Hohlenstein

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The Hohlenstein (historically also Hohler Stein ) is a limestone massif on the right edge of the Lone Valley , around 2.5 kilometers northwest of Asselfingen , about halfway between Bocksteinhöhle and Vogelherdhöhle . The entire rock is called the hollow stone , including the karst caves Bärenhöhle , Stadel and Kleine Scheuer . The amalgamation of Hohlenstein has been handed down from the 19th century and is now the official topographical name .

Hohlenstein-Stadel and Kleine Scheuer

caves

The Lion Man , which was completely reassembled in 2013, in the Museum Ulm, of which over 300 fragments have been found in the cave since 1939

In the Hohlenstein there are two large caves, the bear cave and the barn , as well as a smaller rock niche in between, the Kleine Scheuer .

The caves, which are relatively narrow in width, have the following longitudinal dimensions:

As early as 1860, Oscar Fraas from the Natural History Museum in Stuttgart carried out paleontological excavations in the Bear Cave , and later also in the other two caves. This excavation also founded the scientific research of the Paleolithic in Germany, although mostly naturally dead cave bears were found in the bear cave. Many finds, especially bones, stone artefacts and shards, point to an intensive history of settlement since the time of the Middle Paleolithic .

During archaeological excavations in the barn by the doctor Robert Wetzel and his excavation manager Otto Völzing , splinters of a tusk from a woolly mammoth were found in 1939 . These were only put together in 1969 during the scientific processing of the finds by Joachim Hahn to form the sculpture of the lion man , one of the most famous works of art from the Paleolithic culture of Aurignacien . The original was completely new and put together a little differently in 2013. The sculpture is exhibited today in the Museum Ulm .

The caves are closed all year round for reasons of nature conservation ( bats ). In 2017 the Hohlenstein-Stadel was included in the UNESCO World Heritage as part of the World Heritage Site Caves and Ice Age Art of the Swabian Alb .

Bear cave

Bear cave on the Hohlenstein

The Bärenhöhle (not to be confused with the Karls- and Bärenhöhle in the Reutlingen district ) is the western cave in the Hohlenstein. It is only 2 m above the valley floor, and its north-facing triangular entrance is 6 m wide and 4 m high. The horizontal cave reaches a length of 60 m. Inside it consists of a 30 m long corridor with various bulges and a large hall at the end of the corridor.

stratigraphy

Since the layers of earth were thickest at the entrance, a profile was created here.

fauna

98% of the animal remains found in the cave come from cave bears . The numerous skulls and lower jaws suggest that there were several hundred individuals. Furthermore, wild horses , woolly mammoths, bison , elk, red deer and reindeer were found in the bear cave.

Barn

Hohlenstein barn
Hohlenstein-Stadel, entrance from the inside

The barn - often referred to in the specialist literature as the Hohlenstein-Stadel (HST) - is located east of the bear cave and runs parallel to it with the long, narrow cave space. Like the Bear Cave, it is a 50 m long horizontal cave, but without any larger halls. The walls are formed only by niches and constrictions. The entrance itself is quite large with a width of 8 m and a height of 4 m. At 5 m above the valley floor, the barn is higher than the bear cave.

stratigraphy
  • III - Magdalenian
  • IV - Aurignacien (with the discovery of the lion man )
  • V - Middle Paleolithic
  • VI - Middle Paleolithic
  • VII - Middle Paleolithic

This profile was taken from the center of the cave. Simplified, it is the most complete of the many profiles included.

fauna

The animal remains of the Magdalenian layer III found gave the following picture: cave bear, hyena, fox, wolf, mammoth, wild horse, reindeer, wild cattle, birds and rodents. The aurignacia layer IV includes: cave bear, hyena, fox, wolf, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros , wild horse, reindeer, birds and rodents.

The animal species of the Middle Paleolithic layers are as follows: mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave bear, hyena, wild horse, wild cattle, reindeer, stag, giant deer.

The thigh bone of a male Neanderthal man was found in the Middle Paleolithic layers, and was calculated to be around 120,000 years old (maximum 183,000 years, minimum 62,000 years). An analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of this fossil in 2017 also provided indications of a gene flow from a previously unknown African population or from an early African population of anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) to the ancestors of the Neanderthals. In 2019, parts of the DNA of the cell nucleus were also sequenced and - as with the discovery from the Scladina grotto - indications of a closer genetic proximity of the fossil with the later Neanderthals living in Western Europe 40,000 years ago than with the almost equally old Neanderthals from Siberia , what was interpreted as evidence of a continuous settlement history in Western Europe.

