Human invent tally marks, their first numeral systems
The oldest tally sticks date to between 35,000 and 25,000 years ago, in the form of notched bones found in the context of the European Aurignacian to Gravettian and in Africa’s Late Stone Age.
Europe
Lion-man of the Hohlenstein-Stadel, the first known example of figurative art, is made
The Löwenmensch figurine or Lion-man of the Hohlenstein-Stadel is a prehistoric ivory sculpture that was discovered in the Hohlenstein-Stadel, a German cave in 1939.
Châtelperronian culture flourishes in France
The Châtelperronian is a claimed industry of the Upper Palaeolithic that produced denticulate stone tools and also a distinctive flint knife with a single cutting edge and a blunt, curved back.
First known cave art created in modern-day Spain
One motif – a faint red dot – at El Castillo Cave in Spain is said to be more than 40,000 years old.
Humans intentionally use adhesives for the first time, perhaps in modern-day Italy
Two stone flakes partly covered in birch-bark-tar were discovered in central Italy. The probable chronology of the stone flakes is compatible with the late Middle Pleistocene.
The Azores are discovered, possibly by Vikings
Although it was traditionally believed that Portuguese explorers were the first humans to arrive on the Azores – an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atlantic Ocean – there is evidence to suggest otherwise. Researchers have discovered that 5-beta-stigmasterol is present in sediment samples from between 700 and 850 C.E. This compound is found in the feces of livestock, such as sheep and cattle, neither of which are native to the islands. Additionally, mice on the Azores were discovered to have mitochondrial DNA suggesting they first arrived from Northern Europe, suggesting that they were brought to the islands by Norwegian Vikings.