Caves and ice age art of the Swabian Alb

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Caves and ice age art of the Swabian Alb
UNESCO world heritage UNESCO World Heritage Emblem
Vogelherdhöehle inside.JPG
Vogelherd cave from the inside
National territory: GermanyGermany Germany
Type: Culture
Criteria : (iii)
Reference No .: 1527
UNESCO region : Europe and North America
History of enrollment
Enrollment: 2017  ( session 41 )

"Caves and Ice Age Art of the Swabian Alb" is a UNESCO listed entry of the world cultural heritage in Germany . In addition to Ice Age art, the heritage includes six caves on the Swabian Alb , in which the oldest artifacts of human art have been found. Since the geological formations of the caves, which are not uncommon, could only be declared a World Heritage Site by the works of art, UNESCO decided to include Ice Age art as a constitutive element in the definition of cultural heritage.

background

The Aurignacia was a cultural epoch that began around 42,000 BC. BC to 31,000 BC Lasted. In Central Europe it is the oldest culture of the Younger Paleolithic ( Upper Palaeolithic ). In terms of climate history , this epoch falls during the last cold period in the Young Pleistocene , which in southern Germany is known as the Würm cold period .

In the Aurignacia, anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) spread over Europe, while the Neanderthals disappeared. Even if ornamental artistic forms are known from earlier times, figurative artistic representations appeared for the first time in the Aurignacia as cave painting and Upper Palaeolithic small art , so the visual arts began. The first bone flutes, which are unequivocally recognized as such, and which also prove the practice of music at this time , also come from the Aurignacia . The art of the Aurignacia and later epochs of the last glacial period is also referred to collectively as Ice Age art .

enrollment

A group of six caves of the Swabian Alb (Swabian Jura also called) was on a proposal by 2015 Baden-Württemberg called caves of the oldest Ice Age Art on the suggestion list Germany for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage been set. In 2017, based on a resolution of the 41st meeting of the World Heritage Committee , the caves were registered as cultural heritage in the list of UNESCO World Heritage under the name Caves and Ice Age Art of the Swabian Alb . In summary it says:

“The six caves have revealed objects from 43,000 to 33,000 years ago since the 1860s. These include carved animal figures (including cave lions, mammoths, horses and cattle), musical instruments and personal jewelry. Other figures depict creatures that are half animal, half human, and there is a statuette of a woman. These archaeological sites show some of the oldest figurative works of art in the world and provide information about the origins of human artistic development. "

The entry was made on the basis of criterion (iii).

“(Iii): Caves and Ice Age art in the Swabian Jura is an extraordinary testimony to the culture of the first modern people who settled in Europe. Extraordinary aspects of this culture that have been preserved in these caves include examples of carved figures, items of personal jewelry and musical instruments. The art objects are among the oldest in the world and the musical instruments are the oldest that have been found worldwide to this day. "

scope

The World Heritage site comprises two separate areas, one in the valley of the Ach in the Alb-Donau district and one in the Lone valley in the border area of ​​the Alb-Donau district and the district of Heidenheim . They have a total protection area of ​​462.1 ha and are each surrounded by a buffer zone, which has a total area of ​​1,158.7 ha. Each of these areas contains three caves, which are sorted in the following tables in the downstream direction.

Ref.No. designation caves local community circle Protection area Buffer zone
1527-001 Akhtal Hollow rock ( location ) Rogue blades Alb-Danube district 271.7 ha 766.8 ha
Sirgenstein cave ( location ) Blaubeuren
Geißenklösterle ( location )
1527-002 Lone Valley Bockstein Cave ( location ) Rammingen Alb-Danube district 190.4 ha 391.9 ha
Hohlenstein-Stadel ( location ) Asselfingen
Vogelherd cave ( location ) Niederstotzingen Heidenheim district

Caves and finds

From the caves of the Ach and Lon Valley and their surroundings, a total of more than 50 figurative representations as well as finds and relics of 24 flutes from the Aurignacia are known (as of 2016). The figures and musical instruments, often carved from mammoth ivory, are “the most impressive early ensemble of works of art known to date”.

With an age of approx. 42,000 to 38,000 years , the Venus figurine found in the hollow rock is one of the oldest known figurative representations of the human body, the similarly old lion man from the Hohlenstein barn depicts a person with the head and limbs of a cave lion. In Similar unique finds were made in the other caves, for example the approximately 40,000 year old animal figurines from the Vogelherd Cave or the 42,000 to 43,000 year old bone flutes from the Geißenklösterle .

