Saturday, March 15, 2014

The “Lion Man”: Really a Goddess?

The foot-high “Lion Man,” carved from mammoth ivory 40,000 years ago and hastily excavated from a German cave in 1939 (the archaeologist was in a rush -- WWII was about to begin): could he be a she?  Some think maybe: 

“The prehistorian Elizabeth Schmid assumed that the figure once had breasts and notes that the transition from the thighs to the buttocks indicate a woman's body.

SNIP
“[N]ew findings may finally solve the problem. Hundreds of fragments of ivory remain to be put together. There are many fragments apparently from the genital area, which prompted the excavator to pronounce 'We will find out the sex of the figurine'.
Go HERE for good pictures, but HERE for good information (the first site got the date of discovery wrong). 

Below: Schmid's reconstruction of the Lion Man as she thinks he/she might have looked:  


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