World’s Earliest Figurative Sculpture - Ice Age Lion Man (40,000 Year-Old Mammoth Ivory Statue)

The Art Newspaper ^ | Saturday 9 Feb 2013 | The Art Newspaper

[DogByte6RER]

[Inyo-Mono]

I seriously doubt that it took that long to carve. Were any of these conservators actually real artists?

[DogByte6RER]

Ping

[AndrewB]

Yeah, I could knock that out in a couple hours with my Dremel Moto-Tool.

[Standing Wolf]

Frisky the wonder tigress just hopped into my lap to let me know she told me so and remind me we're being punished with four more years of President You Didn't Build That because two-leggers don't give kitties enough treats.

Settles that, I guess.

[PAR35]

"although paleontologist Elisabeth Schmid controversially argued that it was female"

Was she blind, or was she a spinster who never saw a male or a picture of one? It's obviously equipped as a male.

[Conservative4Ever]

Beautiful piece of work.

[bunkerhill7]

It`s not a lion- It`s a tiger; look at the stripes. duhhhh.

[AlmaKing]

No, it’s Liger.

[TigersEye]

Pretty nice workmanship. Imagine what it would be worth if it were for sale on the open market.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Ancient Alien theorists claim it is a cave man's representation of a hybrid lion/human created by extraterrestrials through cloning.

[Jack Hydrazine]

[wildbill]

No,no. This is a representation of an ancient alien who was considered a god by the primitive humanoids.

[ApplegateRanch]

Larry Niven is a prophet: that is a Kzinti warrior! Obviously they visited Earth some 40,000 years ago.

[ApplegateRanch]

Were any of these conservators actually real artists?

From the comments at the end of the article. (Another one pointed out that male European cave lions didn't have manes, per various cave paintings.)

5 Feb 13 21:32 CET WULF HEIN, GERMANY
In 2009, I replicated the Lion Man from a tusk with authentic flint tools as an archaeological experiment on behalf of the Ulm Museum, the documentation can be seen here: http://www.echtzeitmedia.de/referenzen.php?id_c=loewe It took me more than 360 hours to carve the statuette, but once I started to work I liked to see it finished. I think the expression "work at daylight" used by the author of the article is mistakable, he just meant modern daily worktime (9 to 5). But I´m shure this artwork was made in more or less one go - as a reindeer hunter living a nomadic life you won´t carry around a statue weighing more than 1 kilogram for years and years. I could imagine that it was made during one winter by one specialized person being capable to do this - not everybody is a Michelangelo. "You carve for us, we pay for you". And I´m definitely shure that this statuette is sexless - where else are the female attributes depicted so impressive and often on venus carvings from the same time?

[SueRae]

Beautiful..almost looks like its smiling.

[Tainan]

[central_va]

It was probably made in a cave factory in what is present day China and imported.....

[arthurus]

This makes it the world’s earliest figurative sculpture.

This makes it the world’s earliest known figurative sculpture.

It is always assumed that the earliest thing found is the earliest that ever was. For individual pieces it doesn't start 'wars" when something a bit earlier is found and confirmed. For larger things, like cities and populations, that assumption of "earliest" and "oldest" becomes a line defended to the death of the generation of archaeologists that made that determination of "earliest."

[SunkenCiv]

And the female Kzin were not sentient, so they were probably chasing Earth kitties!