History Forum / General / Archaeology / August 2007

The opening paragraphs of an interesting article in Archaeology,
September/October, 2007. An archaeologist's thesis hanging on the
quirks of radio carbon dating from an era known for its wildly
fluctuating  levels of C-14 in the atmosphere. His work is further
complicated by the fact that he working with material excavated in the
1930s, stored during WWII, and only examined in the 1960s.

The full article has an expanded outline of the material found and
Conard's interpetation of them.

The Dawn of Art     Volume 60 Number 5, September/October 2007
by Andrew Curry

A controversial scholar claims modern culture was born in the
foothills of the Alps.
[image]     Standing about 11 inches tall, a carving known as the "Lion
Man" is the oldest known depiction of a human with animal features. It
is one of dozens of finely crafted Paleolithic figurines discovered in
the caves of southern Germany. (Courtesy Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany,
photograph Kenneth Garrett)

[image]

The search for the origins of civilization has taken archaeologists to
less pleasant places than Swabia. Nestled between France, Switzerland,
and Bavaria, the German region is the heart of Baden-Wuerttemburg, a
state that markets itself as a center for creativity and innovation.
It's no idle boast. Hundreds of small high-tech firms dot the region.
Giants such as Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Zeiss are all based in the
gleaming, modern state capital, Stuttgart.

Archaeologist Joachim Hahn discovered this flute, right, carved from
swan bone in the Paleolithic layers of Geißenklösterle. (University of
Tübingen)

American archaeologist Nicholas Conard is convinced Swabia's tradition
of innovation goes back a long way: 40,000 years, give or take a few
thousand. Excavating in caves east of Tübingen, a medieval town 20
miles south of Stuttgart, Conard has unearthed expertly carved
figurines and the oldest musical instruments in the world. The finds
are among the earliest art ever discovered, and they're extremely
sophisticated in terms of craftsmanship, suggesting a surprising
degree of cultural complexity.

Conard claims his finds are evidence of an intense flowering of art
and culture that began in southwestern Germany more than 35,000 years
ago. Although older art and decorations have been found--including
geometric patterns on stones and personal ornaments in South Africa,
as well as drilled shell beads on the shores of the Mediterranean--the
figurines and instruments in Conard's caves are symbolic
representations that reflect a state of mind with which modern humans
can easily identify. "Figurative art began in Swabia, music began in
Swabia," he says. "It couldn't have developed elsewhere, because the
dates are just later elsewhere."

If he's right, it could change the way we look at the development of
humanity. But Conard's conclusions have been controversial from the
start, and he's still fighting an uphill battle to convince colleagues
that the evidence backs him up.

Andrew Curry is a freelance writer in Berlin, Germany, and a frequent
contributor to ARCHAEOLOGY.

http://www.archaeology.org/0709/abstracts/iceage.html