Rock Art Research

The recent discovery of the first authentic Pleistocene rock art in central Europe is reported in one of the classical Palaeolithic cave sites investigated for centuries. The Drachenhöhle in Austria has yielded extensive evidence of human habitation in the Würm I/II Interstadial 325 m from its entrance, in total darkness. The cave art occurs a few metres from that site and was produced by a child or children, most probably 39±5 ka ago. It can safely be attributed to people of Olschewian or Alpine Palaeolithic tool traditions, which seem to be by Neanderthaloid and intermediate Homo sapiens hominins. These appear to have harvested hibernating cave bears in their lairs. The Drachenhöhle is the largest such hibernation den known in the Alps, having contained the remains of an estimated 30 000 cave bears.