Expert: John Locke - 5/26/2009

Question
how do cro magnons communicate

Answer
Well, Cro-Magnons don't communicate at all anymore--have you seen any Cro-Magnons dining out recently?

Very funny, right? I won't quit my job, don't worry. The best evidence of Cro-Magnon communication comes in the form of their artifacts, which date from 40,000 years before present (YBP) to 10,000 YBP. They variously produced weaved clothing, body ornamentation, crude sculpture, fairly complex weapons, and cave paintings. The paintings were primarily pictographic representations in which the painted figures stood as direct representations of physical objects.

If we indulge in a little speculation based on their art, it seems possible that their speech would include straightforward descriptions of physical reality, simple numbers, simple verbs, and intentions. But be careful in endorsing this idea--it is entirely conjecture. Any speculation on their speech is necessarily conjectural;  there are no records related to Cro-Magnon oral communication of any kind. They were a pre-literate people, obviously, so no written records either. We do know that Cro-Magnon anatomy was very similar to that of modern humans (both are actually Homo sapiens). Presumably they would have been able to vocalize phonemes in a similar way to modern humans. Unfortunately, I am unable to provide a great deal more information than that. Hopefully this helps.

See some of those cave paintings here (some of the most famous ones in Lascaux, France):
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/