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A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany

A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany

Nature volume 459, pages 248–252 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Despite well over 100 years of research and debate, the origins of art remain contentious1,2,3. In recent years, abstract depictions have been documented at southern African sites dating to ∼75 kyr before present (bp)4,5, 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 bp2. Here I report the discovery of a female mammoth-ivory figurine in the basal Aurignacian deposit at Hohle Fels Cave in the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany during excavations in 2008. This figurine was produced at least 35,000 calendar years ago, making it one of the oldest known examples of figurative art. This discovery predates the well-known Venuses from the Gravettian culture by at least 5,000 years and radically changes our views of the context and meaning of the earliest Palaeolithic art.

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Acknowledgements

Many colleagues, including S. Bailey, H. Bocherens, M. Bolus, S. Feine, H. Floss, P. Goldberg, P. Grootes, B. L. Hardy, T. Higham, M. Hofreiter, P. Krönneck, M. Kucera, L. Moreau, S. C. Münzel, D. Richter, F. H. Smith, H.-P. Uerpmann and S. Wolf have contributed to this research. I am particularly indebted to M. Malina for assistance during excavation and laboratory work, to R. Ehmann for the conservation of the Venus, to C. E. Miller for discussions on stratigraphy and to B. Ligouis for his microscopic images of the Venus. This research has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the University of Tübingen, the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Baden-Württemberg, the Alb-Donau-Kreis, Heidelberg Cement, the Museumsgesellschaft Schelklingen and the Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte.

Author information Authors and Affiliations

  1. Abteilung für Ältere Urgeschichte und Quartärökologie, Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters, Universität Tübingen, Schloss Hohentübingen, 72070 Tübingen, Germany,

    Nicholas J. Conard

Authors
  1. Nicholas J. Conard
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Correspondence to Nicholas J. Conard.

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Conard, N. A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany. Nature 459, 248–252 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07995

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Editorial Summary Early art: Venus in transit

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. Discovered in six pieces in September 2008 at the base of thick and well-stratified Aurignacian deposits at Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany, the Venus may be the oldest-known example of figurative art, 5,000 years older than the next-oldest examples, the well-known 'Venuses' of the Gravettian culture.

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