The Lion-Man: The Oldest Confirmed Statue Ever Discovered
Lion-man – the oldest confirmed statue ever discovered
The Löwenmensch figurine, carved from mammoth ivory around 40,000 years ago, is the oldest confirmed statue ever found. Discovered in a German cave in 1939, it combines a human body with a cave lion's head. After decades of reconstruction, it now stands 31.1 cm tall and is displayed at Museum Ulm. Its creation would have taken over 370 hours of skilled work, sparking debates about its meaning and the society that made it.
Unless the sculpture was created slowly at odd moments over several months, someone as skilled as an artist may have been excused from other subsistence tasks to work specially on this piece.
- rayiner
> Some researchers have ascribed sexual characteristics to the object.
My wife jokes that anthropologists think everything is about either sex or religion. It never occurs to them that these figurines might be toys for kids. After all, children 40,000 years ago were anatomically modern. They would have gotten bored and wanted to play, or missed their parents while the parents were out foraging or hunting.
- fishfasell
Been reading "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind", this piece is mentioned as the earliest proof of the Cognitive Revolution that we know of. It displays how humans were able to envisions things that do not exist, crafting fiction from reality. How early man was able to share stories and how religions probably came to be.
- walrus01
For those interested in very early human history, this 2010 documentary by Werner Herzog:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Forgotten_Dreams
It was filmed in 3D as was the hype at the time, but the 2D version is completely watchable and is the most commonly distributed format.
- thisisauserid
The Eurasian Cave Lion was around there back then and was probably the direct model for the Lion-man sculpture. It was roughly 20% larger than modern African lions. Paleolithic cave paintings (e.g., Chauvet) show the male cave lions lacked the heavy neck manes of modern lions.
- wpollock
> ... so why would a community living on the edge of subsistence, whose primary concerns were finding food, keeping that fire going, protecting children from predators, allow someone to spend so much time away from those tasks?
One possibility that occurs to me is the carving was done by the elderly, the injured, or possibility the young, who would not have such duties. A carving by a shaman is another possibility.