one animal splits and becomes two animals.

The person who has made this writes it in month two of this year, but it’s about month two of next year. The idea is, ‘Let's be here, because the chamois will be there. They will have given birth to young. The herds are really vulnerable.’ So the group can track the young herds. 

Numerosity is an innate human quality

It's like a city guide. Groups go to this cave and discover that, for example, in month seven, the reindeer are migrating, the fish are contra-migrating, the cave is a spawning ground for trout or salmon. So it was a really incredibly useful piece of information, especially when winter was coming. We thought advanced number systems such as a calendar might only belong to urban societies. In fact, numerosity appears to be an innate human quality, provided you have a sufficient mass of individuals. 

Survival is about getting food so that you can eat, but it’s also the ability, in a hostile environment, to communicate and pool the resources of the group. You need systems for doing that. We think the cave paintings are one of those systems. You make paintings, in a sense, for everyone. You can't survive as a little group on your own, but if all of you work together, communicating, sharing tools, sharing technology, you increase your chances. We think that these writing systems allowed that to happen.

Most human groups went extinct: Neandertals; Denisovans. We're the only ones that made it, out of maybe three dozen groups, possibly because of our communication skills, and the ability to use more sophisticated language, and conceive of the world in an abstract way. 

These people are very easy to connect with

It’s extraordinary how close these people from 20,000 years ago are to humans today. They have personal artefacts – you'd call them jewellery – in which there are marks engraved. One of the things they engraved, most frequently, is the fact that they had a child. They often give the time of birth when that child is born, but they may also indicate the sex of that child. These people are very easy to connect with and I think that's the real value of the work.

I've never been to the caves themselves. I will often look at 2,000 images in a day. I need to process vast amounts, which is why I come here to the Library, and I do a lot of the work on the internet as well. We look at every example of something that we can find, so that we're not making hypotheses based on small amounts of data. 

A library preserves the past

The collection at the Library is very comprehensive, containing older books that are very difficult to find. Some of these caves have degraded, so the early photographs are very useful. A lot of the objects have been lost, so the only record is in an old book. It’s a blissful place to work. The staff are really good. 

I think this paper probably wouldn't have happened without the Library. I was here yesterday, inspecting a book which I could only access here. It's a really good book but it's from 1920. A library preserves the past. It’s the place where the things that are dead still exist.  The internet is wonderful, but a good library does things that the internet can’t.

As told to Lucy Peters

Young Creators Darragh and Emma filming their TikTok series

Young Creators Lab is a groundbreaking digital co-creation project, sparking global conversations inspired by our collection. Generously supported by the Helen Hamlyn Trust, the programme offers creators aged 18 – 24 a platform to research, develop and showcase their stories, while providing valuable career development, skills and training in filmmaking, storytelling and social media.

Across two cohorts, our Young Creators have produced inspiring and meaningful stories for our social media channels, reaching 650,000 viewers (and counting) around the world. The first series was inspired by our music archives and the 2024 exhibition, Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music, looking at everything from the legacy of Notting Hill Carnival to the journey of one music sample from the 1970s to today. Our most recent Young Creators have been exploring the theme of change-makers – activists, authors and orators who changed the world with their words, helping to empower marginalised people.

Discover their stories

Images from left: Young Creator Luca takes on the role of William Hone; Angela Davis, portrait by Bernard Gotfryd, Young Creator Diva filming at the Library

• The Young Creators’ films shine a light on inspiring figures from across history, with the latest films including:
• activists Angela Davis and Malala Yousafzai
• 19th century satirist William Hone
• the extraordinary writing of Margaret Atwood
• the life and poetry of trailblazing Black broadcaster Una Marson
• the story of the UK’s first LGBTQ+ bookshop, Gay’s The Word.

With support from curators across the Library, the Young Creators discovered unique collection items which inspired their films, including limited edition copies of Margaret Atwood’s poetry, and Angela Davis’ powerful open letter written from jail in the 1970s, calling on the youth of the world to unite to free political prisoners.

Working together over three months, our Young Creators’ planned and produced their own TikTok series, showcasing their different perspectives and styles, from journalism to street interviews and comedy. All of the films seek to show younger audiences how they can use our collection to spark new journeys of discovery, exploring themes that matter to them, from social change to community building.

