Hollow rock

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Hollow rock

Cave entrance

Cave entrance
Location: Schelklingen , Alb-Donau-Kreis , Baden-Württemberg , Germany
Height : 534  m above sea level NHN
Geographic
location: 		48 ° 22 '44.8 "  N , 9 ° 45' 14.8"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 22 '44.8 "  N , 9 ° 45' 14.8"  E
Hollow Rock (Baden-Württemberg)
Hollow rock
Type: Karst cave
Average annual number of visitors: 4,800 (2006-2010)
Current visitors: 6,252 (2010)

The hollow rock karst cave is located about one kilometer east of the town center of Schelklingen in the Alb-Danube district of Baden-Württemberg in Germany .

It has been one of the most important archaeological sites of the Upper Palaeolithic in Central Europe since the 19th century . Since that time the dialect spelling Hohlefels has also been documented, more recently also in the spelling Hohle Fels ( see paragraph Name history ).

The cave consists of a 15 meter long corridor and the subsequent hall. With a floor area of ​​500 m² and a volume of 6000 m³, this is one of the largest in the Swabian Alb . The entrance is 534  m above sea level. NHN in a spongy neck of the White Jura , at the foot of the slope of what is now the Eight Valley .

In 2017, the cave was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage as part of the World Heritage Site Caves and Ice Age Art of the Swabian Alb .

The Hohle Fels has been recognized as an outstanding geotope since 2017 as a Geopoint of the UNESCO Geopark Swabian Alb .

Research history

The "Hohlefels" (bottom right), late 19th century

In 1830, while digging for clay and clay, the potter Karl Friedrich Rixinger came across the bones of cave bears , which he sold to the Ulm District Forestry Councilor Friedrich von Mandelsloh , a passionate collector of paleontological finds from the Alb.

In 1844 Georg Reichenbach , a cotton manufacturer in Urspring , used bat guano and other deposits from the cave to a large extent as fertilizer . Without knowing it, Oscar Fraas had the cave clay examined by the Royal Natural History Cabinet in 1870. As a result of the high content of weathered organic material (guano, bones), he found a phosphate content of around 19 percent. "This is so much that the material can probably be used by fertilizer factories."

An excavation by Oscar Fraas and Pastor Josef Hartmann in 1870/71 brought up remains of cave bears , reindeer , mammoths and wild horses . In 1872, the Anthropological Association, together with the founder of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory , Rudolf Virchow , carried out an inspection of the cave on the fringes of a conference. In the run-up to the conference, the cave was closed with a gate and made accessible with wooden stairs and walkways. The conference participants were allowed to take souvenirs from the excavations of 1870/1871. The rest of the finds, a whole train carriage full, were brought to the Royal Natural History Cabinet in Stuttgart.

The Tübingen prehistoric Robert Rudolf Schmidt later assigned the tools found during Oscar Fraas' excavation to the Aurignacian and Magdalenian (younger Paleolithic ). In 1906 Schmidt examined the cave again, but without encountering archaeological layers.

From 1958 to 1960 Gerlinde Matschak and Gustav Riek carried out archaeological excavations. In 1966 the cave was measured by Bernhard Mangold, Andreas Pöhler and Helmut Frank. From 1977 excavations were carried out by the Institute for Prehistory of the University of Tübingen under the direction of Joachim Hahn († 1997), which were financed by the State Office for Monument Preservation Baden-Württemberg and temporarily by the Collaborative Research Center 53 of the University of Tübingen.

Since 1997 the annual excavations have been led by Nicholas Conard (University of Tübingen). To date, more than 80,000 stone tools and almost 300 pieces of jewelry have been recovered from the cave.

Archaeological finds

Main hall
From 1977 Joachim Hahn systematically dug in the cave, brought many finds to light and documented his research work

Aurignacia

The Upper Palaeolithic cabaret from the Aurignacia of the Swabian Alb is also the oldest figurative art known to man. In addition to the Hohlen Fels, these works of art, all carved from mammoth ivory , also come from the nearby Geißenklösterle , as well as from the Vogelherd Cave and the Hohlenstein in the Lone Valley . In recent years several spectacular finds have been made in the lower Aurignacian layers of the Hohlen Fels, which are among the oldest works of art known to man:

