First Pleistocene rock art found in central Europe

Abstract

After well over a century of archaeological research in Drachenhöhle, the largest cave bear lair in the Alps, the first Pleistocene rock art in central Europe has been discovered deep in the cave. Two small panels of juvenile finger flutings occur together with cave bear claw marks at the only water source of the area. The site is within a few metres of the cave's large human occupation site, excavated in 1921. It is attributed to the Alpine Palaeolithic or Olschewian, a tradition of montane-adapted people of the Early Upper Palaeolithic of central Europe. The generic phenomena of finger fluting and moonmilk speleothems are discussed to provide a general context for the subject. The cave art is then described and analysed, and the previous claims for “Palaeolithic” age of other central European sites are briefly considered.