Lion man

An important find from the Stadel cave is the "lion man", found in 1939 and last added in 2013, an upright hybrid creature made of mammoth and ivory . The figure is 31 cm high and around 40,000 years old, making it the oldest representation of a hybrid being that is currently known worldwide. The head and upper body including the paws represent a cave lion. In contrast, the lower body with the legs and the upright posture appear human. The figure was discovered in a layer of the Aurignaciens.

Small barn

The Kleine Scheuer is an abri between the bear cave and the barn. The rock niche has a width of 10 m and a depth of 8 m. One of the most famous finds is a pebble with rows of red dots, which is typical of the small art of the younger Magdalenian.

fauna

Above all, numerous rodents were found in the small barn. The remains of wild horses, reindeer, arctic fox, fox and mountain hare show which animals were preferred by humans to hunt.

Natural monument

The Hohlenstein is protected both as extensive natural monument No. 842-50110002 under the name Hohlenstein (3 caves) and as geotope no. 6195/10 with the name Felsgruppe Hohlenstein with caves to the right of the Lone NNW of Asselfingen .

See also

literature

  • Dunja Beck: The Middle Paleolithic of the Hohlenstein-Stadel and Bärenhöhle - in the Lone Valley (university research on prehistoric archeology; Vol. 56). Publishing house Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-7749-2967-X (also dissertation, University of Cologne 1996).
  • Joachim Hahn , Hansjürgen Müller-Beck , Wolfgang Taute : Ice Age Caves in the Lone Valley. Archeology of a landscape on the Swabian Alb (Guide to archaeological monuments in Baden-Württemberg; Vol. 3). Theiss, Stuttgart 1985.
  • Claus-Joachim Kind : Lion Man, Mammoth and a Woman. The oldest art of mankind in the Swabian Alb and the subsequent excavations at the Hohlenstein in the Lone Valley. In: Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg , Volume 40, 2011, Issue 1, pp. 3–8 ( online ; PDF)

Web links

Commons : Hohlenstein  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Daniel Georg von Memminger: Description of the Oberamt Ulm . Stuttgart and Tübingen, Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, 1836, p. 17
  2. ↑ Beck 1999, p. 7
  3. ↑ Oscar Fraas: Before the deluge! A story of the primeval world. Hoffmann'sche Verlags-Buchhandlung, 1866 ( place name "Hohlenstein" see for example p. 402 )
  4. ↑ Beck 1999
  5. ↑ a b c d J. Hahn, H. Müller-Beck, W. Taute: Eiszeithöhlen im Lonetal , Stuttgart 1985
  6. ↑ Hahn et al. 1985, p. 76
  7. ↑ M. Kunter, J. Wahl: The femur fragment of a Neanderthal man from the barn cave of the Hohlenstein in the Lone Valley. In: Find reports from Baden-Württemberg. Volume 17, No. 1, 1992, pp. 111-124.
  8. ↑ Cosimo Posth, Christoph Wißing, Keiko Kitagawa, Luca Pagani, Laura van Holstein, Fernando Racimo, Kurt Wehrberger, Nicholas J. Conard, Claus Joachim Kind, Hervé Bocherens and Johannes Krause: Deeply divergent archaic mitochondrial genome provides lower time boundary for African gene flow into Neanderthals. In: Nature Communications. Volume 8, 16046, 2017, doi: 10.1038 / ncomms16046
  9. ^ The ancient history of Neandertals in Europe. On: eurekalert.org of June 26, 2019
    The mysterious liaison of the Neanderthal man. ( Memento from November 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) dpa report on: Sächsische Zeitung online from July 6, 2017
  10. ↑ Stéphane Peyrégne, Viviane Slon, Fabrizio Mafessoni et al .: Nuclear DNA from two early Neandertals reveals 80,000 years of genetic continuity in Europe. In: Science Advances. Volume 5, No. 6, eaaw5873, 2019, doi: 10.1126 / sciadv.aaw5873
  11. ↑ C.-J. Kind , N. Ebinger-Rist, S. Wolf, T. Beutelspacher, K. Wehrberger: The smile of the Lion Man. Recent excavations in Stadel Cave (Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany) and the restoration of the famous Upper Palaeolithic figurine. In: Quartär , Volume 61, 2014, pp. 129–145.
  12. ↑ Nicholas J. Conard, Claus-Joachim Kind: When man invented art: Ice Age Caves in the Swabian Alb , Theiss Verlag (WBG), 2017, p. 96.
  13. ↑ Hahn et al. 1985, p. 72
  14. ↑ Geotope profile