  • in 1999 a 3.6 cm high horse head made of mammoth ivory ;
  • 2001/02 a 4.7 cm tall ivory water bird found in two parts;
  • 2002 a 2.5 cm tall human figure made of ivory. This possibly has a felid head , hence the name "Löwenmenschle" (based on the lion man from the Hohlensteinstadel);
  • 2008 in layer V (older Aurignacia) the 6 cm tall " Venus vom Hohlefels " with a minimum age of 32,000 BP (corresponds to at least 35,000 cal BC ), next to the Venus vom Galgenberg the oldest Venus figurine of mankind.
  • In 2008 an almost complete flute from the spoke of a griffon vulture was found in Layer Va . The bone flute is 21.8 cm long and about 0.8 cm in diameter. The Aurignacian layer Va can be dated to at least 35,000  cal BC . Two other flute fragments (flute 2 and 3) were made from mammoth ivory, probably using the same technique as flute 3 from the Geißenklösterle.
  • In 2015 the discovery of two ivory fragments from the ongoing excavations was reported, which are attributed to a second Venus figurine.
  • In 2017 the discovery of 40 pearls made of mammoth ivory was announced. The pearls were discovered at all stages of the manufacturing process, from the blank to the worn piece.
  • In 2019 a tool (“rubbing stone”) was found with which color pigments were ground. Mainly there are mineral colors of red or yellow ocher and red chalk . The find is therefore particularly important because wall paintings in German caves hardly play a role.

In addition to the horse's head, the water bird and the Venus figure, the permanent exhibition of the Blaubeuren Museum of Prehistory also shows the flute finds from the Hohlefels and the Geißenklösterle.

Gravettias

The phallus of Schelklingen , which can be assigned to the Gravettia

During the Würm Ice Age, the Hohle Fels was temporarily a winter resting place for cave bears . So far, the only direct evidence of the hunt for these animals has been found in the layers of the Gravettian found: A flint projectile tip was found stuck in the thoracic vertebra of a cave bear. The cave bear was probably shot while it was hibernating in the cave. On other cave bear bones from the investigated sediments, archaeologists found characteristic incision traces that document all stages of the dissection of the animal carcasses.

In 2005, a pebble retoucher , the " Phallus of Schelklingen " , was found in the Gravettia found layers .

Magdalenian

Ornate objects from the genre of Upper Paleolithic cabaret also came to light in the more recent layers of finds. A particularly well-preserved limestone fragment with red dot painting was found in 1998. It comes from the GH 1k layer and thus from the upper Magdalenian . The piece is 7.6 cm tall and has two double rows of painted red dots on the curved upper side, which, according to the authors, are made of ocher (a dye based on limonite ). During the excavations in the summer of 2009, four more painted stones were found, one of which had two complete rows of double dots and a fragmentary row of dots (layer AH Ia), another stone (layer AH I) had fuzzy red spots. In addition, pieces of color were found in the upper Magdalenian layers: in layer AH Ic a piece of hematite , in layer AH Ib a piece of red chalk . This suggests that all of the red paint applications are red chalk or hematite, which occur naturally as minerals in karst crevices in the Alb.

The painted objects from the Hohlen Fels were shown from November 2011 to February 2012 in the museum of the University of Tübingen in an exhibition entitled “Painted stones - the end of ice age art on the Swabian Alb”. There are similarly old finds with almost identical point painting in southern Germany from the Upper Klausen Cave in the Altmühltal and from the “Kleine Scheuer”, the middle half cave of the Hohlenstein . There are much older paint jobs on stones from the nearby Geißenklösterle , for example a three-color (black, red and yellow) painted stone from the Aurignacia layer IIb. In the Geißenklösterle the red paint is made of hematite, the yellow of limonite.

Before the Hohle Fels was found, statuettes of women from the Petersfels made from gagat were considered to be the most important objects of the southern German Magdalenian era.

