The Brillenhöhle (german: Brillenhöhle, literally ''spectacles cave'') is a cave ruin, located west of

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

on the Swabian Alb in south-western Germany, where archaeological excavations have documented human habitation since as early as 30,000 years ago. Excavated by Gustav Riek from 1955 to 1963, the cave's

Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...

layers contain a sequence of Aurignacian,

Gravettian The Gravettian was an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years BP. It is archaeologically the last European culture many consider unified, and had mostly disappeared by ...

and Magdalenian artifacts. In 1956 the first human fossils were discovered within a fireplace in the center of the cave, a discovery which made important contributions to the foundational understanding of the Magdalenian culture of central Europe.

Site

Brillenhöhle is located in the Ach Valley, lying about above the Ach River below. The site derives its name from the two holes in the cave's ceiling, which together resemble a pair of spectacles. The cave is essentially a single room with a diameter of , an average height of and a length of . A small side cave of width and height, called ''Vespershöhle'' runs from the entrance around towards the east. As the site is in an advanced state of decay, it has been designated a cave ruin. However, the openings in the roof allow smoke to escape and sufficient light to enter, while still being small enough to keep the cave mostly dry during periods of rainfall. Recurrent prehistoric human occupation at the site indicates that conditions at the cave were tolerable enough to provide reasonable protection from the elements. In the north-western corner, a chimney-like shape tapers towards a wide gap in the ceiling, a gap which allowed a large quantity of reddish-brown clay to ooze into the cave's interior during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

Stratigraphy

Explorations by discoverer Robert Rudolf Schmidt and historians Peter Goessler and Albert Kley did not yield notable results.

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in three ...

historian Gustav Riek eventually took up systematic work in September 1955. Over the course of eleven excavation sessions that lasted until October 1963, he unearthed eleven sediment profiles. Riek recognized and determined a total of 22 distinct layers, of which only 3 were considered post-Pleistocene in origin. The work yielded numerous stone and bone tools, ivory jewelry, human skeletal remains and pottery shards. During the early 1990s,

archaeologist Anne Scheer succeeded in conclusively demonstrating that the occupations of Brillenhöhle,

Hohle Fels The ''Hohle Fels'' () (also ''Hohlefels'', ''Hohler Fels'', German for "hollow rock") is a cave in the Swabian Jura of Germany that has yielded a number of important archaeological finds dating from the Upper Paleolithic. Artifacts found in the ...

and Geissenklösterle during the

were interrelated and contemporaneous in nature, by refitting

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

artifacts found in the three site's

sediment horizons.

Discoveries

It is assumed that the cave was not frequently inhabited by humans during the Aurignacian since only two broken bone tools were found in layer XIV.

finds originate in layer VII. In addition to 52 tools made of animal bones,

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...

antler and

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals i ...

, more than 1000 stone tools were unearthed, including blades, gouges and scrapers. More than 80 artifacts were identified as jewelry, including numerous

beads, beaded bones, perforated animal teeth and notched bone rods. Most discoveries were made in the Magdalenian strata, coming primarily from layers VI to IV. Stone tools, fireplaces, smashed bones and more than 1100 stone tools were found. Notable artifacts include harpoons of ivory or reindeer antler with barbed hooks on one or both sides. Animal bones include

wild horse The wild horse (''Equus ferus'') is a species of the genus ''Equus'', which includes as subspecies the modern domesticated horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') as well as the endangered Przewalski's horse (''Equus ferus przewalskii''). The Europea ...

and

cave bear The cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'') is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. Both the word "cave" and the scientific name ' ...

. Smashed human skull fragments with traces of exposure to fire were repeatedly regarded as evidence of cannibalism, but according to Gustav Riek, the lack of powdered ochre is evidence that excludes head burials. Nevertheless, the theory of cannibalism has not entirely been repudiated. The skeletal remains of the central fireplace in the Magdalenian-layer IV had been arranged in deliberate burial fashion.

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

: In the heavily mixed upper layers II and I, Neolithic as well as Early and Late Bronze Age ceramic vascular and wall shards were found. Some layers were permanently destroyed during the various excavations. Nonetheless, the cave still holds potential value for future archaeologists, since some areas formerly deemed "unproductive" have still remained untouched. In order to preserve these undocumented areas, the cave was protected by an armored, latticed gate, to prevent access but enable inspection.Gustav Riek: ''Das Paläolithikum der Brillenhöhle bei Blaubeuren (Schwäbische Alb), Teil I.'' Verlag Müller & Gräff, Stuttgart 1973. . * Carbon Dated fossils: Source:

Archaeogenetics

The remains of at least four distinct individuals, all associated with the Magdalenian, were discovered at Brillenhöhle. In 2016, researchers successfully extracted the DNA from the

parietal bone The parietal bones () are two bones in the skull which, when joined at a fibrous joint, form the sides and roof of the cranium. In humans, each bone is roughly quadrilateral in form, and has two surfaces, four borders, and four angles. It is nam ...

of one of the individuals. The bone fragment was directly dated to around 15,120-14,440 BP. The individual in question was found to belong to mtDNA Haplogroup U8a. The Brillenhöhle individual was found to be genetically closest to other ancient samples from the Magdalenian, showing closest genetic affinity for other samples taken from the Swabian Jura, such as

, while also showing genetic affinity for another Magdalenian sample, taken from the

Red Lady of El Mirón The Red Lady of El Mirón is a skeleton belonging to a woman of Upper Paleolithic (Magdalenian) found at El Mirón Cave in eastern Cantabria, Spain. Background The discovery was published in 2015 by a team of archaeologists from Universidad de Bur ...

, as well as a sample from the Aurignacian, ''GoyetQ116-1'', taken from

Goyet Caves The Goyet Caves (french: Grottes de Goyet) are a series of connected caves located in Wallonia in a limestone cliff about 15 m (50 ft) above the river Samson near the village of Mozet in the Gesves municipality of the Namur province, Belgium. The ...

References

Bibliography

* Nicholas J. Conard, Michael Bolus, Ewa Dutkiewicz, Sibylle Wolf: ''Eiszeitarchäologie auf der Schwäbischen Alb'' Kerns Verlag, Tübingen 2015, , S. 153–156. * Luc Moreau: ''Geißenklösterle. Das Gravettien der Schwäbischen Alb im europäischen Kontext.'' Kerns Verlag, Tübingen 2009, , Kapitel 3: ''Das Gravettien der Brillenhöhle'' S. 135-176. * Hans Binder, Herbert Jantschke: ''Höhlenführer Schwäbische Alb.'' DRW-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2003, , S. 143. * Gustav Riek: ''Das Paläolithikum der Brillenhöhle bei Blaubeuren (Schwäbische Alb), Teil I.'' Verlag Müller & Gräff, Stuttgart 1973. . * Gustav Riek: ''Das Paläolithikum der Brillenhöhle bei Blaubeuren (Schwäbische Alb), Teil II, Die jungpleistozänen Tierknochenfunde aus der Brillenhöhle'' Verlag Müller & Gräff, Stuttgart 1973. .

External links

Entry in the German Encyclopedia

ANALECTA PRAEHISTORICA LEIDENSIA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brillenhöhle Archaeological sites in Germany Landforms of Baden-Württemberg Caves of Germany Upper Paleolithic sites in Europe