Brown Bear importance in European cultures
Jan 14, 2023 21:09:52 GMT -5
Gorilla king, arctozilla, and 1 more like this
Post by Montezuma on Jan 14, 2023 21:09:52 GMT -5
Some years ago, archelogists would celebrate that they had found a statue of 12 inch in Germany which dates back to prehistory, reveal a lion-man.
www.theartnewspaper.com/2017/11/01/prehistoric-lion-man-points-towards-earliest-notions-of-religion-in-new-british-museum-show
It is even said that this might be the oldest evidence of human shamanism or religious featuring in mankind's history dating back to almost 380,000 b.c.
However, some archeologists down here are going to scrutinize and critisize this false intereption of the figure and would tell us it is rather a bear than a lion.
Here is the Article:
www.world-archaeology.com/features/the-bear-necessities/
This figure has been feted as the earliest representation of a god, and a representation of shamanic beliefs, but how secure are these interpretations? Elle Clifford and Paul Bahn investigate the true identity of the Lion Man.
I wouldn't post all it here. I have skipped the portion where they tell that defect when thinking or composing the figure. I would only show the evidence that its a bear, not lion.
In summer 2019, the BBC broadcast a TV series that looked at three major archaeological discoveries of 1939. The second show concerned the Ice Age figurine from south-west Germany known as the ‘Lion Man’. In the programme, the figure was described as the ‘oldest known representational work of art in human history’ and ‘clearly a shamanistic object [representing] the transformation from the human to the animal’ and possibly ‘the very first representation of a god’.
Löwenmensch – lion or bear?
Does the ‘Lion Man’ figurine look like a lion-man, a lion, a bear or a bear-man? The orthodox, official view of this figurine is that it is a lion head on a human body. But Ice Age images are not photographs – they are stylised artistic depictions – and we argue that the body has a far closer resemblance to a bear than to a human. The ‘Lion Man’ is often described as having the knees and ankles of a human, but bear anatomy is so similar to human that it can be difficult to differentiate their bones.
Why should a human have a lion head? We cannot help but wonder if the original reconstructors of the figurine were influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by the image of Sekhmet, the Ancient Egyptian goddess who has the head of a lioness.
Schmid saw a striking similarity between the Hohlenstein-Stadel figure’s head and a small ivory carving of a lion head from Vogelherd, though she did admit some differences such as the position of the ears. To our eyes, the Vogelherd head looks nothing like the Hohlenstein-Stadel example, and nor do further stone lion-heads from Kostenki. In fact, no certain Ice Age depictions of big cats bear any real resemblance to the Hohlenstein- Stadel figure – most of them appear incredibly different. Moreover, in the most recent reconstruction, the snout was completed, and proved to be broader and more pronounced – in our view, making it even more bear-like. In fact, it now reminds us somewhat of the head of Baloo the bear in the Disney cartoon of The Jungle Book.
The ‘Adorant’, and Ice Age ivory from Geissenklösterle, which shows a figure with raised arms and either a generous phallus or an animal tail. (Photo: Don Hitchcock, donmaps.com)
The most characteristic features of a lion, other than its mane (which either Ice Age cave lions did not have, or Ice Age artists never depicted) are its whiskers, its teeth, and its tail. The ‘Lion Man’ has no whiskers (unlike the lion engraving from La Vache and some paintings in Chauvet, which have whisker pads – vibrissal follicles – clearly depicted); and even though the figure is said to be ‘smiling’, there are no fangs showing. Furthermore, it has no tail – unless its tail is in the several hundred remaining bits of ivory still looking for a home on the figure. Of course, the body is claimed to be human and so may not have needed a tail, but it is instructive to consider the ‘Adorant’ – an ivory bas-relief from Geissenklösterle – which has recently been reinterpreted by Nicholas Conard as another ‘lion man’.
This bas-relief is so damaged that its subject is impossible to identify with any confidence. Hahn – the man who launched the ‘Lion Man’ on the world – saw the heavily weathered Geissenklösterle relief as a human figure. He was uncertain whether it had a long phallus or an animal tail. And virtually every other account agreed with him, seeing it as a human signalling, or dancing, or as a ‘worshipper’. Whatever the subject is, its raised arms and possible tail make it completely different from the Hohlenstein-Stadel figure.
A standing brown bear. Is this what the creator of the ‘Lion Man’ had in mind? (Photo: Volodymyr Byrdyak / Dreamstime)
Lions don’t stand up. So why would a lion be depicted standing up? Bears, however, often stand up. Ice Age humans were certainly very familiar with bear anatomy and bear behaviour, so we think it infinitely more plausible that the 31cm figure represents a standing bear. A third figurine that Conard has called a ‘lion man’, a tiny (only 2.5cm high) and incomplete figure from Hohle Fels, is so vague that it could easily be a standing bear rather than a therianthrope (part animal, part human).
There are several persuasive arguments that suggest a connection between bears and humans, and make it more likely that the ‘Lion Man’ figure is that of a bear. Bears are more like humans than any other species, particularly in their skeleton and their footprints. Bears are adept swimmers, climbers, and runners. The gestation period for bears is 6-9 months, and they breastfeed their young in much the same way as human mothers. They have a wide variety of dietary preferences, although cave bears are thought to have been omnivorous, like humans. Bears used shelters and caves to sleep, to give birth, and to hibernate. Bears sleeping for long periods and then waking must surely have intrigued ancient humans. Palaeolithic people removed the skins, claws, and teeth of bears, and the latter were worn as pendants, and possibly prized in some way.
