Overview
- Nicholas Conard and his team presented the finds on Wednesday after the 2025 excavation at Hohle Fels where they recovered two minute bird figurines carved from mammoth ivory.
- The two figurines weigh about 1.28 and 0.66 grams and measure only a few millimetres across, making them the smallest Ice Age artworks found in the Schwäbische Alb UNESCO region.
- Both objects come from the Aurignacian layer dated to roughly 40,000 years ago and were found about 1.5 metres apart in the same sediment, though it is unclear if they were made by the same artisan.
- Conard and colleagues note the naturalistic poses and tiny scale weaken long‑standing ‘power and aggression’ and hunting‑magic readings and instead suggest functions such as personal talismans or markers of group identity.
- The birds are part of a larger 2025 assemblage that includes more than 100 worked ivory pieces, 58 ivory beads and a fragment of a bone flute, and the new finds are on display at the Urmu in Blaubeuren through April 4, 2027.