Cave dwellers in the Stone Age were everything but boring. Their capabilities are shown by the astonishing artifacts discovered in the caverns of the Danube Valley in southern Germany.
Image: Ria Litzenberg/Universität Tübingen
Is the Swabian Jura in southern Germany the birthplace of contemporary Europeans? After finding many figures crafted from mammoth ivory that date back forty thousand years, archaeologists have come to that conclusion.
New evidence from the Hohle Fels cave, close to Blaubeuren, lends credence to this theory of our ancestors.
A student from Denmark discovered a figurine of an animal while excavating. Scientists are certain it depicts an otter despite its little stature (only 6 cm, or 2.4 inches) and lack of a head. University of Tübingen archaeology professor Nicholas Conard calls the little creature the “find of the year.”
A feeling related to archaeology
It wasn’t the first finding of its kind. Three little figurines fashioned from mammoth tusks were declared to have been discovered by a team from the University of Tübingen in December 2003. This discovery occurred over 20 years ago, in the Swabian Jura.
It was a watershed moment in the field of archaeology and the study of humankind’s past. Scientists believe that between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago, humans passed a major developmental milestone: the capacity to make visual representations in the form of drawings and figures.
While two other guys are on their knees excavating, a man with a baseball hat and spectacles stands at the edge of a cave archeological excavation, staring at the camera.While two other guys are on their knees excavating, a man with a baseball hat and spectacles stands at the edge of a cave archeological excavation, staring at the camera.
These figures also provide light on the lives and distribution of Stone Age Europeans, which was previously unknown. Due to the abundance of cave drawings found in what is now France, scientists first thought that Homo sapiens was more prevalent there.
Excavations in the Swabian Jura, however, have shown that Homo sapiens first came to the Danube area from the east, during the Neolithic era, some 45,000 years ago, coexisting with the local Neanderthal population.
The Nazis were also involved
The Swabian Jura caves, located between the Ach, Danube, and Lone rivers, were first investigated by archaeologists in the mid-nineteenth century. The artifacts and stone and bone tools found during these excavations at several locations provide valuable insight into the lifestyles of early humans and Neanderthals.
Photographed in monochrome, two guys pose with various pieces of archeological gear around them as they stand at the cave mouth.Photographed in monochrome, two guys pose with various pieces of archeological gear around them as they stand at the cave mouth.
Photos taken in 1937 by Wolfgang Adler/Museum Ulm/dpa/picture alliance show archaeologists at the entrance to the Hohlenstein-Stadel excavation site, where items dating back to the Stone Age were discovered.
After the Nazis lost interest in the caverns in 1936, they too started excavating in 1937. Nazi group Ahnenerbe, whose mission was to “research the space, spirit, deeds and heritage of North Germanic Indo-Europeanism,” was one of many groups responsible for the excavations. The Nazis planned to utilize prehistoric artifacts as evidence that the “Aryan race” originated in the Stone Age.
Nazi archaeologists unearthed hundreds of pieces of ivory in a cave at the end of August 1939, but they were compelled to abandon their finds when World War II broke out, enlisting archaeologists as well.
After 30 years of studying the pieces, experts have pieced together a figure: a 31 cm tall hybrid lion-human. It may be a shaman, alluding to the possibility of shamanic traditions in prehistoric times.
Mammoths and lions
In 1995, under the leadership of Conard and his crew, the excavations resumed their rapid progress. After eight long years of digging, the crew finally uncovered three incredible artifacts: a horse head, a duck, and another little lion-man, just 2 cm tall. The average height of a figure is around 5 or 6 cm, and many of them have an eyelet for display or hanging. It is possible to infer information about the Stone Age European animal kingdom from the figurines, which include bears, horses, cave lions, and mammoths.
“Venus of Hohle Fels,” a female sculpture with big breasts and a pronounced vulva, was another intriguing find. She was around 6 cm tall. Its eyelet design, rather than a head, suggests it may have served as a fertility or feminine amulet in its original context.
Various more Venus sculptures, thought to be roughly 10,000 years younger, have been discovered all throughout Europe. Some scholars believe that these figurines were worshipped by humans as mother deities.
Jewelry, artifacts, and the world’s oldest musical instrument—a flute fashioned from swan neck bones—attest to the sophisticated lifestyle of the Stone Age inhabitants. Consequently, we no longer have to assume that our forebears were mindless cavemen; rather, they were highly spiritual hunter-gatherers who were also gifted musicians and artists.
Recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, caves
Anyone may put their own spin on the significance of the little otter that was just found. It may be a sign of people’s awe at the otter’s fishing prowess, but Conard is hesitant to give it any particular meaning.
“People ate a lot of fish back then,” Conard added. Without a shadow of a doubt, the otter demonstrates “that people back then were much more involved with aquatic animals than we previously thought,” he noted when presenting the discovery.
caverns and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura, which include the caverns in the Danube and Lone valleys, have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017. Excavations go on even as tour guides show visitors around the caverns. The lifestyles of our prehistoric forebears are becoming more and more familiar with each fresh finding.
