Old Paleolithic minor art

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Old Paleolithic small art is a collective term for controversial prehistoric finds of stone tools and flint stones from the Old Paleolithic , which resemble faces or animals and supposedly represent the earliest works of art of mankind. The majority of scientists, however, do not believe in the production of such sculptures before the Upper Palaeolithic , but consider them all to be geofacts (natural products). The collection of such “figure stones” by Neanderthals or earlier human forms cannot be proven either.

The line of development of the Upper Paleolithic cabaret goes back to anatomically modern humans and began about 70,000 years ago in the Middle Stone Age in South Africa with geometric patterns. Instead, figurative cabaret is only known from the European Aurignacia around 40,000 years ago.

Scientifically discussed objects

For the first time, ancient Paleolithic artistic expressions of Homo erectus can be asserted with rhythmically arranged sequences of lines on bones from the Bilzingsleben site . These are - as they reflect a non-earmarked action - referred to as proto-art. However, these are by no means figurative representations.

Venus figurines have already been postulated for the early Paleolithic. The so-called Venus von Tan-Tan (Morocco) is a surface find by the Hessian archaeologist Lutz Fiedler . The second object of this kind is the Venus of Berekhat Ram (Israel). However, both pieces are considered by many experts to be geofacts, i.e. games of nature. However, some scholars, especially Alexander Marshak and Robert G. Bednarik , acknowledge that these are deliberately changed Manuporte, which were consciously edited by people in such a way that the figurative character was emphasized. The controversy on this is still ongoing. The oldest undisputed Venus figurine is the Venus vom Hohle Fels from Aurignacien.

The so-called mask by La Roche-Cotard shows the possibility of manipulation by humans . The object comes from a certain layered context of the Moustérie , i.e. the time of the late Neanderthals, and was certainly worked on by Neanderthals. However, there is controversy as to whether the resulting resemblance to a human face was intended.

Controversial early Palaeolithic cabaret in Germany

The French amateur archaeologist Jacques Boucher de Perthes brought up the discussion about “small sculptures” made of flint in the first half of the 19th century. He interpreted the "figure stones" found by him as the oldest evidence of human art and wrote the book "Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes" about it in 1847. For a few decades he thus diminished the fame of the hand axes in the Somme valley, which he had also discovered , on the basis of which the cultural stage of the Acheuleans was established. The prehistorian Hugo Obermaier (1877–1946) was initially critical of the finds, but at the beginning of the 20th century accepted the possible authenticity of the small works of art.

Walther Matthes

A new impetus for the discussion about early Paleolithic cabaret in German has been given by publications by Walther Matthes (1901–1997) since the 1960s . Matthes was from 1934 to 1969 professor for “Prehistory and Germanic Early History” at the University of Hamburg .

In 1957, through the engineer Hans Oeljeschlager from Hamburg-Poppenbüttel , Matthes became aware of the Paleolithic find of three alleged small sculptures made of flint, which Oeljeschlager had made in the Alstertal in 1932/33, together with flint tools (blades, scrapers, etc.) and " Facial stones "called. Matthes dates the finds from a ground moraine , which he considers real artifacts, to the crack ice age , i.e. the period of the Neanderthals . Like Elisabeth Neumann-Gundrum (1981) with her large stone sculptures later, Matthes believes that prehistoric people have clarified forms found in nature through post-processing.

Herbert Kühn agreed in 1965 to the interpretations of Matthes: "These sculptures belong to the period between 250,000 and 150,000 and apparently even before that."

The local researcher Friedrich Schäfer also dealt with supposed small sculptures and, together with Matthes, collected further palaeolithic material at the Pivitsheide site in Lipper Land in 1958 .

In the following years, Matthes put on an extensive collection of corresponding objects from northern Germany. Since official museums showed no interest in his collection, Matthes exhibited the objects in 28 showcases in the rooms of his seminar at the University of Hamburg in early 1963. A request from the University of Hamburg in 2000 revealed that the "figure stones" were taken from Matthes' private property when he retired and nothing is known about their whereabouts. In 1969, Matthes published a book on figural Ice Age art with the title Ice Age Art in the North Sea Region in collaboration with the Helgoland , History and Culture Association of the German Bight

Academic science unanimously rejects the interpretation of these objects as small sculptures and interprets the stones as natural products or stone utensils that only show random similarities to faces or animals. Apparently there is no convincing evidence of targeted processing.