Watch our highlights or discover the full series on TikTok @britishlibrary:

• Angela Davis: The OG Influencer?
• Handmaid’s Tale, or Here and Now?

Delving deeper into censorship and the power of community

Young Creators on the set of their YouTube film about censorship.

Through their research and development of their TikTok series, our Young Creators noticed recurring themes that came up with each of the change-makers’ stories; the use of censorship, and the importance of communities to effect change. The cohort worked in larger groups to create two longer YouTube films to further explore these subjects.
Emma, Karolina, Kemi, Charlotte, Jasmine and Ya’Eesh brought together the stories of Angela Davis, Margaret Atwood and Malala Yousafzai to explore how female activists face – and overcome – challenges of censorship.

Luca, Diva, Cecilia, Sav and Shilton showed us how William Hone and Angela Davis used the power of the written word to drum up support for their cause, both writing letters from jail to mobilise their supporters, and ultimately win their freedom and acquittal.

Introducing our Associate Creators

Alongside our two cohorts of Young Creators, we’re also thrilled to collaborate with professional content creators, authors and journalists to share their own perspectives on making change, inspired by our collection:

• bestselling author of Slay in Your Lane and The List Yomi Adegoke explores trailblazing Black female writers
• journalist Sophia Smith Galer looks at endangered languages and cultures through our Endangered Archives Programme
• storyteller Keith Afadi explores how we can make change in our personal lives using resources like our Business & IP Centre
• Historical Han shows how the ancient Greeks forever impacted world literature.

Each of our Associate Creators will be joining us to share their insight and stories at Connect and Create on 30 May, an event at the Library to celebrate the culmination of Young Creators Lab and what our creators have achieved.

Watch on our TikTok channel @britishlibrary

Want to find out more?

Learn more about each of the change-makers featured in Young Creators Lab and their life and work with our recommended reading.

Angela Davis

American political activist, professor, and author, Angela Davis was a member of the USA Communist Party and the Black Panthers as well as an advocate for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. We have numerous items in our collection relating to Angela Davis’ life and work - read more here. You could also her groundbreaking feminist analysis Women, Race and Class which covers US history from the slave trade and abolitionism movements to the women's liberation movements which began in the 1960s.

Gay’s The Word

The UK’s first LGBTQ+ bookshop, championing queer writers and communities. In 1984 the shop was raided by UK Customs, targeting foreign imports of writing deemed ‘obscene’. This included works by Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams, Kate Millet and Jean-Paul Sartre. The raid highlighted prejudices faced by the LGBTQ+ community in the 1980s, but despite its challenges, Gay’s The Word is still operating in London today. Watch our film on the Gay Liberation Front at 50, which features the founders of Gay’s The Word.

Margaret Atwood

Canadian writer and novelist Margaret Atwood has published over 35 volumes of poetry, novels, and non-fiction, but is perhaps best known for her 1985 dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale (now a TV series). We hold a selection of Atwood’s work, including her most famous novels, and a limited edition copy of her first self-published poetry collection, Double Persephone, which she hand-set and designed herself.

Malala Yousafzai

A Pakistani activist and advocate for girls’ education, Malala Yousafzai survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban aged 15, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for her advocacy work, aged just 17 (the youngest ever recipient). Now based in the UK, she has since gone on to set up The Malala Fund, supporting education projects around the world. Discover her blog, written for BBC Urdu under a pseudonym while she was living in Pakistan.

Una Marson

Poet, journalist, playwright, and the first Black woman to be employed by the BBC, Una Marson moved from Jamaica to London in 1932. She produced Caribbean Voices for BBC radio, which became a key platform for West Indian writers in the UK. Her prolific output is only now gaining recognition. We hold a number of Marson’s poetry collections at the Library, as well as the only known copy of her play At What Price, which examines interracial relationships and sexual harassment, first performed in London in 1933.

William Hone

A British journalist and political reformer who advocated for free speech, William Hone’s work as a satirist, pamphleteer and publisher made him an influential figure in the fight against political corruption. In 1817 he was charged with ‘publishing seditious material’ and defended himself in court without a lawyer, going on to prove that his publications were intended as satire and not as a serious threat to government. We have a selection of items in our collection showcasing the work of Hone, including his self-published newspaper, The Reformist Register, from 1817, and the satirical pamphlet, The Political House that Jack Built, published 1819 –1820.

