The Oldest Mammoth Carving: a 35,000 Years Old Lion

During Ice Age, the plains of Europe were filled with a savanna-like fauna: elephants (read mammoths), lions and rhinos (even if woolly ones). And this was recorded by even the first Homo sapiens entering Europe. American and German archaeologists have found in southwestern Germany the oldest woolly mammoth-ivory carvings ever, 35,000 years old and still intact.

The team at the University of T�bingen has recovered the figurines from the Swabian Jura Mountains, in the state of Baden-W�rttemberg.

"You can be sure, that there has been art in Swabia for over 35,000 years." T�bingen archaeologist Nicholas J. Conard told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

The five mammoth-ivory figurines have been found at the site of the Vogelherd Cave, known to contain primitive artifacts since it was first dug in 1931 by the T�bingen archaeologist Gustav Reik and over 7,000 sacks of sediment have been removed till now. Among the new findings are the well-preserved remains of a lion figurine, fragments of a mammoth figurine and two as-yet-unidentified representations.

"These count among the oldest and most impressive examples of figurative artworks from the Ice Age." said the archaeologists.

The figure of the woolly mammoth is just 3.7 cm (1.5 inch) long and weighing only 7.5 grams, but it reveals skillfully detailed carvings having an unique slim form, pointed tail, powerful legs and dynamically arched trunk; it has six short decorative incisions and the soles are made in a crosshatch pattern.

The lion is 5.6 (2.2 inch) cm long, has an extended torso and outstretched neck, being adorned with about 30 fine incisions on its back. The figurines belong to the Aurignacian culture, described firstly in southern France and is connected with the arrival of the first Homo sapiens (modern humans) in Europe, 40-50,000 years ago, the Cro-Magnon types, with many Africanoid types (they probably resembled the modern bushmen from South Africa).

"Multiple radiocarbon dates from sediment in the Vogelherd Cave yielded ages between 30,000 and 36,000 years ago," said Conard.