ARCHAEOLOGY
A MONTHLY EXCAVATION OF ODDITIES AND ANTIQUITIES
THE DAWN OF ART
Last summer, archaeologists from Novosibirsk Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, excavating the Denisova cave in the Altai Mountains, discovered the figurine of a cave lion (Panthera spelaea )–42mm long, 8mm thick and 11mm high – made from a woolly mammoth tusk by an Upper Palaeolithic artist between 40,000 and 45,000 years ago. It was found inside the 11th layer of the southern gallery. The precise age is yet to be confirmed, but the cautious dating means that this might be the oldest animal figurine in the world. The lion’s head is missing; what we see is its hind legs, groin, back and belly, covered in an ornament of 18 rows of notches. There are two extra rows with four notches on the lion’s right side. “The figurine depicts an animal with its tummy tucked in, its hind legs bent,” said Mikhail Shunkov, head of the Institute’s Stone
Age Archaeology Department. “It is either galloping, jumping or getting ready to jump. The animal is shown in a typical big cat position for the moment when they are ready to catch a prey.”
The archaeologists believe it is “too simplistic” to assume the figurine was a toy, but there is no evidence that it was a cult item. The mammoth ivory had to be carried for at least 60 miles (100km) from the northern slopes of the Altai Mountains. Traces of red ochre, mostly around the stomach area, suggest the whole figurine was once painted red. In 2018 a ‘pencil’ and a marble stone with traces of ochre powder were discovered in the same area. The assumption is that the artist was a Denisovan, but as Prof Shunkov pointed out, Homo sapiens was already wondering around Siberia 45,000 years ago, so they might well have influenced the Denisovans. The figurine doesn’t resemble any previous find; the closest in style are cave lion figurines from Vogerfelt Cave in southwest Germany, and from caves in south-west France.
The Denisova Cave lies right at the border of the Altai region and the Altai Republic in south-western Siberia. Locals call it Ayu Tash, which means Bear Rock. It is relatively small with a floor area of about 270m2 (2,900ft2). It has three galleries – the cosy Central Chamber with high, arched ceiling and a hole that lets in natural light, the South Gallery and the East Gallery. Nicely positioned above the Anuy River, the cave first caught the attention of Soviet scientists in the 1970s when they found palaeo-archaeological remains. In 2008
Siberian archaeologists discovered a tiny finger bone fragment of ‘X woman’, a juvenile female believed to have lived around 41,000 years ago [FT262:22]. Analysis showed she was genetically distinct from thick-browed Neanderthals and modern humans. The recent addition to the human family tree was christened Denisovan. Further research showed that the Denisovans were a sister group of Neanderthals. The two groups split from a common ancestor around 390,000 years ago. siberiantimes.com, 20 Nov 2019.
A hunting scene painted on a cave wall on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi has been dated to nearly 44,000 years old, making it the earliest known figurative cave art by our species. It is nearly twice as old as any previous hunting scene and provides unprecedented insights into the earliest storytelling and the emergence of modern human cognition. Last year, a cave painting of
an animal made at least 40,000 years ago was discovered in Borneo [FT376:14]. Previously, images of this level of sophistication date to about 20,000 years ago, with the oldest cave paintings believed to be more basic creations such as handprints.
The Sulawesi cave (known as Leang Bulu’Sipong 4) is in a well-explored system, which researchers had visited frequently over the past decade. The hunting scene was discovered in 2017 after an expedition member noticed what appeared to be an entrance to a high-level chamber above and climbed up a fig tree to investigate. The 4.5m (15ft)-wide panel shows six fleeing mammals – two Sulawesi warty pigs and four dwarf buffaloes, known as anoas, small but fierce animals that still inhabit the island’s dwindling forests. The animals are being pursued by therianthropes (human-like figures with some animal features), who seem to be wielding long swords or ropes. Their bodies are human-shaped, but one appears to have the head of a bird and another has a tail. Humananimal hybrids occur in the folklore of almost every modern society and are frequently cast as gods, spirits or ancestral beings in religions across the world. An ivory figurine of a lion-headed human – found in the Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave in the Swabian Jura in Germany in 1939 and dating from 35,000 to 40,000 years ago [pictured FT361:14] – was, until now, thought to be the earliest depiction of a therianthrope.
Some researchers have questioned whether the panel represents a single story, suggesting it could be a series of images painted over a longer period. Rock art is difficult to date, and the scientists relied on analysing mineral growths, known as cave popcorn, that had formed over the painting [FT321:18]. Measuring the radioactive decay of uranium and other elements in the deposits gave dates ranging from 35,100 to 43,900 years as a minimum age for the Sulawesi panel, the earliest date relating to one of the warty pig drawings. The findings are described in the journal Nature. theguardian.com, 11 Dec; BBC News, D.Telegraph, 12 Dec 2019.