I. Am. Lion. Man.
Lion-man
51–60 of 90 posts
Re: Lion-man
#52https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohle_Fels
At Hohle Fels, they also found a similar lion man — 2 meters from a harmonically tuned flute!
Re: Lion-man
#53A bit of a meta comment: I love when wikipedia articles are posted to HN, I always click on them as I know they will be interesting. On one of the recent wikipedia article posts (Glacier Mice I believe) someone commented that there should be a bluesky bot that collects and posts these so I (well Claude..) made one! https://bsky.app/profile/hnwiki.bsky.social Check it out! This article is the first post, and if there…
I don't want to spam, but I built this during the pandemic (pre ai). Maybe this is useful to you:
https://www.mostdiscussed.com/
There is also a Mastodon bridge via Mastofeed:
Re: Lion-man
#54In Hindu religion, lion man is called Lord Narasimha, the 4th avatar of Lord Vishnu. He is often worshiped in Ahobilam, Andhra Pradesh, India. This avatar is after Wild Bohr (Varaha) which wandered the forests before it took the avatar of Lion man and settled in caves.3rd and 4th avatars' common link was both were mammals.Second was Tortoise (Reptile) and first was Fish (Aquatic vertebrates)
Bhai, Sanatana Dharma is ancient, but surely this statue is far older.
This statue is around 35,000 years old.
Hinduism is fairly young by contrast and is only around 4000 years old.
Re: Lion-man
#55What always strikes me is that someone, 40,000 years ago, using a pointy stone and some ivory, can make a better looking statuette than I could manage with the best modelling clay and tools available today.
Re: Lion-man
#56What always strikes me is that someone, 40,000 years ago, using a pointy stone and some ivory, can make a better looking statuette than I could manage with the best modelling clay and tools available today.
It probably was not their first attempt.
Re: Lion-man
#57> Some researchers have ascribed sexual characteristics to the object. My wife jokes that anthropologists think everything is about either sex or religion. It never occurs to them that these figurines might be toys for kids. After all, children 40,000 years ago were anatomically modern. They would have gotten bored and wanted to play, or missed their parents while the parents were out foraging or hunting.
> My wife jokes that anthropologists think everything is about either sex or religion. It never occurs to them that these figurines might be toys for kids.
They actually do as anyone who actually reads or go to museums knows.
Re: Lion-man
#58The sculpture was relatively safe for 40,000 years. I think we should study it, 3D scan it, replicate it, and put it back in the cave so it can stay safe for a few more Millenia. In a museum it may be bombed, burnt, or stolen, and that would be a shame.
Re: Lion-man
#59A bit of a meta comment: I love when wikipedia articles are posted to HN, I always click on them as I know they will be interesting. On one of the recent wikipedia article posts (Glacier Mice I believe) someone commented that there should be a bluesky bot that collects and posts these so I (well Claude..) made one! https://bsky.app/profile/hnwiki.bsky.social Check it out! This article is the first post, and if there…
this is my favorite Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future
Re: Lion-man
#60The sculpture was relatively safe for 40,000 years. I think we should study it, 3D scan it, replicate it, and put it back in the cave so it can stay safe for a few more Millenia. In a museum it may be bombed, burnt, or stolen, and that would be a shame.
How certain are we really that not the materials but the resulting figurine is authentic?
From Wikipedia on the Lion-man (English):
> It was not until archaeologist Joachim Hahn started an inventory and assembly of more than 200 fragments that a figurine with animal and human features began to emerge.[5]
We have seen countless examples before, from the Brontosaur skull mixup mess to the heavy-handed "restoration" of the Knossos Palace, including an essential made up King-Priest frieze from real fragments by Sir Arthur Evans.
For some reason the Wikipedia pages don't contain this information on Brontosaur or Evans' pages for example...