40,000-year-old bird figurines found in German cave

Archaeologists have discovered two remarkably detailed bird figurines carved from mammoth ivory approximately 40,000 years ago in the Hohle Fels cave in southwestern Germany. The thumbnailsize carvings, unearthed during the 2025 excavation season, are among the smallest and most intricate Ice Age artworks ever found, offering new insights into the artistic capabilities of early modern humans in Europe.

A team from the University of Tübingen found the two figurines lying about 1.5 meters apart in the cave's lower archaeological layers, which are associated with the Aurignacian culture. This period, dating from roughly 43,000 to 28,000 years ago, marks the presence of early Homo sapiens in the region following the disappearance of Neanderthals. One figurine depicts a bird in a resting or brooding posture, while the other shows a bird with outstretched wings, though its left wing is broken. The carvings are exceptionally small, with the winged figure measuring just two centimeters long and both together weighing only two grams.

Nicholas Conard, an archaeologist at the University of Tübingen and director of the excavations, stated that the figurines demonstrate that the earliest...