Welcome to the Caveman Art Show (ca. 28,000 BC)
In a cave in southwestern Germany, three very small ivory figurines were discovered that seem to suggest Early Man wasn’t as artistically inept as once thought. These tiny figurines have been dated to around 30,000 years old, making them part of the period in time when scientists believe Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens lived as neighbors to each other.
All three of the figurines were less than 5 centimeters long, and are each very distinct forms: one is a bird that closely resembles a duck, one is a horse, and the third piece is a semi-human and semi-animal creature that appears to have the face of a lion and a man’s body.
Hailing from three additional sites not too far from Hohle Fels cave, where these figurines were discovered, archaeologists have a collection of 17 other artistic objects, including a rather complex musical pipe made of swan bone. These 20 objects in total, all from the Swabian Jura area in southwestern Germany, make the collection the “oldest body of figurative art in the world”, according to British archaeologist Anthony Sinclair.
These objects also refute the previously established notion that early humans were only capable of primitive cave paintings, and hadn’t yet developed their aesthetic senses. It was thought that early man slowly developed their skills over time, as they acquired better tools and materials – but looking at these figurines, clearly this evolutionary theory is now entirely unnecessary!
The earliest objects considered to be art are still cave paintings, however, and these are located in underground chambers in the Ardeche region of France. At 29,000-34,000 years old, these charcoal drawings depict horses, rhinos, and a deer. There has been a small stone carving found in the Golan Heights near Israel, thought to be dated at around 200,000 years old, but this has yet to be confirmed – so for now, these tiny ivory figurines are our best link to the evident artistic proficiency of early humankind!
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Tomorrow: Milk – it does a body poor, apparently…
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