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Wired Science News for Your Neurons

Oldest Known Sculpture Is Busty Clue to Brain Boom

  • By Brandon Keim Email Author
  • May 13, 2009  | 
  • 2:29 pm  | 
  • Categories: Anthropology, Brains and Behavior

firstfigurine

From a cave in southwestern Germany, archaeologists have unearthed the oldest known piece of figurative art. More than an ancient artistic impulse, it may signify a profound change in modern human brains.

Carved from ivory and depicting a woman with exaggerated sexual features, the pinkie-sized sculpture is 36,000 years old, or about 5,000 years older than the next-earliest piece of figurative art.

Though 77,000-year-old carvings have been found in South Africa, they consist of cross-hatched lines. Such abstractions are relatively simple compared to representational art, which requires high levels of cognition to both conceive and make.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the rise of figurine-carving modern human cultures in Europe coincided with the decline of Neanderthals. Some anthropologists suspect that humans of the era experienced a leap in mental abilities, fueled by random genetic mutation or the neurological nourishment of language and culture.

“The advent of fully representational, ‘figurative’ art seems at present to be a European phenomenon, without any documented parallels in Africa or elsewhere earlier than about 30,000 years ago,” writes University of Cambridge archaeologist Paul Mellars in a commentary accompanying the discovery, published Wednesday in Nature.

“How far this ‘symbolic explosion’ associated with the origins and dispersal of our species reflects a major, mutation-driven reorganization in the cognitive capacities of the human brain — perhaps associated with a similar leap forward in the complexity of language — remains a fascinating and contentious issue,” he wrote.

See Also:

  • Neanderthals Not Dumb, but Made Dull Gadgets
  • Saharan Snapshot of Stone Age Life
  • Evidence of Modern Smarts in Stone Age Superglue

Citations: “A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany.” By Nicholas J. Conard. Nature, Vol. 459 No. 7244, May 14, 2009.

“Origins of the female image.” By Paul Mellars. Nature, Vol. 459 No. 7244, May 14, 2009.

Tags: Art, Culture, Evolution, neanderthals, stone age
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  • Posted by: MajorVariola | 05/13/09 | 3:40 pm

    The oldest art is porn. Sweet.

  • Posted by: AJ | 05/13/09 | 3:55 pm

    Apparently, Rule #34 is older than the internet. Who knew?

  • Posted by: ewelch | 05/13/09 | 5:29 pm

    Lord, I hope 50,000 years from now that anthropologists don’t get their hands on a cache of art from Joel Peter-Witkin, Andres Serrano, Robert Mappelthorp and Andy Warhol. What would they possibly make of it?

  • Posted by: rizien | 05/13/09 | 6:48 pm

    About the leap in mental ability, some people (Namely Terrance McKenna) theorize that it’s due to nomadic people following herds, and eating Mushrooms, of the Psilocybe Cubensis (psychedelic) variety.

    I’m inclined to agree.

  • Posted by: NoTimeForRecess | 05/14/09 | 2:35 am

    What a strange sculpture. Could maybe the weird image, to us, be marked down as evolution? Then again, there are girls like that around the world now, mostly seen in the ‘Big Momma’s House’ series…

    NoTimeForRecess . com

  • Posted by: philosopher | 05/14/09 | 5:44 am

    this sculpture is very young. on the website http://www.hathorstone-of-dendera.com you can see a much older sulpture, a figurestone from the temple of dendera.

  • Posted by: rolivazzo | 05/14/09 | 7:50 am

    For more on this (and much more), do not miss this eye-opening series that was aired on BBC in the UK, 3 or 4 years ago: http://www.pbs.org/howartmadetheworld/

    Recommended to all art and science lovers. Enjoy.

  • Posted by: guzide | 05/14/09 | 8:33 am

    this article is very interesting and wonderful informations. Thanks for the informations they are too helpful for this subject… http://www.kardeslerrentacar.com

  • Posted by: photoprinter | 05/14/09 | 10:46 am

    To me, it looks kinda like a cleaned chicken, or turkey. Maybe this guy was just wanting more white meat. Lets call it “The Butterball Effect.”

  • Posted by: mudpuppy000 | 05/14/09 | 11:16 am

    Yay boobies!

  • Posted by: naughtygirl | 05/14/09 | 11:40 am

    ….More than an ancient artistic impulse, it may signify a profound change in modern human brains….. ——- ugh, like ugh, women have boobs and we should make art.

    ….Carved from ivory and depicting a woman with exaggerated sexual features…. ——- and a teeny tiny head!

    … fueled by random genetic mutation or the neurological nourishment of language and culture, ——- or alien intervention.

    …perhaps associated with a similar leap forward in the complexity of language…. ——- “uggh, bigg boobs, umm, ugh.”

    I LOVE it and I had fun too. Thank you Brandon:)

  • Posted by: jenjen | 05/14/09 | 12:30 pm

    I’ve always felt that early “venus” type figurines were porn, and not highfalutin spiritual fertility goddesses. They were things men made when they were out on the trails, on hunting trips, away from the comforts. They were made for caressing, not worshipping. Fat probably did not represent laziness to them - the lazy would starve. Fat would have represented success and in an age without modern upholstery, big pillowy boobs would probably have seemed like heaven.

  • Posted by: mannmade | 05/14/09 | 4:12 pm

    Looking at the sculptures, one can’t help but wonder how complex and amazing the human brain is, whatever which era we are talking about.

    Extenze Works

    Read about Extenze

  • Posted by: squatch | 05/14/09 | 4:50 pm

    Out of curiosity. Dating is usually done on the object itself. How do they/we know that the actual carving took place 36000 yrs ago and not just more recent on a piece of old ivory?

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