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| Höhlen Hohlenstein-Stadel | |
|---|---|
| Name | Höhlen Hohlenstein-Stadel |
| Native name | Hohlenstein-Stadel |
| Location | Blaubeuren, Baden-Württemberg, Germany |
| Epoch | Middle Paleolithic to Upper Paleolithic |
| Discovered | 19th century |
| Excavations | 20th century–present |
Höhlen Hohlenstein-Stadel is a karst cave complex in the Swabian Jura near Blaubeuren, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, notable for Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic deposits and for yielding one of the earliest known examples of figurative mobile art. The site is associated with a sequence spanning Neanderthal and Aurignacian occupations, and it has figured prominently in debates involving Johannes Ranke, Otto Völzing, Hermann Vohl, and later researchers from the University of Tübingen and the University of Göttingen. The cave lies within a cluster of Swabian caves including Hohlenstein, Geißenklösterle, Bocksteinhöhle, Hohle Fels, and Sirgenstein that collectively produced key evidence for early Upper Paleolithic technology and art.
The cave sits on the eastern escarpment of the Swabian Jura near the town of Blaubeuren and the Danube valley, within the administrative district of Alb-Donau-Kreis in Baden-Württemberg. It forms part of the Limestone karst system that includes the Karst landscapes studied by researchers from the German Research Foundation and field teams of the Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History. The wider region connects to sites such as Hohle Fels and Geißenklösterle, and has been a focus for projects involving the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of Tübingen paleoanthropology units.
Hohlenstein-Stadel occupies a Jurassic limestone formation of the Swabian Jura whose stratigraphy preserves deposits from the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. The cave sediments contain loessic and fluviatile units correlatable with regional glacials and interglacials recognized in the Marine Isotope Stage framework and in studies by teams at the Senckenberg Research Institute. Fossil fauna recovered include taxa comparable to assemblages from Wechselburg, Kettenturm, and Großbettlingen, and connect to broader paleobiogeographic discussions involving Würm glaciation chronologies and Riss-Würm interglacial sequences. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions have been informed by collaborations with the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics and isotopic laboratories at the University of Cologne.
Initial discoveries date to the 19th century with systematic excavations in the early 20th century by regional antiquarians and museum professionals. Major fieldwork resumed under directors associated with the University of Tübingen and the State Office for Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg, employing stratigraphic excavation, sedimentology, micromorphology, and chronometric techniques such as radiocarbon dating at the Vereinigte Industrielle Kryptonlabor and thermoluminescence assessments in partnership with the University of Oxford. Teams have integrated GIS mapping, 3D photogrammetry developed at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and taphonomic analyses often coordinated with the Natural History Museum, London and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.
Faunal remains at the site include cold-adapted megafauna comparable to assemblages from Krapina, Spy, and La Ferrassie, with identified taxa paralleling those recorded at Vogelherd and Mladeč. Human skeletal fragments attributed to archaic hominins and early modern humans have been analyzed using morphometric approaches from the University of Vienna and ancient DNA protocols at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, informing debates about Neanderthal persistence and early Homo sapiens dispersals. Comparative studies reference collections at the Natural History Museum of Bern and the Senckenberg Museum, and draw on paleoanthropological syntheses by scholars from the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Cambridge.
The lithic assemblages show transitional industries with blade and retouched toolkits resembling those from Aurignacian contexts at Geißenklösterle and Hohle Fels and containing bone points and split-based tools comparable to finds from Grotte du Renne and Kostenki. Organic artifacts include worked ivory and bone objects subjected to microwear analyses by laboratories at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and experimental teams at the University of Leiden. The stratified sequence has been correlated with regional artifact typologies cataloged in databases managed by the German Archaeological Institute and comparative frameworks from the Musée de l'Homme.
Hohlenstein-Stadel gained international prominence for the discovery of the carved ivory figurine commonly referred to in literature as the "Lion-Man", a composite anthropomorphic zoomorphic object paralleling motifs from Vogelherd and echoing iconography discussed in studies involving René de Saint-Périer and Alexander Marshack. Radiocarbon and uranium-series efforts involving the University of Erlangen and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology place the figurine in the early Upper Paleolithic, linking it to debates about symbolic behavior documented at Les Eyzies, Altamira, and Chauvet Cave. Analytical comparisons have involved curators from the British Museum and scientific curators at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum.
Conservation of carved ivory and bone artifacts has involved restoration laboratories at the State Office for Monument Preservation in Baden-Württemberg and conservation scientists associated with the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum. Replicas of the figurine and other finds have been exhibited at institutions including the Museum of Prehistory in Blaubeuren, the Ulmer Museum, and traveling exhibitions organized by the German Historical Museum and the British Museum. Ongoing research collaborations include the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the University of Tübingen, the University of Göttingen, and international partners at the University of Bordeaux and the University of Leiden, integrating paleoenvironmental proxies, chronometric refinement, and digital archiving initiatives led by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Category:Caves of Germany Category:Paleolithic archaeological sites in Germany