ドイツ・ホーレフェルス洞窟（Hohle Fels Cave）
Two painted limestone cobbles with parallel lines of red dots.
ドイツのテュービンゲン大学の研究チームがドイツ南部のホーレフェルス洞窟（Hohle Fels）の1万5000年前の地層において石灰石に描かれた絵画を発見。大学博物館で10日から一般公開を開始した。
研究チームは洞窟で色が付いた石灰石4個を発見。このうち3個には2列の赤い点線が描かれている。残る1個は平たく、落下した壁画の可能性がある。顔料に使ったとみられる黄土や赤鉄鉱も出土している。
旧石器時代の壁画に特徴的な動物ではなく、抽象的な点線が描かれていることについて、15000年前の抽象画の可能性もあり、研究チームは当時の住民にとって重要な意味があったはずだという。
この洞窟ではかつて「ホーレフェルスのビーナス」と呼ばれる、胸のふくらみなど性的特徴が極端に誇張された高さ5cmの女性小立像で3万5,000年以上前にマンモスの牙を彫って作られているものも出土している。
Ice Age paintings from the Swabian Jura,Southwestern Germany document the earliest painting tradition in Central Europe
Recent excavations conducted by the University of Tübingen at Hohle Fels Cave in the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany have produced new evidence for the earliest painting tradition in Central Europe about 15,000 years ago. This period is referred to as the Magdalenian and is named after the site of La Madeleine in France.
Three of the new painting show double rows of red dots on limestone cobbles, while one painted fragment may originate from the wall of the cave. These are the first examples of painted rocks recovered in Germany since 1998 when Prof. Nicholas Conard’s team working at Hohle Fels discovered a single painted rock. In addition to the painted rocks, finds of ochre and hematite that were used to make pigments have also been recovered.
Although Ice Age cave paintings are well documented in western Europe, particularly in France and Spain, wall paintings are unknown in central Europe. The lack of wall paintings at Hohle Fels in particular as well as in Central Europe as a whole may in part be a reflection of the harsh climate of the region that continually led to the erosion and damage to the walls of the caves. The paintings from Hohle Fels Cave in the Ach Valley near Schelklingen document the oldest tradition of painting in central Europe.
The painted limestone cobbles from Hohle Fels all show very similar motifs, and these rows of painted red dots certainly must have had a particular meaning to the inhabitants of the region. This being said, unlike the many examples of painting of animals in the Paleolithic art, these abstract depictions remain difficult to interpret.
The new finds from Hohle Fels form the centerpiece of a special exhibit in the Museum of Schloss Hohentübigen entitled: Bemalte Steine – das Ende der Eiszeitkunst auf der Schwäbischen Alb (Painted rocks: The end of the Ice Age art of the Swabian Jura). The exhibit runs from November 10, 2011 – January 29, 2011.
The exhibit presents the new finds from Hohle Fels as well as important comparative finds from Hohle Fels and other excavations of the University of Tübingen.
参考記事：
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2009/05/35000-year-old-female-figurine-from.html
最古の女性像
「ホーレフェルスのビーナス」は、性的特徴が異様なまでに誇張された高さ5cmの女性小立像で3万5,000年以上前にマンモスの牙を彫って作られた。このビーナス像は、2008年9月に、ドイツ南西部のホーレフェルス洞窟で、層序のはっきりした厚いオーリニャック堆積層の底部から、6つの断片に分かれた形で発見された。今回のビーナスは、グラベット文化に属する有名な「ビーナス像群」よりも5,000年古く、知られているかぎりでは最古の造形芸術品と考えられる。
35,000-year old female figurine from Hohle Fels Cave
This is said to be the oldest currently known depiction of the human form.
The new figurine from Hohle Fels radically changes our view of the origins of Palaeolithic art. Before this discovery, animals and therianthropic imagery dominated the two dozen figurines from the Swabian Aurignacian. Female imagery was entirely unknown2, 15. With this discovery, the widespread notion that three-dimensional female depictions developed in the Gravettian can be rejected
A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany
http://www.natureasia.com/japan/nature/updates/index.php?i=72161
