Francesco d'Errico, Serge David, Hélène Coqueugniot, Christian Meister, Ewa Dutkiewicz, Romain Pigeaud, Luca Sitzia, Didier Cailhol, Mathieu Bosq, Christophe Griggo, Jehanne Affolter, Alain Queffelec, Luc Doyon
The earliest European carvings, made of mammoth ivory, depict animals, humans, and anthropomorphs. They are found at Early Aurignacian sites of the Swabian Jura in Germany. Despite the wide geographical spread of the Aurignacian across Europe, these carvings have no contemporaneous counterparts. Here, we document a small, intriguing object, that sheds light on this uniqueness. Found at the Grotte des Gorges (Jura, France), in a layer sandwiched between Aurignacian contexts and dated to c. 36.2 ka, the object bears traces of anthropogenic modifications indicating intentional carving...
August 9, 2023: Scientific Reports