The UNESCO committee has named six caves in the Swabian Jura as World Heritage Sites: Krakau, Vogelherd, Bockstein, Hohlenstein-Stadel, Sirgenstein, Geißenklösterle and Hohle Fels.
Scientists from the University of Tübingen have been researching the caves of the Ach- and Lone valley since the beginning of the 20th century. Among the finds is some of the oldest evidence for art and music: the famous animal figurines from Vogelherd, the Venus from Hohle Fels and a bone flute were crafted more than 40,000 years ago during the last ice age. They constitute a unique insight into human history.
"We are thrilled about these news: this award honors the decade-long archaeological and palaeontological research done at the University of Tübingen", says principal Professor Bernd Engler. "Once again, it displays the fact that Tübingen is doing remarkable scientific work with international importance."
This award is of outstanding merit, says Nicolas J. Conard, professor at Tübingen for Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology. He oversees the field work in the Swabian Jura since 1996. "The finds from the ice age caves display thee first modern humans' extraordinary creativity. Scientists from Tübingen have analysed these finds and made them accessible for the public. It is an important to us that this region has now been named a World Heritage Site."
"A university and its museum being a central part of a UNESCO-Heritage entry, that's unique in the world", says Professor Ernst Seidl, director of the MUT museum at the university of Tübingen.
Most of the original finds are displayed at the Museum Alte Kulturen at the Hohentübingen castle; among them many ivory statuettes from Vogelherd and the newest of the finds, a bone flute fragment.
