Experimenting with the past: an integrative approach to early symbolic evolution

In recent years, discussions on the origins of language have been reinvigorated through new kinds of controlled experiments that attempt to uncover the mechanisms by which communication systems such as natural languages evolve. These new approaches can test the plausibility of different theories and have been integral, for instance, in challenging the assumption that language evolution necessitated significant neurological changes. However, experimental studies on the emergence of symbolic behaviour have had less impact outside the field of cognitive science and cultural evolution studies. One reason is an epistemic disconnect with insights from the historical, anthropological, and archaeological record. Here we present methods that attempt to integrate insights from cognitive science and archaeology, to provide a more holistic and robust model for the emergence and development of symbolic behaviour. By using archaeological evidence of symbolic activity directly as stimuli in different types of experiments, we can test their ‘cognitive affordances’, that is, their potential to impact relevant cognitive processes, and thereby support our inferences about their function and use. This chapter first outlines examples of experimental approaches that can be used to understand the cognitive affordances of particular marks, signs or symbols. We then outline how these experimental approaches can be used to understand symbolic practices derived from the archaeological record. This has vast potential for gaining deeper insights into some of the oldest examples of symbolic behaviour, and thus for better understanding how symbolism and language evolved.