Vogelherd Cave in the Swabian Jura has yielded a group of finely carved mammoth-ivory animal figures, including horses, lions, mammoths, bison, hedgehogs, fish and waterfowl. Systematically excavated in the 1930s, its Aurignacian figures date to roughly 43,000-35,000 years ago and rank among the world's oldest known figurative art. Some bear cross-hatched markings interpreted as possible fur or skin details. Other finds include a mammoth engraving on a bone pendant and musical instruments. The wider Swabian Jura caves preserve Aurignacian and Magdalenian evidence and have collectively yielded more than 100 figurative objects; Vogelherd alone did not yield hundreds of animal figurines.
Vogelherd cave yields Ice Age animal figurines
GermanyEpigraphy
Site mentioned
Key facts
- Vogelherd has a Y-shaped floor plan with three galleries meeting at the centre and was systematically excavated in the 1930s.
- Its Aurignacian occupation and figurative art date to roughly 43,000-35,000 years ago.
- Vogelherd yielded a limited group of animal figurines, not hundreds, and did not supply the majority of the Swabian Jura's Aurignacian figurines.
- The collection includes horses, lions, mammoths, bison, hedgehogs, fish and waterfowl, carved from mammoth ivory. Some bear cross-hatched markings interpreted as possible fur or skin details.
- Other finds include a mammoth engraving on a bone pendant and musical instruments.
- The wider Swabian Jura caves preserve Aurignacian and Magdalenian evidence and have collectively yielded more than 100 figurative objects.
Sources
The Earliest Sculpture of a Horse - History of Informationhistoryofinformation.com
The Wild Horse is part of a collection of ivory carvings that depict mammoths, bison and lions, and a snow leopard found in the cave that date from the Middle ...
Vogelherd Cave - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
The excavation also yielded several figurines of 5 to 10 cm length carved from mammoth ivory, found in an Aurignacian layer (see below). They featured ...
World's 1st carved horse: The 35,000-year-old ivory figurine from ...livescience.com
Considered the oldest known horse sculpture made by anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens), this horse-shaped figurine is carved out of mammoth ivory.
Carved 40,000 Years Ago and Found in a Cave, These Are the ...goodnewsnetwork.org
This is the first depiction of a horse ever made by humans as far as we know; cut from ivory an incredible 35,000 – 40,000 years ago.
Vogelherd Horse: World's Oldest Known Horse Carvingmymodernmet.com
Carved mammoths, lions, and bison have been discovered. The details of the figurines include cross markings and other delicate details. The ...
The Vogelherd Cave and the discovery of the earliest artsemanticscholar.org
The region of the eastern Swabian Jura is particularly known for the earliest evidence of figurative art in the Aurignacian around 43 to 35000 years ago ...
the Aurignacian Ivory Figurines from the Swabian Jura ...journals.openedition.org
by H Floss · 2015 · Cited by 21 — Vogelherd has a y-shaped floor plan with three galleries meeting in the centre. There, at the central point of the cave, at least some of the objects have ...
Vogelherd Cave, Vogelherdhöhlendonsmaps.com
Vogelherd cave is located on the edge of the Lone valley, about 1 km northwest of Stetten and northeast of the Alb-Donau county (Alb-Donau-Kreis).
Was this story useful?
Keep exploring
Every site on this page sits on the globe, and the people who research them are on the Discord.
3D Globe · Sites by country · Story Archive · Research Library · Weekly Journal · Search
AI-generated text · images from the original sources · always verify with the sources.