Lion man of the Hohlenstein Stadel

For the big cat expert nicknamed Lion Man, see Craig Busch. For the New Zealand television documentary series called Lion Man, see The Lion Man.
Löwenmensch - a lion-headed figurine found in Germany and dating to the Upper Paleolithic. (about 40,000 BCE)

A lion-headed figure, first called the lion man (German: Löwenmensch, literally "lion human"), then the lion lady (German: Löwenfrau), is an ivory sculpture that is both the oldest known zoomorphic (animal-shaped) sculpture in the world, and the oldest known uncontested example of figurative art. The figurine was determined to be about 40,000 years old[1] by carbon dating material from the same layer in which the sculpture was found. It is associated with the archaeological Aurignacian culture.[2] The sculpture is 29.6 cm (11.7 inches) in height, 5.6 cm wide, and 5.9 cm thick. It was carved out of mammoth ivory using a flint stone knife. There are seven parallel, transverse, carved gouges on the left arm. It is now in the museum in Ulm, Germany.

History

Its pieces were found in 1939 in a cave named Stadel-Höhle im Hohlenstein (Stadel cave in Hohlenstein Mountain) in the Lonetal (Lone valley) in the Swabian Alb, Germany. Due to the beginning of the Second World War, it was forgotten and only rediscovered thirty years later. The first reconstruction revealed a humanoid figurine without a head. Between 1997 and 1998, additional pieces of the sculpture were discovered and the head was reassembled and restored.

Originally, the figure was classified as male by Joachim Hahn. From examination of some additional parts of the sculpture found later, Elisabeth Schmid decided that the figure was a woman with the head of a "Höhlenlöwin" (female European cave lion).[3] Both interpretations lack scientific evidence.[3] European cave lions, male and female, lacked the distinctive manes of the African male lion, and so its absence here does not necessarily mean it is a lioness.

Recently the ancient figurine has more often been called a lion-headed figurine, rather than a 'lion man'. The name currently used in German, Löwenmensch—meaning "lion-human"—similarly, is neutral.

Interpretation is very difficult. The sculpture shares certain similarities with French cave wall paintings, which also show hybrid creatures. The German sculpture, however, is several thousand years older than the French paintings.

After this artifact was identified, a similar, but smaller, lion-headed sculpture was found, along with other animal figures and several flutes, in another cave in the same region of Germany. This leads to the possibility that the lion-figure played an important role in the mythology of humans of the early Upper Paleolithic. The sculpture can be seen in the Ulmer Museum in Ulm, Germany, though it may be moved to a planned new museum of the Paleolithic. It is approximately 1 foot in height.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Martin Bailey Ice Age Lion Man is world’s earliest figurative sculpture The Art Newspaper, Jan 31, 2013, accessed Feb 01, 2013
  2. ↑ http://www-geology.ucdavis.edu/~cowen/HistoryofLife/CH20images.html
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Duckeck, Jochen (2008-12-10). "Archäologie: Der Löwenmensch" (in German). Retrieved 2009-05-17. Joachim Hahn hatte die Figur als männlich betrachtet. Elisabeth Schmid kam zu dem Schluß, dass es sich um die Figur einer Frau mit dem Kopf einer Höhlenlöwin handele. and Duckeck, Jochen (2008-12-10). "Archaeology: Lionheaded Figurine". Retrieved 2009-05-17.

External links