There are recent discoveries of sculpture in Africa dating from 70,000 BC. 40,000 BC is the appearance in Europe.
--- On Thu, 6/11/09, Chuck Grimes <cgrimes at rawbw.com> wrote:
> From: Chuck Grimes <cgrimes at rawbw.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Timeline? Re: Kenneally, some notes and background
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Thursday, June 11, 2009, 2:38 AM
>
>
> Then about 40K ago radical changes in the record appear -
> including,
> above all, the first evidence of consciously symbolic
> activity. (Sculpture, bodily decoration, cave painttings,
> etc.). Something had happened, and whatever that was, it
> was a
> CULTURAL, not a BIOLOGICAL, change. The hypothesis of
> Tattersall and
> others are that this event was the invention and rapid
> spreading of
> language. Carrol
>
> ----------