Posted on 08/11/2023 1:09:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The long-lost 'body' of mysterious ice age animal carving was discovered in German cave, but archaeologists aren't sure if it's a cave lion or cave bear.
Archaeologists in Germany have discovered the missing piece of an ice age carving deep in a cave. But the new addition of the ivory carving, originally thought to depict a horse, has actually complicated matters: Now, researchers aren't sure if it portrays a cave lion or a cave bear.
Researchers previously found the head of the 35,000-year-old figurine in the cave Hohle Fels in the mountainous Swabian Jura region in the southern part of the country. The cave, which translates to "hollow rock" in German, is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is well known for its Upper Paleolithic (about 50,000 to 12,000 years ago) artifacts. At the time, the carved head was the first known ivory carving from the cave.
But the newfound "body" part of the carving has thrown the equine interpretation out the window... The carving likely depicts a bear... But the carving also has similar anatomical features to a cave lion, which lived in Eurasia at the time.
After the initial 1999 finding of the head, researchers unearthed a total of five fragments of the ivory figurine, including a small piece of cheek. "It therefore makes sense to look extra carefully for the missing parts of this animal in the years to come," Conard said.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
bear. that’s no lion face.
bear?
Looks like something I would have made. No telling what mine are either.
That’s what I thought.
If you wish to word it that way, yes.
Andrewsarchus (/ ˌ æ n d r uː ˈ s ɑːr k ə s /) is an extinct genus of mammal that lived during the Middle Eocene in China.It contains two species
too old, wrong continent
Who is to say? We haven’t found all the fossils, and there could be another mammal that evolve to have the same characteristics because it was successful. One time it could be successful again.
Bear....
When this 45 rpm single was a radio hit by Johnny Preston some listeners thought it was “running bare.” Funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P615vAhkUlU
Today imagine the furor for “Indian whoops” on this?
That ain’t nothin’ but a hound-dog.
It’s the legendary Black Beast of Aaarrrrggh!
I thought the same thing. But weren’t ground sloths only in the Americas?
Muzzle looks too long for either bear or lion. I think it’s a horse.
If ‘e passed away ‘e’d have ‘ardly bothered to chisel Aaarrrrggh!
In the whole scheme of things, how important is this? Really? It’s a CARVING. Maybe of a fairy tale character.
Thousand of years from now someone will find half of a plaster of Paris hand print some kid made in kindergarten. The whole world will be in a tizzy wondering what it is.
IOW, you’re posting trash in a topic in which you have no interest.
I wonder if any of the “experts” even considered that this sculpture may have just been done by some talentless ice-age kid trying to make a statue of his dog?
My first thought was a bear.
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