Two micro bird sculptures in mammoth ivory found at Hohle Fels: 40,000 years of art

They fit on a fingernail, and no one had seen them for forty millennia. Archaeologists from the University of Tubingen have presented two bird figurines carved in mammoth ivoryMammoth ivoryMammoth tusk worked by Palaeolithic craftspeople to carve figurines, beads, points and ornaments.→, found in the Hohle Fels cave in Germany. Described in the 2025 volume of Archaologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Wurttemberg, published in July 2026, they are declared the "find of the year" by the authors.¹ The two pieces join the oldest known corpus of figurative art in the world.

Two ivory birds, 40,000 years old

Their dimensions are striking: approximately 2 by 1 by 0.5 centimetres. One weighs 1.3 grams, the other 0.7 grams. Other figurines from this period typically measure between 3 and 9 centimetres -- these two birds are therefore the smallest ever identified in the Swabian Jura region. One, complete, appears to be at rest on the ground, perhaps brooding; its eyes are clearly marked. The other, incomplete, spreads its wings, with a clearly defined beak and incised feathers.¹

Both objects were excavated in 2025, from the same archaeological layer, approximately 1.5 metres apart. This layer belongs to the Aurignacian, the period associated with the earliest Homo sapiensHomo sapiensThe present-day human species, which emerged in Africa around 300,000 years ago, the only surviving human lineage after the extinction of Neanderthals and Denisovans.→ cultures in Europe. Their age is therefore very similar -- the same artist may well have carved both. The seated bird resembles a ptarmigan, a grouse-like species abundant among the site's faunal remains. For the bird with spread wings, identification remains open: another ptarmigan, a relative of the grouse family, or a raptor.

Spotted in the sieve after thirty years of excavation

Nicholas J. Conard's team has been working at this site for nearly thirty years. Archaeologists carefully remove sediment and pass it through fine-mesh sieves. It was during this sorting process that Elisa Luzi, a palaeontologist at the University of Tubingen, spotted one of the sculptures. The method illustrates the patience required for PalaeolithicPalaeolithicThe oldest and longest period of prehistory (c. 3.3 Ma–12,000 BC), defined by chipped stone tools and a hunter-gatherer way of life.→ archaeology: without systematic sieving, these two objects smaller than two centimetres would have gone unnoticed.

Most ivories from the region depict animals in static, rigid poses. Here, the two birds adopt precise, dynamic postures. "The sculptures are not very stylised, they show many specific and unique features," says Conard. "The artist recorded detailed observations, which allow us to examine which bird is represented and what it might be doing."²

Hohle Fels: a treasury of Aurignacian art

Hohle Fels has now yielded three bird figurines -- the first, a kind of water bird, was identified in the early 2000s. The site has also produced the Venus of Hohle Fels and bone and ivory flutes, among the oldest known musical instruments in the world. No other site in the region has yet yielded a single bird figurine; elsewhere, mammoths and lions dominate. Conard sees in this a local signature specific to each site.

The function of these objects remains unknown: personal talismans, markers of identity or group membership? Archaeologist Daniel Adler leans towards collective affiliation. The region harboured -- and still harbours -- a rich birdlife; the nearby Lake Schmiechen is today an ornithological reserve. Palaeolithic inhabitants heard birdsong and alarm calls, and made flutes from hollow bird bones.¹ The two figurines will be exhibited at the Blaubeuren museum until 4 April 2027.