In short, we argue that bears must have been of huge significance to Palaeolithic people because of their anatomy, their habits, and their behaviour. It is therefore far more likely, in our eyes, that the figurine depicts a standing bear.
www.theartnewspaper.com/2017/11/01/prehistoric-lion-man-points-towards-earliest-notions-of-religion-in-new-british-museum-show
It is even said that this might be the oldest evidence of human shamanism or religious featuring in mankind's history dating back to almost 380,000 b.c.
However, some archeologists down here are going to scrutinize and critisize this false intereption of the figure and would tell us it is rather a bear than a lion.
Here is the Article:
www.world-archaeology.com/features/the-bear-necessities/
This figure has been feted as the earliest representation of a god, and a representation of shamanic beliefs, but how secure are these interpretations? Elle Clifford and Paul Bahn investigate the true identity of the Lion Man.
I wouldn't post all it here. I have skipped the portion where they tell that defect when thinking or composing the figure. I would only show the evidence that its a bear, not lion.
In summer 2019, the BBC broadcast a TV series that looked at three major archaeological discoveries of 1939. The second show concerned the Ice Age figurine from south-west Germany known as the ‘Lion Man’. In the programme, the figure was described as the ‘oldest known representational work of art in human history’ and ‘clearly a shamanistic object [representing] the transformation from the human to the animal’ and possibly ‘the very first representation of a god’.
Löwenmensch – lion or bear?
Does the ‘Lion Man’ figurine look like a lion-man, a lion, a bear or a bear-man? The orthodox, official view of this figurine is that it is a lion head on a human body. But Ice Age images are not photographs – they are stylised artistic depictions – and we argue that the body has a far closer resemblance to a bear than to a human. The ‘Lion Man’ is often described as having the knees and ankles of a human, but bear anatomy is so similar to human that it can be difficult to differentiate their bones.
Why should a human have a lion head? We cannot help but wonder if the original reconstructors of the figurine were influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by the image of Sekhmet, the Ancient Egyptian goddess who has the head of a lioness.
Schmid saw a striking similarity between the Hohlenstein-Stadel figure’s head and a small ivory carving of a lion head from Vogelherd, though she did admit some differences such as the position of the ears. To our eyes, the Vogelherd head looks nothing like the Hohlenstein-Stadel example, and nor do further stone lion-heads from Kostenki. In fact, no certain Ice Age depictions of big cats bear any real resemblance to the Hohlenstein- Stadel figure – most of them appear incredibly different. Moreover, in the most recent reconstruction, the snout was completed, and proved to be broader and more pronounced – in our view, making it even more bear-like. In fact, it now reminds us somewhat of the head of Baloo the bear in the Disney cartoon of The Jungle Book.
The ‘Adorant’, and Ice Age ivory from Geissenklösterle, which shows a figure with raised arms and either a generous phallus or an animal tail. (Photo: Don Hitchcock, donmaps.com)
The most characteristic features of a lion, other than its mane (which either Ice Age cave lions did not have, or Ice Age artists never depicted) are its whiskers, its teeth, and its tail. The ‘Lion Man’ has no whiskers (unlike the lion engraving from La Vache and some paintings in Chauvet, which have whisker pads – vibrissal follicles – clearly depicted); and even though the figure is said to be ‘smiling’, there are no fangs showing. Furthermore, it has no tail – unless its tail is in the several hundred remaining bits of ivory still looking for a home on the figure. Of course, the body is claimed to be human and so may not have needed a tail, but it is instructive to consider the ‘Adorant’ – an ivory bas-relief from Geissenklösterle – which has recently been reinterpreted by Nicholas Conard as another ‘lion man’.
This bas-relief is so damaged that its subject is impossible to identify with any confidence. Hahn – the man who launched the ‘Lion Man’ on the world – saw the heavily weathered Geissenklösterle relief as a human figure. He was uncertain whether it had a long phallus or an animal tail. And virtually every other account agreed with him, seeing it as a human signalling, or dancing, or as a ‘worshipper’. Whatever the subject is, its raised arms and possible tail make it completely different from the Hohlenstein-Stadel figure.
A standing brown bear. Is this what the creator of the ‘Lion Man’ had in mind? (Photo: Volodymyr Byrdyak / Dreamstime)
Lions don’t stand up. So why would a lion be depicted standing up? Bears, however, often stand up. Ice Age humans were certainly very familiar with bear anatomy and bear behaviour, so we think it infinitely more plausible that the 31cm figure represents a standing bear. A third figurine that Conard has called a ‘lion man’, a tiny (only 2.5cm high) and incomplete figure from Hohle Fels, is so vague that it could easily be a standing bear rather than a therianthrope (part animal, part human).
There are several persuasive arguments that suggest a connection between bears and humans, and make it more likely that the ‘Lion Man’ figure is that of a bear. Bears are more like humans than any other species, particularly in their skeleton and their footprints. Bears are adept swimmers, climbers, and runners. The gestation period for bears is 6-9 months, and they breastfeed their young in much the same way as human mothers. They have a wide variety of dietary preferences, although cave bears are thought to have been omnivorous, like humans. Bears used shelters and caves to sleep, to give birth, and to hibernate. Bears sleeping for long periods and then waking must surely have intrigued ancient humans. Palaeolithic people removed the skins, claws, and teeth of bears, and the latter were worn as pendants, and possibly prized in some way.
In short, we argue that bears must have been of huge significance to Palaeolithic people because of their anatomy, their habits, and their behaviour. It is therefore far more likely, in our eyes, that the figurine depicts a standing bear.