Is the 40,000-year-old Lion-Man statue, found in a cave called Hohlenstein-Stadel in Germany in 1939, one of the first works of art of the homo sapiens species?
The Lion Man, or Hohlenstein-Stadel as it was originally known, was found in the cave of the same name in Germany in 1939.
The Lion Man statue, one of the first works of art of Homo sapiens, is a figurine with the head of a lion and the body of a human.
Although some of the pieces of this figurine were first found in 1939, with the intervention of the Second World War, it took 20 years for the remaining pieces to be researched.
The Löwenmensch figurine, also called the Lion-man of Hohlenstein-Stadel, is a prehistoric ivory sculpture discovered in Hohlenstein-Stadel, a German cave, in 1939. The German name, Löwenmensch, meaning "lion-person" or "lion-human", is used most frequently because it was discovered and is exhibited in Germany.
Bringing together all the pieces found, the researchers ultimately make the Lion Man statue from the '90s as a whole.
The carving process of the Lion Man statue, which was carved from a woolly mammoth tusk, was done with flint.
The approximately 30 cm tall statue is the oldest known zoomorphic sculpture, although it is not the first work of art.
According to research, the Lion Man statue, which dates back 40 thousand years, clearly reveals the imagination and way of thinking of the people living at that time.
This statue, which has the head of a lion and the body of a human, shows that a person's imagination works magnificently, regardless of the period and conditions in which he lives.
The figurine, found in Hohlenstein-Stadel in the Swabian Alps in Germany, thus proves that this cave is one of the points where humanity's first steps were taken.
Although the cave in question was first discovered by researchers in the half of the 19th century, the most valuable discoveries took place after the end of the Second World War.
Details
This figure, 31 cm tall, standing, perhaps slightly on tiptoe, has the head of a cave lion and a partially human body. The figurine, which is considered the oldest known representation of a being that does not have a real physical form but symbolizes ideas about the supernatural, is exhibited at the Ulm Museum in Germany.
Lion Man is made of a mammoth tusk. Mammoths were the largest animals of the late Ice Age. One of the fiercest predators in nature was the cave lion, which was larger than the African lion. The artist who made this lion-man figure brought mammoth, lion, and human together. The legs and groin parts are human. The belly button is where it should be, just like a human's. As we move up from the body to the head, we see the extremely broad and powerful shoulders and the head shaped like a lion's head. His gaze, like his stance, is strong and directed towards the viewer.
The details of his face show that he is attentive, watching, and listening. The small scar behind the ear was made to show how the muscles there tighten when the ear turns towards the direction of the sound. His eyes are looking forward, and there's a strange grin on his mouth.
The combination of human and animal characteristics, this state of attention, and this feeling of interaction with the environment indicate that there is communication. The communication here is thought to have an extremely important meaning. It may reflect supernatural beliefs or rituals of the people of that period, but it is difficult to say whether this statue represents an icon, a god, or a creation story. The main thing here is communication. We mean not only communication with what is believed to be supernatural but also communication such as sharing stories around the fire, which is part of social cohesion. The smooth body surface of the lion man indicates that this figure was passed from hand to hand in such environments.
UNESCO recognized the Stadel Cave and other Swabian sites as World Heritage Sites in 2017.