The Lion-man: the oldest known statue, carved from mammoth ivory 40,000 years ago

The Löwenmensch, or Lion-man of Hohlenstein-Stadel, is a roughly 31 cm figurine with a human body and the head of a cave lion, carved from mammoth ivory during the Aurignacian period. Carbon dating of its find layer places it between 35,000 and 41,000 years old, making it one of the earliest known works of representational art and the oldest confirmed statue. Discovered in a German cave in 1939 by geologist Otto Völzing, its analysis was derailed by the outbreak of World War II a week later; the fragments sat unstudied in the Museum Ulm for about thirty years until archaeologist Joachim Hahn reassembled more than 200 pieces into a recognizable form.

The piece has been rebuilt repeatedly as new fragments emerged — major restorations in 1987–88 and again in 2012–13, the latter discarding earlier artificial fill and growing the figure from 296 to 311 mm. Interpretation remains contested. Its sex has flipped back and forth as new fragments were added and reinterpreted (male, then possibly a lioness that became a ‘feminist icon,’ then arguably male again), and researchers debate whether it even depicts a lion rather than, say, a bear. A smaller companion figurine at nearby Hohle Fels has led archaeologist Nicholas Conard to argue for a shared Aurignacian belief system, possibly an early form of shamanism, echoed later in French cave art depicting animal-headed humans.

The standout technical detail is the labor involved. Experimental replication with period-appropriate flint tools took an estimated 370-plus hours, including ten hours just to remove the tusk base and difficult cross-grain cutting that required two hands on the tool. That investment implies a degree of craft specialization — a skilled maker plausibly excused from subsistence work — which is really the only thread connecting this piece to a technology readership: it is among the earliest evidence of sophisticated, time-intensive human toolmaking and specialized labor.

(Editor’s note: this is a prehistoric-archaeology article and falls outside the cybersecurity/tech beat; no other listed tags apply honestly.)