Today marks the launch of our new international report Knowledge without borders: How we made a difference with our global partners in 2023/24 (PDF, 1.4mb).

We hear from Marcie Hopkins, Director of International about the Library's work with institutions around the world.

The British Library is recognised around the world as one of the largest knowledge repositories and custodians of cultural heritage, with its 170 million collection items spanning two millennia of human thought and expression in over 200 languages and a myriad of formats. The collection holds deep meaning to researchers across the globe, and our statutory role in preserving and developing them, as well as making them as widely accessible as possible, is fulfilled to a great extent through partnerships and networks of peers, both in the UK and internationally.

International engagements go back to the beginnings of the British Library in 1973, and even further, of course, through the work of its founding organisations, most notably the British Museum Library. Liaising with colleagues in other countries is integral to the work of many of our curators and specialists. Serving Readers and visitors from around the world is also part of our daily operations, in our Reading Rooms, exhibitions and public spaces.

The fundamental importance of our international remit across all our activities was first expressed in the 2015-2023 Living Knowledge strategy, with International becoming one of the organisation’s core six purposes:

‘We work with partners around the world to advance knowledge and mutual understanding.’

Following the launch of this strategy in 2015 we started to build an International Office, responsible for capturing, coordinating and supporting the many international projects which teams across the organisation were participating in. I remember how difficult it was – and sometimes is even now, 10 years on – to capture the full breadth and depth of our international connections in a single overview. With around 1,500 staff and a very diverse set of remits and activities there is just so much going on.

Two years ago we renewed our commitment to international engagement in our Knowledge Matters strategy 2023-2030 (PDF, 2.8mb), focussing our direction with a set of updated priorities reflecting a changing world:

1. Consolidate and sustain the Library’s strong relationships across Europe, South Asia, South East Asia, East Asia and the Middle East
2. Deepen and diversify our engagement with key partners in Africa, Caribbean and the Americas
3. Maintain our contribution to professional dialogue, skills exchange and capacity development across the international library sector
4. Through programmes such as the Endangered Archives Programme, work with institutions worldwide whose collections are at risk from war, climate change or civil emergency.

This direction was very much an outcome of our work over many years assessing our reach and impact, and aligning it to our strategic ambition to increase access to our intellectual heritage and services even further, for research, inspiration and enjoyment.

Since then we have been busy making this a reality and building new international links while also fostering our longstanding, deep relationships. Our global network of dialogue and exchange has expanded through the widespread adoption of digital communication technologies, making conversations so much easier. For the first time we wanted to draw this work together, and to showcase and reflect on the impact of our wonderfully rich international activities and the fantastic partners we engage with. We have done this by looking at one year: 2023/24, the first year under our new strategy.

This particular year was very much reflective of the diversity of our international work, but it was also a year impacted by a major cyber-attack in October 2023. As the report says, collaborations continued and the support from our partners and peers remains vital throughout our recovery period.

When you read the report, you will see it is built around the three Ps:

1. Partners around the world to deliver some of our major programmes, but also workshops and training delivered by our network of Endangered Archives Programme Hubs covering topics such as conservation, digitisation and responding to emergencies that put collections at risk
2. Professional leadership and skills exchange including the International Library Leaders Programme training the global library leaders of tomorrow
3. Protecting collections at risk including our work with partners in Africa to respond to new challenges caused by climate change.

Throughout the report we particularly wanted to bring to life the positive impact of our people-to-people work. Now more than ever, real connections with real people are key to building understanding and tolerance, something that libraries around the world are expertly placed to facilitate, and library staff are passionately supporting everywhere. Our collaborations always go both ways: we learn as much as we share, something that runs like a golden thread throughout the stories we have chosen to highlight.

We hope you will find this report insightful and that it gives you a better understanding of our international collaborations and the role that libraries can play to advance knowledge and mutual understanding. Our International Office team is always happy to hear from anyone who would like to find out more. Just email us: [email protected]

Marcie Hopkins
Director of International