According to a statement by the scientist Rainer Michl from the University of Hamburg, the university was not interested in the collection of Prof. Matthes, because “... according to the unanimous opinion of Stone Age and rockfall technology experts - it was clearly not artifacts but natural products . ... The Matthesche conception has probably been noted as a curiosity ”.

Matthes' theses found acceptance among authors in the extreme right-wing Grabert publishing house .

Other works on small Paleolithic sculptures

A comprehensive discussion of the history of the “Ice Age cabaret” can be found in Katholing, who mentions the following protagonists:

  • The Nazi esotericist Karl Maria Wiligut , who was sponsored by Heinrich Himmler and his “ Ahnenerbe ” foundation, owned his own collection of allegedly prehistoric artifacts.
  • In an illustrated book from 1981 Elisabeth Neumann-Gundrum advocated the thesis that there are paleolithic large stone sculptures on rock formations all over Europe, which are primarily supposed to show huge faces, among which the author repeatedly depicts the motifs of the "dichotomy" and the "breath birth" wants to have recognized. In this case, too, experts see the rock formations in question as of natural origin and the similarities with faces as purely coincidental products (Katholing 2001 also expresses doubts about Neumann-Gundrum's theses in his book on large stone sculptures). The report printed in Neumann-Gundrum's volume for the alleged evidence of processing marks on these rock formations does not come from a suitably qualified archaeologist, but from an unknown stonemason.
  • Dorothea Regber describes some artifacts supposedly from the Ice Age, which she calls hedgehog, mammoth and heart stones.
  • Kurt E. Kocher discusses some alleged small works of art by Neanderthals and Homo erectus from Germany.
  • The layman Hans Grams takes the view that sculptures with head and face representations on rubble were made by early humans.

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ Leif Steguweit: Traces of use on artifacts from the hominid discovery site in Bilzingsleben (Thuringia) (= Tübingen works on prehistory, Volume 2). VML Verlag, Rahden / Westf. 2003, ISBN 3-89646-852-9 . ( Online at academia.edu )
  2. ^ Hugo Obermaier: Eolite problem . In: "Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte", Volume 3, 1925, pp. 101ff.
  3. ↑ Walther Matthes: The representation of animals and humans in the sculpture of the older Paleolithic - A contribution to the question of the age of art based on new finds from Northern Germany . In: Symbolon. Jahrbuch für Symbolforschung 4, 1964, pp. 244-276; Walther Matthes: The discovery of the art of the older and middle Palaeolithic in Northern Germany . In: Yearbook for prehistoric & ethnographic art 21, 1964/65; Walther Matthes: Ice Age Art in the North Sea Region . Niederelbe Verlag, Otterndorf 1969.
  4. ↑ On Walther Matthes: Hans Joachim Bodenbach: Prof. Dr. phil. Walt (h) er Matthes (September 3, 1901 to January 20, 1997), archaeologist in Brandenburg and Upper Silesia, museum director in Beuthen O / S, professor, director and professor of prehistory at the University of Hamburg . Glinde, Hamburg 2013.
  5. ↑ Hans Oeljeschlager: Relief portraits - 20,000 years old? Hamburger Abendblatt, No. 54, of March 4, 1950.
  6. ^ Elisabeth Neumann-Gundrum: Europe's culture of large sculptures - archetypes / archetypal knowledge of a European intellectual culture. Giessen 1981.
  7. ↑ From Katholing 2001, pp. 73–74.
  8. ↑ Katholing 2001, p. 76.
  9. ↑ Quoted in Katholing 2001, pp. 76-77.
  10. ↑ Gert Meier: The early days of Germany were completely different . Grabert, Tübingen 1999; Gert Meier, Hermann Zschweigert: The high culture of the megalithic age - Secret testimonies from Europe's great past . Grabert, Tübingen 1997.
  11. ↑ Katholing 2001, pp. 71-78. 150-156.
  12. ↑ Dorothea Regber: "The Grail and the Ur-European", Essen 1987.
  13. ^ Kurt E. Kocher: “Battenberg Report II - Message from the Paleolithic Age - 120,000 Years of Culture on the Rhine”, Heko-Verlag, Dannstadt-Schauernheim 1989; Kurt E. Kocher: "Battenberg Report III - Cult place of Homo erectus ", Heko-Verlag, Dannstadt-Schauernheim 1991.
  14. ↑ Hans Grams: The lost stone age culture. Pro BUSINESS Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-939533-13-9 .

literature

  • Winfried Katholing: The large stone sculptures - cult sites of the Stone Age? Books on Demand, 2001, ISBN 3-8311-1782-9 .

Web links