A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany
@article{Conard2009AFF, title={A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany}, author={Nicholas J. Conard}, journal={Nature}, year={2009}, volume={459}, pages={248-252} }
Despite well over 100 years of research and debate, the origins of art remain contentious. In recent years, abstract depictions have been documented at southern African sites dating to ∼75 kyr before present (bp), and the earliest figurative art, which is often seen as an important proxy for advanced symbolic communication, has been documented in Europe as dating to between 30 and 40 kyr bp. Here I report the discovery of a female mammoth-ivory figurine in the basal Aurignacian deposit at Hohle…
273 Citations
Archaeology: Origins of the female image
- GeologyNature
- 2009
The Hohle Fels Venus is a 5 cm-high figurine of a woman with grotesquely exaggerated sexual features, carved from mammoth-ivory at least 35,000 years ago, providing striking evidence of the symbolic explosion that occurred in the earliest populations of Homo sapiens in Europe.
Evaluating Aurignacian Art in Iberia... if it Really Exists
- Art
- 2015
Recent discoveries over the past years have confirmed the existence of figurative art from the very beginning of the Upper Paleolithic. Researchers have focused on the identification of this…
Bondi Cave and the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in western Georgia (south Caucasus)
- Geography, Environmental Science
- 2016
The 40,000-Year-Old Female Figurine of Hohle Fels: Previous Assumptions and New Perspectives
- ArtCambridge Archaeological Journal
- 2021
As the earliest image of a human being and the oldest piece of figurative art, the female figurine of Hohle Fels remains a significant discovery for understanding the development of symbolic…
A 41,500 year-old decorated ivory pendant from Stajnia Cave (Poland)
- Environmental ScienceScientific reports
- 2021
The Stajnia Cave plate is a personal 'jewellery' object that was created 41,500 calendar years ago (directly radiocarbon dated) and it establishes a new starting date for a tradition directly connected to the spread of modern Homo sapiens in Europe.
AMS 14C dating the Protoaurignacian/Early Aurignacian of Isturitz, France. Implications for Neanderthal–modern human interaction and the timing of technical and cultural innovations in Europe
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2010
A new Aurignacian engraving from Abri Blanchard, France: Implications for understanding Aurignacian graphic expression in Western and Central Europe
- HistoryQuaternary International
- 2018
Reassessing the Aurignacian of Slovenia: techno-economic behaviour and direct dating of osseous projectile points.
- Environmental ScienceJournal of human evolution
- 2015
Rock Art Dating and the Peopling of the Americas
- History
- 2013
The peopling of the Americas is both the oldest and most frequently researched question in American archaeology. Although rarely considered, early art has the potential to provide insight into…
Science, the Media, and Interpretations of Upper Paleolithic Figurines
- Art
- 2014
Using the recent discovery of the Hohle Fels figurine as a catalyst, in this article we briefly review the history of scholarship regarding Upper Paleolithic figurines that are often referred to as…
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 41 REFERENCES
Palaeolithic ivory sculptures from southwestern Germany and the origins of figurative art
- ArtNature
- 2003
The discovery of three figurines carved from mammoth ivory at Hohle Fels Cave in the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany provides new evidence for the appearance of figurative art more than 30,000 years ago.
Radiocarbon dating the late Middle Paleolithic and the Aurignacian of the Swabian Jura.
- Environmental Science, GeographyJournal of human evolution
- 2008
Unexpectedly recent dates for human remains from Vogelherd
- Environmental Science, GeographyNature
- 2004
Radiocarbon measurements from all the key fossils from Vogelherd show that these human remains actually date to the late Neolithic, between 3,900 and 5,000 radiocarbon years before present (bp), weakening the arguments for the Danube Corridor hypothesis and strengthening the view that Neanderthals may have contributed significantly to the development of Upper Palaeolithic cultural traits independent of the arrival of modern humans.
Makers of the early Aurignacian of Europe.
- Geography, Environmental ScienceAmerican journal of physical anthropology
- 2000
The overall picture is one of an extended period of cultural contact, involving some degree of genetic exchange, between Neandertals and early modern Europeans, and perhaps for 8,000-10,000 years or longer.
Radiocarbon dating the appearance of modern humans and timing of cultural innovations in Europe: new results and new challenges.
- Environmental ScienceJournal of human evolution
- 2003
Petřkovice. On shouldered points and female figurines.
- Environmental Science
- 2008
An interdisciplinary monograph dedicated to the most representative site of the Upper Gravettian (Willendorf-Kostenki) chronological stage in the Czech Republic. The first part of the book summarizes…
At the end of the 14C time scale--the Middle to Upper Paleolithic record of western Eurasia.
- Environmental ScienceJournal of human evolution
- 2008
Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa
- Environmental ScienceScience
- 2002
Two abstract representations engraved on pieces of red ochre recovered from the Middle Stone Age layers at Blombos Cave in South Africa support the emergence of modern human behavior in Africa at least 35,000 years before the start of the Upper Paleolithic.
A 14C age calibration curve for the last 60 ka: the Greenland-Hulu U/Th timescale and its impact on understanding the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Western Eurasia.
- Environmental Science, GeographyJournal of human evolution
- 2008
From Tools to Symbols: from Early Hominids to Modern Humans, edited by Francesco d'Errico & Lucinda Backwell, 2005. Johannesburg: Wits University Press; ISBN 1-86814-434-8 hardback £38.94 & US$59.95; ISBN 1-86814-411-9 paperback £26.49 & US$39.95; xxxii+574 pp., 140 figs., 33 tables
- Environmental ScienceCambridge Archaeological Journal
- 2007
From Tools to Symbols represents an excellent synthesis of recent research on the origins of humankind, the evolution of the human brain and the emergence of modern human cultures from a number of…