The claim is rather extraordinary:
existence of writing during the Middle Paleolithic.
The claim is based on statistical analysis.
Now, "more than 3,000 characters on 260 objects" means an average of just 12 characters per object, but the BBC article doesn't mention even the range of character counts per object, never mind the variance.
BBC Article:
Patterns on mammoth tusks help to retell history of writing
<https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgknj7yyv2o>
