Archaeologists have discovered fragments of one of the world's oldest sculptures, a lion-faced figurine estimated at 32,000 years old, from the dirt floor of a cave in southern Germany. The ivory figure, along with a tiny figurine known as the Venus of Hohle Fels, marks the foundation of human artistry. Both were created by a Stone Age European culture that historians call Aurignacian. The Aurignacians appear to have been the first modern humans, with handicrafts, social customs and beliefs. They hunted reindeer, woolly rhinoceros, mammoths and other animals. The Lion-Man sculpture, gradually re-assembled in workshops over decades after the fragments were discovered in 1939, is a kind of reverse sphinx: a human body, standing erect, but with the head of a now extinct European cave lion. Read more
It looked to be a routine excavation of what was thought to be a burial mound. But beneath the mound, archaeologists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Museum of Natural History and Archaeology found something more: unusual Bronze Age petroglyphs. Read more
Title: The Identification of the First Palaeolithic Animal Sculpture in the Ile-de-France: The Ségognole 3 Bison and its Ramifications Authors: Duncan Caldwell
This article unveils imagery that seems intended to be recognized in phases from such sites as Font-de-Gaume (pg. 26-27), Laugerie-Basse (pg. 38-39), Isturitz (pg. 39-40), Saint-Cirq-du-Bugue (pg. 41), and Guy-Martin (pg. 29-37), after describing the first Palaeolithic sculpture of an animal reported in the Ile-de-France. These include: 1) The extended panel of Ségognole 3. The grotto is known for a vulva between 2 faint horses, but its largest graphic element is a groove that has been explained away as a "border". The groove is actually the caudal line of a 1.9 metre-long bas-relief of a bison that has been overlooked because of the failure to apply the same conventions of the vulva - figurative realism, monumentality, and the use of natural forms - to the engraved line, although it is identical in manufacture. The wisent composed by natural relief accentuated by incising, flaking, and polishing confirms that the ensemble is Palaeolithic. 2) A survey of Palaeolithic parietal images whose contours are defined like the Ségognole bison by natural relief uncovered over 120 examples. This revealed that mammoths and bison were illustrated far more commonly this way than other species. Such statistical analyses of how imagery relates to rock morphology provide a new way of grouping Palaeolithic art and open another window into makers' intentions. The finding also raises the phenomenon of imagery that played upon similarities between the contours of bison and mammoths. 3) The "mammoth" on the Grotte de Canecaude spear-thrower, which has one eye above a crescent that makes it read as a tusk and another eye below the same crescent that makes it read as a bison's horn. The sculpture is one of several images that combine mammoths and bison in the oldest known figure-ground illusions.
A Bundi-based amateur archaeologist has claimed to have discovered a rock painting of pre-historic age stretching up to 35 km in the Garadha area of the district. Fifty-six-year-old Om Prakash Sharma, alias 'Kukki', who calls himself a professional archaeologist despite not having a degree in the subject, says, "The rock painting stretches up to 35 km, with its tail at Mandal dam, Bhilwara district and head at Banki village in Garadha area of the district." The painting has images of human beings, animals such as tigers, panthers, antelopes and various antique tools, Kukki claims that it belongs to Mesolithic period that dates back to nearly ten thousand years in Stone Age. He said that there were 32 sites in the rock painting and are stretching over the basin of Mangli river. Read more
UK archaeologist finds cave paintings at 100 new African sites
A local team headed by Dr Sada Mire, of the Institute of Archaeology at University College London (UCL), made the finds, which include a man on horseback, painted around 4,000 years ago - one of the earliest known depictions of a mounted hunter. Leaping antelopes, prancing giraffes and snakes poised to strike are among animals and reptiles depicted with astonishing clarity. Read more
The markings found in caves in France may have been ancient mans first attempts to write, a new study has suggested. Until now, its believed that our ancestors underwent a creative explosion around 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, when they suddenly began to think abstractly and create rock art. Read more
Authorities are offering up to a $1,500 reward for information leading to the identification and prosecution of those responsible for vandalism at the Sears Point archaeological site in Yuma County. Read more
5,000-year-old Venus figure found in Canakkale A 5,000-year-old Venus figure has been found as part of an excavation being carried out in Canakkale's Ezine district.
The Oldest Lunar Calendar on Earth The Oldest Lunar Calendars and Earliest Constellations have been identified in cave art found in France and Germany. The astronomer-priests of these late Upper Palaeolithic Cultures understood mathematical sets, and the interplay between the moon annual cycle, ecliptic, solstice and seasonal changes on earth.