Name story

Messtischblatt 7624 (Schelkingen), 1912 version
Signpost in the Achtal

The cave has been called Hohler Fels since the Oberamt description by Blaubeuren in the 19th century, which has been retained in official topographical maps to this day. At the same time, since the 19th century, the dialect variant Hohlefels is common, which was used equally by archaeologists of the 20th century. There is a dilemma in the frequency of both names Hohler Fels or Hohlefels in the Swabian Alb and Franconian Alb area , which means that there is a risk of confusion with archaeological sites of the same name ( e.g. Hohler Fels near Happurg , Hohlefels near Hütten in Schmiechtal). The historically traditional summary of Hohlefels was increasingly used until the 1990s as a distinguishing feature of the Hohlen Fels in the Ach Valley and mostly in publications.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the spelling Hohle Fels occasionally appeared in publications of the Tübingen Institute for Prehistory and Early History as an undeclared proper name in order to create a unique selling point in the name . When Nicholas J. Conard led the excavation in 1997, this spelling was made binding for publications by the Tübingen Institute. At the latest since the introduction of the proper name “ Venus vom Hohle Fels ” by the Tübingen Institute, this spelling has also been used in press releases from the University of Tübingen and adopted by parts of the media, although this amounts to a topographical renaming. The State Office for Monument Preservation also uses this spelling.

Other use

The first cave festivals took place soon after the excavation in 1870/71, and since the beginning of the 20th century, the cave area has also been illuminated at longer intervals. During the Second World War, the cave was used by the Wehrmacht as a bunker and storage facility for fire-fighting equipment from the Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz company .

Cave festivals sponsored by local associations and the city administration have been held every year since 1950. Because of the good acoustics, cave concerts and sound recordings have been taking place for a long time.

See also

literature

  • Reiner Blumentritt , Joachim Hahn : The Hohlefels near Schelklingen, Alb-Donau-Kreis: a prehistoric site in the Ach Valley. Cultural monuments in Baden-Württemberg, issue 46, 1978.
  • Rainer [sic] Blumentritt, Joachim Hahn: The hollow rock. Edited by the Schelklingen Museum Society. Schelklinger Archaeological Guide, Vol. 1, 1991.
  • Nicholas J. Conard , Michael Bolus, Ewa Dutkiewicz, Sibylle Wolf: Ice Age Archeology on the Swabian Alb. Kerns Verlag, Tübingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-935751-24-7 , chapter: The sites in the Achtal / Das Achtal / Hohle Fels pp. 127-138.
  • Jill Cook: Ice Age Art: the Arrival of the Modern Mind. [... to accompany the exhibition of the British Museum from 7 February to 26 May 2013]. British Museum Press, London 2013, ISBN 978-0-7141-2333-2 .
  • Hans Binder , Herbert Jantschke: Höhlenführer Schwäbische Alb DRW-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2003, ISBN 3-87181-485-7 , chapter: L 7724 Ulm on the Danube / Hohler Fels, pp. 210-211.
  • Georg Hiller , Stefanie Kölbl: World-Cult Ur-Leap. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ulm 2016, ISBN 978-3-7995-1168-1 , chapter Hohle Fels p. 34–35 and p. 38–45 (German and English)
  • Sibylle Wolf: Jewelery - Ivory processing in the Swabian Aurignacia. Kerns Verlag, Tübingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-935751-21-6 , Chapter 5: Der Hohle Fels pp. 77–116 and Tafeln 1–31, pp. 117–179.

