Abstract: The study of complex language evolution is primarily based upon the European paleoanthropological record. Data from other world regions are often ignored or dismissed as European-derived. While the East Asian, sub-Saharan African and Australian evidence shows some marked similarities with the more extensive record from Europe, there are also striking contrasts. Most notably, burial appears to be a much later phenomenon outside Europe and the Levant, but rock art from sub-Saharan Africa and Australia predates European examples. These differences are most likely due to environmental and recovery factors, and do not provide evidence for any fundamental disparities in complex language capacities among world populations during the Palaeolithic.

Key words: Language evolution; Burial; Rock art; East Asia; Sub-Saharan Africa; Australia