A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave (Germany)

[aggsbach]

The team of Tübingen (Conard et al.)  report the discovery of a female mammoth-ivory figurine in the basal Aurignacian deposit at Hohle Fels Cave in the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany during excavations in 2008. This figurine was produced at least 35,000 calendar years ago, making it one of the oldest known examples of figurative art.

The whole story can be found HERE: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7244/full/nature07995.html

A short comment by Paul Mellars: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7244/full/459176a.html

Besinde the figurine from Krems-Stratzing ("Fanny")  which may be femal, this is the first "venus" from a secure Aurignacien context

Johannes

[trehinp]

Thanks Johannes,

Although I had only access to the two papers asbstracts , this is extremely interesting.

The very early manifestation of representative art is my main subject of interest in prehistory. Although we will never know if there were other representative art production on supports that didn't pass the test of time, any new finding of preserved art that pushes back in time the manifestation of human abstraction capabilities through representation of a subject adds to the marvel of early human culture evolution.

Yours.

Paul