Bear cut

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Charlottenhöhle Vogelherd Cave
Bear cut in the Charlotten-
and Vogelherd cave

A bear cut is the term used to describe smoothly rubbed areas on rocks in caves , which were created during the last glacial period through abrasion during frequent contact with the fur of cave bears .

Cave bears - like the brown bears living today - are believed to wallow in mud to loosen parasites from their fur. The solids contained in the mud acted like sandpaper in connection with the top hair . As they walked through caves, the bears brushed their fur over exposed rock, which over time rounded and in some cases took on a polished, mirror-smooth surface. Bear cut occurs, corresponding to the shoulder height of cave bears, only at a height between 0.4 and 1.4 meters above the Pleistocene cave floor level and is mainly formed at narrow points, the inside of bends and on projections. However, it can also be found on stalagmites and boulders in spacious cave passages and halls, where the animals set scent marks by rubbing their fur, which they could use to orient themselves in the dark interior of the cave.

Bear cuts are mainly known in caves in southern Germany , Austria and Switzerland , for example in the Vogelherd cave , the Charlotten cave , in the hollow rock , in the dragon cave and the caves of Saint-Brais .

The term was first mentioned in writing in 1826 by the German mineralogist and geologist Johann Jacob Nöggerath . He had come across Bärenschliff three years earlier in the old cave near Sundwig .

literature

  • Ernst Probst: Der Höhlenbär , Diplomica Verlag, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-95934-561-3 , pp. 61–65.
  • Cajus Diedrich: Cracking and nibbling marks as indicators for the Upper Pleistocene spotted hyaena as a scavenger of cave bear carcasses in the Perick caves den of Northwest Germany in Neue Forschungen zum Höhlenbären in Europa , Nürnberg 2005, pp. 78, 79.
  • Gernot Rabeder, Doris Nagel, Martina Pacher: Der Höhlenbär , Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-7995-9085-4 , p. 41.
  • Franz Keller: Rosensteins Urgeschichte , Verlag des Schwäbischen Albverein , Tübingen 1921, Chapter 1: Kleine Scheuer , pp. 6-8.

Web links

Commons : Bärenschliff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert G. Bednarik: Paleolithic rock art in Germany? Archaeological Information 25/1 & 2 pp. 112–113, 2002 ( PDF ).
  2. ↑ Ernst Probst: The cave bear . Diplomica Verlag, Hamburg 2015.