Known As The Lion Man, One Small 40,000-Year-Old Statuette Found Inside A German Cave Is The Earliest Evidence Of Religious Belief In The World
Discovered inside a cave in southern Germany in 1939, an ivory statuette depicting a human and a lion was long considered the earliest evidence of religious belief in the world.
The artifact is 12 inches tall and was carved from the tusk of a mammoth about 40,000 years ago, originating long before writing was invented.
According to the British Museum, the statuette would have been difficult to make. When researchers conducted an experiment to try to recreate the artwork with tools from the ice age, such as pieces of flint, they found it would have taken more than 400 hours to finish it.
With so much time spent on a sculpture that did not aid in their physical survival, especially for a small community living in harsh conditions during the ice age, this led the researchers to believe the figurine was likely used for ceremonial purposes.
Patterns of wear and tear on the body of the statuette show that it was once passed around from person to person. That makes it one of the oldest known evidence of religious belief and one of the oldest representations of a physical being that does not exist in the real world.
The Lion Man was found in Stadel Cave. The cave faces north and does not receive any sun, which makes it a very cold environment. There is less debris from ancient human activities in Stadel Cave than at other sites.
Lion Man was tucked in a dark inner chamber. The only other items nearby were a collection of reindeer antlers and a few perforated teeth from arctic foxes.
The characteristics of the cave suggest that it was used as a place for people to gather around a fire and perform rituals based on a set of shared beliefs that were represented through the sculpture of the Lion Man.
Lion Man partially depicts a prehistoric lion that is now extinct. The ancient lion was about 12 inches taller than a modern African lion and did not possess a mane. It is impossible to know the whole story of the Lion Man.
RuZi – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
Perhaps he was a deity, part of a creation myth, or a human who underwent a transformation after communicating with the spirits.
The hybrid creature may have helped people reach an acceptance of their place in nature or given them some way to work toward transcending it.
The sculpture was part of an exhibition at the British Museum called Living with gods: peoples, places, and worlds beyond. It ran from November 2017 to April 2018.
For a while, Lion Man was thought of as the oldest depiction of a half-human, half-animal figure. However, newly dated rock art in an Indonesian cave shows an even older hybrid creature from around 51,200 years ago.
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