Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura explained

Location:Swabian Jura, Germany
Criteria:(iii)
Id:1527
Coordinates:48.3878°N 9.7656°W
Year:2017
Area:462.1ha
Buffer Zone:1158.7ha

The Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura are a collection of six caves in southern Germany which were used by Ice Age humans for shelter about 33,000 to 43,000 years ago. Within the caves were found the oldest non-stationary works of human art yet discovered, in the form of carved animal and humanoid figurines, in addition to the oldest musical instruments ever found.[1] [2] One statuette of a female form, carved figurines of animals (including cave lions, mammoths, horses and cattle), musical instruments and items of personal adornment have been discovered. Some of the figurines depict creatures that are half animal, half human. Because of their testimony to the development of Paleolithic art and culture, the six caves were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017.

The caves are seen as the first centre of human art,[3] [4] [5] were named "cradle of art"[6] and "cradle of civilization", with a continuous cultural heritage over 6000 years,[7] and are among the first settlements of modern humans in Europe.[8]

Bone flute from the Geissenklösterle cave, dated around BP, are the oldest musical instruments ever found.[9] The 41,000 to 39,000-year-old Lion Man[10] and the 42,000 to 41,000-year-old Venus of Hohle Fels[11] are the oldest confirmed sculptures in the world.

Location

The World Heritage comprises six caves which are distributed across two valleys in the Swabian Jura: Lone (river) Valley and Ach Valley.[12] The former includes the caves Hohlenstein-Stadel, Vogelherd and Bocksteinhöhle; the latter Geissenklösterle, Hohle Fels and Sirgenstein Cave. Each valley would contain a core area of around 3to length, surrounded by a buffer zone of a least 100m (300feet) width.[13]

Geology and History

The bedrock of the caves began to form roughly 200 million years ago, at the beginning of the Jurassic Period, when the super-continent Pangaea began to break apart.[14] The area was inundated by the Neotethys Sea, and limestone formed from the marine sediments.[14] During the early Cenozoic, the area was uplifted by the collision of the Eurasian plate and the African and Adriatic plates. Once this occurred, the sinkholes and caves of the region were formed as rain seeped into the limestone. When the Lone and Ach valleys formed, access to the caves from the surface became possible, and the caves gradually dried out and filled in with sediment, preserving materials brought into the cave by humans.[14]

The caves of the Swabian Jura are particularly famous for their high density of artifacts from the Aurignacian tradition, ranging from roughly 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Aurignacian tradition is characterized by the advent of symbolic communication (in the form of beads and pendants), specialized flint blades, and figurative art, all of which have been found in high numbers within these six caves. During this time, early modern humans migrated into Europe, probably from the southeast along the Danube River, and settled in the easily accessible caves in the area.[14] There, they likely lived and worked in and around these caves. The caves also served as the repositories of the figurines which may have been used in a religious context. In addition, they were the venue where performers used the excavated musical instruments and where the social groups lived from which the artists sprang.[13]

Caves

Picture of the caveNameLocationDescriptionDiscoveriesPicture of an important discovery

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Lone Valley
(48.5542°N 10.1547°W)
Reaches 16m (52feet) deep and 9m (30feet) wideLarge Hand axe (known as the Bocksteinmesser)

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Ach Valley
(48.3982°N 9.7714°W)

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Ach Valley
(48.3793°N 9.7541°W)
Entry corridor leads into large cavern measuring 500m2 in surface area, with a height of 30m (100feet). Hohlefels Venus of mammoth ivory, flute from a Griffon vulture bone.
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Lone Valley
(48.5493°N 10.1729°W)
50m (160feet) long, narrow cave. Entrance 8x wide by high.Lion-man figure carved from mammoth ivory
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Ach Valley
(48.387°N 9.7612°W)
Total length of the cave 42m (138feet) with a maximum height of 10m (30feet); in the rear the cavity is lit by natural openings in the ceiling. Approx. 5000 flint points, awls and smoothing stones
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Lone Valley
(48.5587°N 10.1943°W)
Originally had 3 entrances, connect to one another by a corridor 40m (130feet) long and up to 7m (23feet) wide Animal figure of mammoth ivory, venus figurine from a wild boar's tusk
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Notes and References

  1. Web site: World's Oldest Figurative Art is Now an Official World Treasure. Jason. Daley. Smithsonian Magazine.
  2. Web site: Earliest music instruments found. 25 May 2012. BBC News.
  3. Web site: Place Stanislas, Place de la Carrière and Place d'Alliance in Nancy . UNESCO World Heritage Centre . . 17 October 2021.
  4. Web site: World's Oldest Figurative Art is Now an Official World Treasure .
  5. News: Earliest music instruments found . BBC News . 24 May 2012 .
  6. Web site: 2014-07-25 . Sommerserie «Anfänge» - Die Wiege der Kunst . 2024-02-16 . Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) . de.
  7. News: 42.000 Jahre alte Perlenfunde: So schmückten sich die Eiszeitmenschen . 2024-02-16 . Der Tagesspiegel Online . de-DE . 1865-2263.
  8. Web site: Atlas of the Human Journey - the Genographic Project . https://web.archive.org/web/20110205224742/https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/lan/en/atlas.html . 5 February 2011 .
  9. News: Earliest music instruments found . 25 May 2012 . BBC News . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20170903041534/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18196349 . 3 September 2017 .
  10. Web site: Ice Age Lion Man is world's earliest figurative sculpture . 31 January 2013 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20150215162121/http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Ice-Age-iLion-Mani-is-worlds-earliest-figurative-sculpture/28595 . 15 February 2015 .
  11. Web site: "It must be a woman" - The female depictions from Hohle Fels date to 40,000 years ago... . Universität Tübingen . July 22, 2016 . July 26, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161011145105/https://www.uni-tuebingen.de/en/news/press-releases/newsfullview-pressemitteilungen/article/es-muss-eigentlich-eine-frau-sein.html . October 11, 2016 . dead . mdy-all .
  12. Web site: Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura . UNESCO World Heritage Centre . . 24 September 2022.
  13. Meister. Conny. Heidenreich. Stephan. Zwei Täler, sechs Höhlen, ein Antrag. Archäologie in Deutschland. December 2016. de . WBG. 32–3.
  14. Caves with the Oldest Ice Age Art -- World Heritage Nomination . 2016 . Kind . Claus-Joachim . Meister . Conny . Heidenreich . Stephan M. . Landesamt für Denkmalpflege im Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart . 24 September 2022.