Stadel Cave

Stadel Cave is one of the earliest known Homo sapien sites dating back to 30,000 years ago, with only a few other sites containing the same kinds of artifacts. Stadel Cave is located in the Valley of Lone, Baden-Württemberg, Germany with two closely related cave sites, Vogelherd and Geissenklösterle near by. Excavations at Stadel Cave began in 1939. What makes Stadel Cave and the other two sites so different from anything else found from the Upper Paleolithic is the Venus figurines found in each of these caves. Venus figurines are very small, thought to be worn as pendants, made from ivory, wood, soft carvable stone, and unbaked clay.

One of the most significant finds from Stadel cave was the lion head figurine. Standing 28 cm in height, this figure was a little larger than other figures found. It was made out of mammoth ivory and carved to perfection. This figure is said to be dated to the Aurignacien. With this and other ivory figures, Stadel Cave has proven to be one of the earliest and important finds in Homo sapien history.

References:

Image Credithttp://home.bawue.de/~wmwerner/gif/lionlady.gif

Tattersall, Ian, Becoming Human, Evolution and Human Uniqueness. Harcourt Brace & Company

Aktuell (Tübingen, 04. August 2000) http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/qvo/pm/pm342-02.html

Writen by Aaron Schlingmann