http://www.babelsdawn.com/babels_dawn/2009/01/abstract-thought-predates-homo-sapiens.html#more

 

This is a weird one: It’s pretty awesome that there might be evidence that abstract thought existed before language, and even before the so-called “modern” human… as far back as 2 million years.

 

However, when you take a step back, two things stand out to me: First, it’s been reasonably shown that some other kinds of pre-language primates have shown what could be considered abstract thinking.  So it wouldn’t be so unreasonable to think that ancient proto-humans would be able to have the ability, as well. 

 

Second, the author of the blog totally pulled a Law of Fives using Phi (the Golden Mean), starting with putting the oblong around a sketch of a stone axe, and the moving on to trying to fit one around his fist, with mixed results.