Geißenklösterle

Geißenklösterle is a site in the Ach valley near Blaubeuren, just 3 km northeast of Hohle Fels. The westfacing cave is located 60 m above today's valley floor. 

Following the discovery of the cave by Reiner Blumentritt in 1958 first brief investigations were carried out by Gustav Riek. In 1973, Eberhard Wagner carried out excavations to evaluate the condition of the site. The following year, Joachim Hahn took over the local direction of the excavations. From 1974 to 1983 and from 1986 to 1991, Hahn led the excavations at Geißenklösterle and shaped the research of the site. Between 2000 and 2002 excavations were continued under the direction of Nicholas J. Conard. The focus of the work was on investigating the site formation processes and the transition from the Middle Palaeolithic to the early Aurignacian. This period is particularly important for our understanding of the disappearance of Neanderthals and the dispersal of early anatomically modern humans in Europe.

Geißenklösterle comprises rich stratigraphic deposits. Below layers with finds from the Middle Ages, the Iron Age and the Mesolithic, the excavations revealed an exceptionally complete sequence of Upper Palaeolithic layers, comprising a short occupation during the Magdalenian, as well as several important periods of occupation during the Gravettian and Aurignacian. At the base of the stratigraphy, remains from when Neanderthals used the cave were found. The cave is especially important for the understanding of the Aurignacian.

Geißenklösterle is one of four sites in the Swabian Jura that yielded the world’s oldest evidence of figurative art and music. Among these finds are three ivory figurines representing a mammoth, a bison and a bear, the half-relief of an anthropomorphic creature as well as the remains of two flutes made from bird bones and a flute carved from ivory. Thus, together with the sites of Hohle Fels, Sirgenstein, Vogelherd, Hohlenstein-Stadel and Bocksteinhöhle, Geißenklösterle was inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017. Other outstanding finds include a wide range of ornaments made of ivory and perforated animal teeth, a perforated baton made of ivory and a tricolored painted limestone.

An important category of finds for the reconstruction of human life in the Ice Age are the faunal remains analysed by Susanne Münzel. Remains of mammoth, reindeer, wild horse, ibex, wooly rhinoceros, hare and fox as well as fish and bird were found at Geißenklösterle. Bones from cave bears play a special role. They are represented in almost all layers, as the bears used the cave for hibernation.