The Aurignacian of the Swabian Jura and the Age of Ivory

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Elephant Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Paleoltihic research in the Central Europe has its roots in the 1860s with the early excavations in Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany. Since then, every generation has contributed to this tradition. Among the many well-studied Paleolithic periods, the Swabian Aurignacian, the first phase of the Upper Paleolithic dating from ca. 42-35 ka BP, stands out for its exceptional material culture including some of the earliest evidence for three-dimensional personal ornaments, figurative art, therianthropic imagery and musical instruments. Auringnacian hunter-gatherers made these and many other classes of symbolic and practical artifacts from mammoth ivory, and mammoths played an important role in both their daily and spiritual lives. Additionally, carved ivory depictions of mammoths represent a particularly numerous category within Aurignacian iconography. This paper summarizes the ecology of the mammoth steppe and presents the ivory technology of the Aurignacian before turning to the art and music of the Swabian Aurignacian. This review of the archaeological record demonstrates why the Age of Ivory is an entirely fitting term for this exceptional period in human history.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Elephant Archaeology

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51182