A new genomic study suggests that the capacity for human language emerged at least 135,000 years ago, coinciding with the initial geographic divergence of Homo sapiens. This capacity likely transitioned into social use around 100,000 years ago, as indicated by symbolic activities in the archaeological record.
Explores the dynamic relationship between language, cognition, and the role of Large Language Models (LLMs) in expanding our understanding of the functional significance of language.
Thus far, Ithaca has discovered that the Athenian Decrees were written around 421 B.C.E. — these are the foundational documents of the world’s first democracy. Past conventional thinking had put their date closer to 446 B.C.E. Even the shift of just 15 years helps scholars re-contextualize these documents — now we know they were written at the same time as Athens prepared to go to war with Sparta, another Ancient Greek state that was governed as a military autocracy.
