A Possible Depiction of a Woolly Rhino from the Late Magdalenian Hunting Camp of Bad Kösen-Lengefeld in Central Germany

Abstract In Central Germany, rhino images were engraved on stone objects during the Magdalenian period, before the global extinction of the woolly rhino around 14,000 cal BP. Our recent excavations, at the Magdalenian open-air settlement site of Bad Kösen-Lengefeld, added to this record, yielding a limestone slab with a presumptive rhino portrait from an exactly stratified, thoroughly documented and well-dated cultural context. Here we present the unique limestone slab with an engraved animal image, unusual because of the head omitted, but — by contrast — aspects of the rear expressed in detail. During the excavation, the limestone slab was found related to a dwelling structure marked by postholes grouped around a central fireplace. Reindeer and horse were hunted close to, and killed at the site, and ice foxes were exploited for their furs. 14 C-samples collected from all parts of the settlement attest for a short period of occupation(s) around 15,350 ± 50 cal BP making the rhino portrait one of the latest of its kind, eventually documenting the last sightings of woolly rhino in general, by humans. Moreover, its found context would make this animal portrait a fixture in Magdalenian style chronology.