Paleolithic finger flutings as efficient communication: Applying Zipf's Law to two panels in Rouffignac Cave, France
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Kevin Sharpe
Abstract
Two fluted panels in Rouffignac Cave, France, appear highly ordered as opposed to other panels that appear haphazardly made. Is it possible to objectively establish that an intention to communicate thoughts and ideas lay behind the fluting of the two “ordered” panels? To help answer this, we apply a concept from communications theory called Zipf's Law, which can establish whether data represent “efficient communication” or are random. Applying the law to the two panels (using the number of fingers in each fluted hand as the variable) shows that the two panels may constitute efficient communication. We conclude by discussing related matters, including the idea of Paleolithic notational markings.
© 2009 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin
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Articles in the same Issue
- The sense of the interface: Applying semiotics to HCI research
- Sign, mind, time, space: Contradictory complementary coalescence
- Meanings of communication: Comparative terminological studies of a cultural concept and its variations in the multilingual society of India
- Troubles with trichotomies: Reflections on the utility of Peirce's sign trichotomies for social analysis
- Paleolithic finger flutings as efficient communication: Applying Zipf's Law to two panels in Rouffignac Cave, France
- The pragmatic maxim of the mature Peirce regarding its special normative function
- The writing on the screen: A meditation on the Virginia Tech shooting spree: Age-appropriate use of violent first-person computer games
- Genre as social indexicality: A cross-cultural analysis of English and Chinese love poems
