Two small bird figurines carved from ivory have been discovered at Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany, adding to the site’s collection of figurative art dating to around 40,000 years ago.
The finds were made by archaeologists in 2025. Both carvings resemble relatives of the pheasant called ptarmigans, according to reporting by Nature Archaeology. One bird is shown with its wings extended, while the other appears to be resting.
Hohle Fels has produced some of the world’s oldest known figurative artworks. The newly reported objects are being considered not only as individual carvings, but also as evidence of the ways ancient humans represented animals and expressed behavior through art.
The figurines were found in a cave environment that remains markedly cooler than the surrounding landscape. Nature Archaeology described temperatures inside Hohle Fels at roughly 9 or 10 degrees Celsius during a June heatwave in Europe, when conditions outside reached 35 degrees Celsius in the shade.
Nicholas Conard, the excavation leader, discusses the discoveries in the reporting and raises a broader question: whether artistic practices such as carving and figurative representation played a role in the success of ancient human populations. The figurines may offer clues to that question, but the available reports present this as an issue for interpretation rather than a settled conclusion.
Alexander Janas, an archaeologist at the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment in Tübingen, is also associated with the work. The discovery adds two more examples to the artistic record from Hohle Fels while leaving open what specific purposes the carvings served and how their makers understood them.