Web links

Commons : Hohler Fels  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Gustav Jäger, Wendelin Förster: Encyklopaedie der Naturwissenschaften. Volume 9. Verlag E. Trewendt, 1886.
  2. ^ A b Oscar Peschel: Ethnology. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1897, p. 41.
  3. ↑ Michel Rahnefeld: The oldest bird representation in the world. Working group Höhle & Karst Grabenstetten e. V., December 16, 2003, accessed July 7, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Georg Hiller and Stefanie Kölbl, Welt-Kult-Ur-Sprung, Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ulm 2016, p. 35, ISBN 978-3-7995-1168-1
  5. ↑ Joachim Hahn : The Geißenklösterle cave in the Achtal near Blaubeuren I. Find horizon formation and settlement in the Middle Paleolithic and Aurignacia. In: Research and reports on prehistory and early history in Baden-Württemberg 26. Theiss-Verlag, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-8062-0794-1 .
  6. ↑ a b c N. J. Conard: Paleolithic ivory sculptures from southwestern Germany and the origins of figurative art. In: Nature. 426, 2003, pp. 830-832. doi: 10.1038 / nature02186
  7. ^ A b Nicholas J. Conard, Maria Malina, Susanne C. Münzel: New flutes document the earliest musical tradition in southwestern Germany. In: Nature . Volume 460, 2009, pp. 737-740, doi: 10.1038 / nature08169
  8. ↑ idw-online.de of June 24, 2009: "Earliest musical tradition in southwest Germany proven"
  9. ↑ It must actually be a woman press release University of Tübingen from July 22, 2015.
  10. ↑ During excavations in the Hohlen Fels near Schelklingen, parts of a second female figure around 40,000 years old were found , Südwestpresse , July 22, 2015.
  11. ↑ Pearl finds from Ice Age caves expressed group identity. (with ill.) On: idw-online.de from July 28, 2017
  12. ↑ Sven Koukal: inconspicuous rock solves stone age mystery. Researchers present “Find of the Year”: Stone from the World Heritage cave provides information on color production. In: Schwäbische Zeitung . July 26, 2019, p. 22 .
  13. ↑ Thorwald Ewe: Cave bear extermination candidate - photo and report of the findings from the hollow rock , Focus online, March 23, 2008.
  14. ^ Susanne C. Münzel, Nicholas J. Conard: Cave Bear Hunting in the Hohle Fels, a Cave Site in the Ach Valley, Swabian Jura. In: Revue de Paléobiologie. 23 (2), 2004, pp. 877-885.
  15. ↑ Harald Floss: Phalliform retoucher from the Gravettien des Hohle Fels, Baden-Württemberg (Germany). In: Gabriele Uelsberg (ed.), Stefan Lötters (arrangement): Roots, roots of humanity . Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, 2006, p. 345.
  16. ↑ a b Nicholas J. Conard, Harald Floss: A painted stone from the hollow rock near Schelklingen and the question of palaeolithic cave art in Central Europe In: Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt. Volume 29, 1999, pp. 307-316.
  17. ↑ a b N. J. Conard, M. Malina: New evidence for painting from the Magdalénien vom Hohle Fels. In: Archäologische Ausgrabungen Baden-Württemberg 2009. Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2364-4 , pp. 52–56.
  18. ↑ Painted stones - the oldest tradition of painting in Central Europe to date. Press release from the University of Tübingen (accessed on November 9, 2011)
  19. ↑ Harald Floss et al. a .: Painted stones: The art of Azilien. In: Ice Age: Art and Culture. Thorbecke, 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0833-9 , pp. 307-316.
  20. ↑ Harald Floss et al. a .: Lascaux on the Alb? References to cave art in the German southwest. In: Ice Age: Art and Culture. Thorbecke, 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0833-9 , pp. 303-306.
  21. ↑ Description of the Oberamt Blaubeuren (Stuttgart 1830)
  22. ↑ Topographic map 1: 25,000. Sheet 7624 Schelklingen. Land survey office of Baden-Württemberg. Editions from 1949, 1969, 1976 + current edition 2009, ISBN 978-3-89021-181-7 .
  23. ↑ Topographic map 1: 50,000. Sheet 7624 Schelklingen. Digital map series of the German national survey. Land surveying office of Baden-Württemberg 2003.
  24. ^ Robert Rudolf Schmidt : Württemberg in prehistoric times and early history. In: Commission for historical regional studies in Baden-Württemberg. Research, Volume 17, p. 45
  25. ↑ Reiner Blumentritt, Joachim Hahn: The Hohlefels near Schelklingen, Alb-Donau-Kreis: a prehistoric site in the Ach Valley . (= Cultural monuments in Baden-Württemberg. Volume 46). Baden-Württemberg State Monuments Office , Stuttgart 1978.
  26. ^ Annual journals of the Society for Natural History in Württemberg, Volume 154, 1998, pp. 247-250.
  27. ↑ a b Nicholas J. Conard: The discovery and meaning of Venus from the hollow rock. In: Nicholas J. Conard, Stefanie Kölbl (ed.): The Venus from the hollow rock. Fundstücke 1 (museum booklet 9), Urgeschichtliches Museum Blaubeuren, 2010, ISSN  1617-2655 , pp. 7–38 (for the history of the name and renaming, see p. 15)
  28. ↑ Since it is not historically handed down, the splitting of adjective and noun without declination of the adjective contradicts German spelling, see Duden , Volume 4: Grammar. Mannheim 1984, p. 288 ff.
  29. ↑ Six caves in two valleys. In: www.iceageart.de. State of Baden-Württemberg, State Office for Monument Preservation, accessed on July 10, 2017 .
  30. ↑ Christoph Haas: Cave Concerts. TOOR, 2020, accessed July 18, 2020 .