An unusual testimony to human craftsmanship around 40,000 years ago: In the famous Hohle Fels cave in the Swabian Alb, archaeologists have discovered another ivory carving that probably depicts a member of the aquatic animals. The head is broken off, but based on its shape they interpret the approximately six centimetre long figurine as a depiction of an otter. This once again shows that the Ice Age artists were inspired by a variety of motifs from their environment, say the experts.
They offered our ancestors protection from the ice age weather: Numerous finds show that people used the caves of the Swabian Jura as a refuge around 40,000 years ago. The hunters and gatherers evidently not only made their living there – they also engaged in artistic activities. This is evidenced by numerous figurative carvings made of mammoth ivory. Among them are also some depictions of animals from the ice age environment. Most of these are the impressive representatives of the ice age fauna: mammoth, bison, wild horse, cave bear and cave lion formed the motifs. “Among the ice age art finds in the region, however, there are also figures of two fish and that of a water bird,” says excavation leader Nicholas Conard from the University of Tübingen. The discovery, which the team has now declared “Find of the Year”, also appears to fit into this group of animal depictions.
An unusual animal depiction
The small ivory figure comes from the Hohle Fels cave near Schelklingen. It was found there in around 40,000 year old layers of the Paleolithic culture stage of the so-called Aurignacian.
It therefore comes from the same era as the finds for which the Hohle Fels cave is famous: the Venus figure and the flute made of bone material. However, the new discovery is a depiction of an animal: the object is around six centimeters long, one and a half centimeters high and half a centimeter wide. It depicts a creature with an elongated, stocky body shape and a short, tapering tail. The animal’s legs are shown to be very short, while its neck is long.
Unfortunately, a crucial part of the body is missing to identify the animal with certainty: the head is broken off and has not yet been found. Nevertheless, the features reveal a specific animal, say Conard and his colleagues: they interpret the figurine as a representation of an otter. “The new piece suggests that people were surprisingly intensively involved with aquatic animals. After all, carving such a piece of ivory requires a lot of work and detailed knowledge of the appearance and characteristics of the animal depicted,” says Conard.
What significance did the animal have?
This is further evidence that the range of representations of Ice Age artists was wider than had long been assumed: in addition to large or dangerous animals, Ice Age hunters and gatherers evidently also found smaller creatures in their environment interesting. “The fact that the ensemble of ivory animals has now grown to include a new, obviously smaller species of animal gives rise to new considerations about the symbolic content of Ice Age art,” says Stefanie Kölbl from the Blaubeuren Prehistoric Museum, where the find is now on display. As for the otter interpretation, she says: “We don’t know today what might have fascinated people about otters back then, but they certainly observed how agilely it moves in the water, how caringly it raises its young and what a clever fish hunter it is,” says Kölbl.
Finally, Conard stresses that there is still a chance of completing the find: “In recent years, after careful searching, we have repeatedly succeeded in assembling fragments of finds to their original appearance. Such missing parts fuel our expectation that they will be dug up somewhere in the cave’s sediment or that they will be found among the recovered and not yet sorted finds. In this way, we could complete the figure and identify it conclusively,” says Conard.
Source: University of Tübingen