The Spirit in Human Evolution - Waldorf Research Institute

The circumstances of the finds in the Vogelherd
and Hohlenstein caves suggest that the carvings had been
deliberately deposited with other items, carved ornaments,
fox teeth, stone tools. The Hohlenstein “Lion-man” figure
was found with a human tooth at the back of a shallow cave
“on the boundary between daylight and darkness” as the
excavator put it. 49 At any rate the evidence from Lonetal and
other sites shows that these art objects clearly underwent
a change of function from being made, being handled and
periodically marked with notches, to finally being deposited
as grave offerings. It would be inaccurate to see a causal link
in this process, but rather a flexibility of function.
Finally, a word or two about the anthropomorphic
figures found among the German ivory carvings. These
consist of highly stylized tiny figures made out of fossilized
charcoal and bored, presumably to string onto necklaces.
The rarer and more revealing figures include the tiny, 318cm
long carved relief of a human figure with upraised arms. The
little figure has 12 or 13 notches on each edge and groups of
3 to 5 marks in rows on the back. Marshack has noted that
all attempts to identify arithmetical systems only reflect the
researchers’ projections but points out that the significance
of these and other notation systems reveals a consciousness
of periodicity.
With the notable exceptions of the large upright
figure with a feline, probably lion’s face found in the
Hohlenstein cave, the tiny ivory figure with upraised arms
from Lonetal and the figure in the Chauvet Cave with an
upper body resembling a bison but with human torso and legs,
anthropomorphic figures are rare in Aurignacian art.
Fig 8.18 The 28cm long
Hohlenstein Cave lion-man
carved out of a curved piece of
mammoth tusk, reconstructed
from many fragments,(after
catalogue of the exhibition
Die Anfaenge der Kunst vor
30.000 Jahren, edited by H.
Mueller-Beck, 1987).
Fig 8.19 Anthropomorphic figure in half-relief carved into a piece of
mammoth ivory standing only 3.8 cm tall. The edges and reverse side
are marked with rows of notches and pits, which have been identified
as probably calendrical, or at least numerical in nature. Found in the
Geissenkloesterle cave in Lonetal (after exhibition catalog Die Anfaenge
der Kunst).
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49
Hahn, J., 1987, p30.
279