Geißenklösterle is a cave near Blaubeuren

Blaubeuren

Blaubeuren is a town in the district of Alb-Donau near Ulm in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.It has 11.963 inhabitants as of December 2007.-Coat of arms:...

, Swabian Alb

Swabian Alb

The Swabian Alps or Swabian Jura is a low mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending 220 km from southwest to northeast and 40 to 70 km in width. It is named after the region of Swabia....

, Southern Germany

Southern Germany

The term Southern Germany is used to describe a region in the south of Germany. There is no specific boundary to the region, but it usually includes all of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, and the southern part of Hesse...

. It is an important site for the European Upper Paleolithic

Upper Paleolithic

The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity and before the advent of...

.

Overview

It is one of a number of caves where early modern humans in the Aurignacian

Aurignacian

The Aurignacian culture is an archaeological culture of the Upper Palaeolithic, located in Europe and southwest Asia. It lasted broadly within the period from ca. 45,000 to 35,000 years ago in terms of conventional radiocarbon dating, or between ca. 47,000 and 41,000 years ago in terms of the most...

, between 40,000 and 30,000 years ago left traces of early artwork

Prehistoric art

In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, prehistorical cultures beginning somewhere in very late geological history, and generally continuing until that culture either develops writing or other methods of record-keeping, or it makes significant contact with another...

, including the Vogelherd, Brillenhöhle, Große Grotte, Hohle Fels

Hohle Fels

The Hohle Fels is a cave in the Swabian Alb of Germany that has yielded a number of important archaeological finds dating to the Upper Paleolithic. Artifacts found in the cave represent some of the earliest examples of prehistoric art and musical instruments ever discovered...

 and Hohlenstein-Stadel

Hohlenstein-Stadel

Hohlenstein-Stadel is a cave located at N 48° 32' 57.57" and E 10° 10' 20.75" in the Hohlenstein cliff at the southern rim of the Lonetal in Swabian Alb, Germany. While first excavations were started after the second half of the 19th century, it was not until 1969 that the significance of some of...

 caves.

Geißenklösterle was first archaeologically explored in 1963. Systematic excavations began in 1973, from 1974 to 2002 sponsored by the land of Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...

. A 1983 monographical publication summarized the results up to that time.

The cave has six levels belonging to the Aurignacian

Aurignacian

The Aurignacian culture is an archaeological culture of the Upper Palaeolithic, located in Europe and southwest Asia. It lasted broadly within the period from ca. 45,000 to 35,000 years ago in terms of conventional radiocarbon dating, or between ca. 47,000 and 41,000 years ago in terms of the most...

 and seven levels of the Gravettian

Gravettian

thumb|right|Burins to the Gravettian culture.The Gravettian toolmaking culture was a specific archaeological industry of the European Upper Palaeolithic era prevalent before the last glacial epoch. It is named after the type site of La Gravette in the Dordogne region of France where its...

, besides earlier levels belonging to the Middle Paleolithic

Middle Paleolithic

The Middle Paleolithic is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology. The Middle Paleolithic and the Middle Stone Age...

 and later ones spanning the Magdalenian

Magdalenian

The Magdalenian , refers to one of the later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic in western Europe, dating from around 17,000 BP to 9,000 BP...

 down to the Middle Ages.

The Aurignacian levels date to between 36,000 and 32,000 years ago, and yielded stone tools, artefacts made from antlers, bones and ivory. Among the most notable items are a sculpture of a flute

Paleolithic flutes

A number of flutes dating to the European Upper Paleolithic have been discovered. The undisputed claims are all products of the Aurignacian archaeological culture, beginning about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago, and have been found in the Swabian Alb region of Germany. These flutes represent the...

s of bird bone and mammoth ivory, the oldest known musical instruments

Prehistoric music

Prehistoric music is a term in the history of music for all music produced in preliterate cultures , beginning somewhere in very late geological history...

.

Literature

• Nicolas Conard, Maria Malina: Abschließende Ausgrabungen im Geißenklösterle bei Blaubeuren, Alb-Donau-Kreis. in: Arch. Ausgr. Bad.-Württ. Theiss, Stuttgart 2001, 17-21.
• J. Hahn: Die Geißenklösterle-Höhle im Achtal bei Blaubeuren. in: Forsch. u. Ber. Vor- u. Frühgesch. Bad.-Württ. Theiss, Stuttgart 21,1988,262. ISBN 3-8062-0794-1

External links

• http://www.urgeschichte.uni-tuebingen.de/index.php?id=49
• http://www.showcaves.com/german/explain/Archaeology/Menschendarstellung.html