Image of the cave Surname description Finds Image of a find
Hollow rock
more pictures 		Hollow rock The cave consists of a 15 meter long corridor and a subsequent hall which, with a floor area of ​​500 m² and a volume of 6000 m³, is one of the largest in the Swabian Alb. Venus figurine made of mammoth ivory, flute from the spoke of a griffon vulture Venus figure
more pictures
Sirgenstein Cave
more pictures 		Sirgenstein Cave The total length of the cave is 42 meters with a maximum height of 10 meters. In the back the cave is illuminated by natural openings in the ceiling. 5000 flint artifacts, bullet tips , awls and smoothers
Geißenklösterle
more pictures 		Geißenklösterle The half cave is protected by two protruding rock walls. It is about 60 m above the bottom of the Achtal. Adorant , hybrid human-animal creature engraved in ivory , flutes made of bone and ivory Adorant
more pictures
Bockstein Cave
more pictures 		Bockstein Cave The cave is an approximately 15 m × 20 m large hall in the rock around 50 m above the bottom of the Lone Valley. Large wedge knife (Bockstein knife ) from the Bockstein forge Bockstein knife
Hohlenstein barn
more pictures 		Hohlenstein barn The cave is a 50 m long horizontal cave without larger halls. The entrance is 8 m wide and 4 m high. Mammoth ivory lion man Lion man
more pictures
Vogelherd Cave
more pictures 		Vogelherd Cave The cave has three entrances and consists of two parts: The Great Vogelherd Cave is a 40 m long curved passage between two 2.5 to 3.5 m high mouth holes, the Small Vogelherd Cave is very narrow at the entrance and also around 40 m long. A passage between the two caves is buried except for a gap several centimeters high. Animal figures made of mammoth ivory, Venus figurine from a wild boar's tooth Wild horse
more pictures

Museum educational representation

These caves and their palaeolithic artefacts are mainly presented and honored in a museum-educational and scenographic way in the Prehistoric Museum Blaubeuren (near the caves in the Achtal), in the Archäopark Vogelherd (near the Vogelherd cave in the Lonetal), in the Museum Ulm , in the Landesmuseum Württemberg in Stuttgart and in the museum of the University of Tübingen MUT. Of the originals exhibited in four museums and an archaeological park, more than half are in the MUT Old Cultures at Hohentübingen Castle.

literature

  • Nicholas J. Conard , Michael Bolus, Ewa Dutkiewicz and Sibylle Wolf (eds.): Ice Age Archeology on the Swabian Alb. The sites in the Ach and Lone Valley and in their surroundings . Kerns Verlag Tübingen, 2015, ISBN 978-3-935751-24-7 .
  • Nicholas J. Conard, Ernst Seidl: The mammoth from the bird stove. Tübingen finds of the oldest preserved works of art, Tübingen: MUT, 2008, ISBN 978-3-9812736-0-1
  • Nicholas J. Conard: The Bird Herd Horse and the Origins of Art (generally small monographs of MUT 5), Tübingen: MUT, 2016, ISBN 978-3-9817947-7-9 .

Web links

Commons : Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Original names in English Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura , French Grottes et l'art de la période glaciaire dans le Jura souabe , German name according to the World Heritage List. In: www.unesco.de. German UNESCO Commission , accessed on July 15, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed July 12, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Caves with the oldest Ice Age art ( Memento from July 19, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: whc.unesco.org , UNESCO World Heritage Center (English).
  4. ↑ Decision: 41 COM 8B.24. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, 2017, accessed July 11, 2017 .
  5. ^ Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura. Maps. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed June 21, 2018 .
  6. ^ Ice Age archeology on the Swabian Alb. The sites in the Ach and Lone Valley and in their surroundings , ed. by Nicholas J. Conard , Michael Bolus, Ewa Dutkiewicz and Sibylle Wolf, Kerns Verlag Tübingen, 2015, p. 109, ISBN 978-3-935751-24-7
  7. ^ Ice Age archeology on the Swabian Alb. The sites in the Ach and Lone Valley and in their surroundings , ed. by Nicholas J. Conard , Michael Bolus, Ewa Dutkiewicz and Sibylle Wolf, Kerns Verlag Tübingen, 2015, p. 99, ISBN 978-3-935751-24-7