ABSTRACT
Since earliest times, human beings have shown a strong disposition for leaving traces. The caves discovered in December 1994 by Jean Marie Chauvet at Pont d’Are are covered with markings dating back more than 30,000 years. Newspapers were quick to describe the markings as “drawings,” and the markings were immediately incorporated into the history of Western painting. But are they works of art? How do people know when something is a painting, a piece of writing, or a mathematical text? Is there something in the shape of the marks that helps them come to a decision?
