POSSIBLE OR NOT: PARIETAL IN THE SWABIAN JURA?
Authors: C. Meister 
Published: November 2021

The Swabian Alb is known for its caves, in which figural ivory carvings and flutes from the Aurignacian period were found. Parietal art, on the other hand, as known from sites in France, Spain, Romania or Russia, has not been discovered in this region so far. In fact, up to now, there are no documented caves with Pleistocene wall paintings in Germany. Nevertheless, the presence of ochre traces on mobile artefacts indicates the purposeful application of pigments by humans during the Pleistocene in the region, for example stone pebbles or possible wall fragments from Magdalenian occupations bear series of dots (Conard, Floss, 1998). The paint is, however, fixed to portable objects and not to the cave walls. Not at least for these reasons, the question arises how the lack of parietal art in this region can be explained. If we assume from the known finds in Hohle Fels and Geienklsterle, which demonstrate that ochre was known and accessible to humans at least during the Aurignacian and the Gravettian (Conard, Malina, 2019), a lack of raw material as an explanation for the absence of caves with wall paintings in this region can be excluded. Moreover, at that time humans were able to reproduce the environment in the form of highly realistic images of the Ice Age fauna (Conard, Kind, 2017). A large number of ivory carvings from this period are, if one considers the degree of realism, comparable with the paintings in Chauvet, Altamira or Kapova Cave. Other aspects must therefore be taken into account when determining the reasons for the absence of parietal art. On the one hand, it is possible that the limestone rocks of the Swabian Jura are not suitable for a permanent preservation of ochrebased colors. Most of them are active caves, which are still strongly influenced by geological processes, but above all by water and karst. In addition, it is possible that the knowledge of the existence of caves which goes with long periods of use by people from all times may have destroyed existing paintings. However, one would expect to find some remains or at least residues of paint, if existing images were demolished by the permanent use of the caves. Ultimately, and although it cannot be ruled out that people during the Upper Palaeolithic in southern Germany have expressed themselves artistically in other forms, we must assume that there is a research gap. So far, a systematic research and analysis of the cave walls has not yet been carried out in the Swabian Jura. Today, the use of new technologies can be utilized to confirm or deny the current state of research. At the moment we aim to systematically examine the cave walls in the archaeological sites of the World Heritage Site Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura. We consider them an excellent test cluster for the Paleolithic of this region. Three-dimensional recordings of the caves have already been produced. In the next steps we will test these recordings of the known caves with different filters and light conditions for parietal art, but at the same time continue to look for new and up to now unknown caves in the region. Conard, N. J., Floss, H. (1999). Ein bemalter Stein vom Hohle Fels bei Schelklingen und die Frage nach palolithischer Hhlenkunst in Mitteleuropa. Archologisches Korrespondenzblatt, 29 (3), 307316. Conard, N. J., Kind, C.-J. (2017). Als der Mensch die Kunst erfand: Eiszeithhlen auf der Schwbischen Alb. Darmstadt: Theiss Verlag. Conard, N. J., Malina, M. (2019). Weiterfhrende Ausgrabungen im Hohle Fels und neue Einblicke in die Nutzung von Ocker im Jungpalolitikum. Archologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Wrttemberg 2018, 5659.