Two 40,000-year-old Aurignacian bird figurines discovered at Hohle Fels

In the AurignacianAurignacianThe earliest culture of the European Upper Palaeolithic (c. 43,000–33,000 BC), tied to the arrival of Homo sapiens and the first artworks.→ layers of Hohle Fels Cave, deep in the Swabian Jura of Germany, a team from the University of Tubingen has discovered two bird figurines carved from mammoth ivoryMammoth ivoryMammoth tusk worked by Palaeolithic craftspeople to carve figurines, beads, points and ornaments.→. Around 40,000 years old, they rank among the smallest pieces of Upper Paleolithic portable artPortable artTransportable art objects (figurines, engravings on bone or ivory), such as the Palaeolithic Venuses.→ ever documented. Weighing 1.3 and 0.7 grams respectively, they represent with striking realism a resting bird and a bird with spread wings, capturing two distinct behaviours with a precision that would have rivalled that of a modern naturalist.¹

Hohle Fels: a cave of superlatives

Hohle Fels Cave, located in the Achtal valley near Schelklingen in Baden-Wurttemberg, is one of the world's most celebrated prehistoric sites. It is in its Aurignacian layers, dated to approximately 35,000 to 42,000 years ago, that Professor Nicholas Conard's teams have already unearthed exceptional objects: the Venus of Hohle Fels, a female statuette in mammoth ivory dated to around 40,000 years ago and considered one of the oldest known human figurative representations in the world; bone and ivory flutes among the oldest musical instruments ever found; and, in recent years, perforated beads testifying to elaborate body ornamentation.

The two new bird figurines were discovered in the same stratigraphic layer, approximately one metre apart. They join an aquatic bird figurine already known in the Hohle Fels collection, discovered a quarter-century ago, bringing the number of bird representations in this single cave to three -- compared with none in the three other UNESCO World Heritage sites of the region for their Aurignacian art: Vogelherd, Geissenklosterle, and Bockstein.

Anatomy of two miniature masterworks

The two birds measure two centimetres long, one centimetre wide, and half a centimetre tall. The bird with spread wings, the smaller of the two at 0.7 grams, is the smallest piece of Upper Paleolithic portable art ever known from the region. Most other Ice Age figurines measure between three and nine centimetres. Their minute size did not prevent their makers from carving behavioural details of remarkable precision.

The resting bird has a flattened, outstretched posture, its head tucked into its body, its legs folded beneath it. Conard and his team interpret this as a brooding posture: a female motionless on her eggs. The "striking round eyes" carved as hollows give the animal a compelling presence. The second bird, with wings broadly spread and neck extended, might be in flight, landing on water, threatening a rival, or engaged in courtship display. Interpretations vary, and the sculptor left no further clue than the pose itself.²

Species identification: a challenge for zoologists

Determining the species depicted by the Aurignacian sculptors is a delicate exercise. Ptarmigan bones are frequently found in the archaeological deposits of the region, making them natural candidates. The team also considers other possibilities: capercaillie, common pheasant, or even certain raptors. The behavioural modelling -- brooding for one, taking off or landing for the other -- suggests that the sculptors observed birds very closely, recognising not only their forms but also their characteristic postures.

"These statuettes demonstrate that Upper Paleolithic sculptors were capable of representing birds in diverse and extremely complex ways," says Conard. "Certain motifs appear to be specific to particular archaeological sites." This local specificity is one of the most important findings: while the artists of Vogelherd carved mainly horses and lions, those of Hohle Fels seem to have been fascinated by birds. Each Aurignacian site in the Swabian Jura bore, according to Conard, "its own unique signature".

Talismans for Ice Age hunters

The meaning of these figurines remains an open question. Their size -- so small they would fit on a fingertip -- and their featherlight weight (less than two grams combined) invite us to imagine objects worn on the body, perhaps tied to clothing or tucked into a hide pouch. Personal talisman, group identity symbol, prestige object for exchange, support for a mythological narrative or a commemoration of a hunted or venerated animal: the hypotheses are numerous and not mutually exclusive.

Stefanie Kolbl, director of the Ice Age Cave Art Museum at Blaubeuren (urmu), near the site of discovery, offers a complementary perspective: "Our region has always offered a habitat for a great variety of bird species. Forty thousand years ago, birds were omnipresent: they greeted the day with their songs, their southward migration announced the change of seasons, and their alarmed flocks signalled danger. Their calls could be imitated on bone flutes. What wonder, to discover that they were also sculpted with such realism in ivory!" The two figurines will be on display until 4 April 2027 at the urmu museum, as part of the exhibition "Lightness and Depth of Research -- Discovering the Miniature Birds of Ice Age Art".