Personal Ornaments of the Swabian Aurignacian

Abstract

In the caves of the Swabian Jura (Southwest Germany) excavators found numerous mammoth ivory remains, which date to the Aurignacian. Among them were at least 600 beads. These beads come from the well stratified layers of Hohle Fels cave in the Ach Valley, while others derive from the backdirt in front of the Vogelherd cave in the Lone Valley, which was completely emptied during the excavation 1931. We give an overview about the variety of forms of the personal ornaments, although the double perforated bead dominates the inventories. This special bead form gives evidence of identity formation of the Aurignacian people.