German archaeologists have found an ancient fragment of ivory belonging to a 40,000-year-old animal figurine.
Both pieces were found in the Vogelherd Cave in southwestern Germany, where a number of works of art dating to the Ice Age have been discovered.
The mammoth ivory figurine depicting a lion was found during excavations in 1931. The new fragment discovered by archaeologists from the University of Tubingen makes up one side of the figurine's head.
"The figurine depicts a lion," said Professor Nicholas Conard of Tubingen University's Institute of Prehistory and Medieval Archaeology, and the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment Tubingen.
"It is one of the most famous Ice Age works of art, and until now, we thought it was a relief, unique among these finds dating to the dawn of figurative art. The reconstructed figurine clearly is a three dimensional sculpture," Conard said.
The new fragment was discovered when the archaeologists revisited the work of their predecessors from the 1930s.
"We have been carrying out renewed excavations and analysis at Vogelherd Cave for nearly ten years," said Conard.
"The site has yielded a wealth of objects that illuminate the development of early symbolic artifacts dating to the period when modern humans arrived in Europe and displaced the indigenous Neanderthals," he said.
Vogelherd is one of four caves in the region where the world's earliest figurines have been found, dating back to 40,000 years ago.
