Editing History of Germany (section)

===Paleolithic and Neolithic ages===
{{further|Paleolithic Europe|Neolithic Europe}}
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 | caption2          = The [[Lion-man|Lion-Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel]], [[Aurignacian|Aurignacian culture]], {{circa}} 41.000 BP
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 | caption3          = [[Paleolithic flute|Bone flute]] from [[Geissenklösterle|Geißenklösterle]]. [[Aurignacian|Aurignacian culture]], 43,000–35,000 BC
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Pre-human apes such as [[Danuvius guggenmosi]], who were present in Germany over 11 million years ago, are theorized to be among the earliest apes to walk on two legs prior to other species and genera such as [[Australopithecus]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=McRae |first1=Mike |title=We Just Found an 11-Million-Year-Old Ancestor That Hints How Humans Began to Walk |url=https://www.sciencealert.com/discovery-of-a-new-11-million-year-old-ancestor-reveals-how-humans-began-to-walk |work=ScienceAlert |date=6 November 2019}}</ref> The discovery of the [[Mauer 1|Homo heidelbergensis]] mandible in 1907 affirms archaic human presence in Germany by at least 600,000 years ago,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wagner |first=Günther A. |date=2010 |title=Radiometric dating of the type-site for Homo heidelbergensis at Mauer, Germany |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=107 |issue=46 |pages=19726–19730 |bibcode=2010PNAS..10719726W |doi=10.1073/pnas.1012722107 |pmc=2993404 |pmid=21041630 |doi-access=free}}</ref> so stone tools were dated as far back as 1.33 million years ago.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.3390/h8030129 | doi-access=free | title=Several Lower Palaeolithic Sites along the Rhine Rift Valley, Dated from 1.3 to 0.6 Million Years | date=2019 | last1=Fiedler | first1=Lutz | last2=Humburg | first2=Christian | last3=Klingelhöfer | first3=Horst | last4=Stoll | first4=Sebastian | last5=Stoll | first5=Manfred | journal=Humanities | volume=8 | issue=3 | page=129 }}</ref> The oldest complete set of hunting weapons ever found anywhere in the world was excavated from a coal mine in [[Schöningen]], [[Lower Saxony]]. Between 1994 and 1998, [[Schöningen spears|eight 380,000-year-old wooden javelins]] between {{Convert|1.82|and|2.25|m|ft|2|abbr=on}} in length were eventually unearthed.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Gerhard |last=Trnka |url=https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/rezbuecher-10766 |title=Rezension zu: H. Thieme (Hrsg.): Die Schöninger Speere, ...es sind acht Speere...(There are eight javelins) |date=2007 |publisher=H-Soz-Kult |isbn=978-3-8062-2164-0 |access-date=1 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Guido |last=Kleinhubbert |date=20 April 2020 |title=Vogelkiller aus der Steinzeit |url=https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/homo-heidelbergensis-neue-wurfwaffe-aus-der-steinzeit-entdeckt-a-8c0454ed-2c82-448c-b0fa-c38e60eea69c |access-date=23 April 2020 |publisher=SPIEGEL Akademie}}</ref>
One of the oldest buildings in the world and one of the oldest pieces of art was found in [[Bilzingsleben (Paleolithic site)|Bilzingsleben]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stanzon.husemann.net/download.php?id=201533&type=T|title=Nr.33/2015 - Homo erectus lädt in seine Welt ein|publisher=Thüringer Staatsanzeiger|date=17 August 2015|issn=0939-9135|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250214140050/http://stanzon.husemann.net/download.php?id=201533&type=T|archive-date=14 February 2025|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1856, the fossilized bones of an extinct human species were salvaged from a limestone grotto in the [[Neander]] valley near [[Düsseldorf]], [[North Rhine-Westphalia]]. The archaic nature of the fossils, now known to be around 40,000 years old, was recognized and the characteristics published in the first-ever [[paleoanthropology|paleoanthropologic]] [[species description]] in 1858 by [[Hermann Schaaffhausen]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tattersall |first1=Ian |author-link=Ian Tattersall |last2=Schwartz |first2=Jeffrey H. |author-link2=Jeffrey H. Schwartz |date=22 June 1999 |title=Hominids and hybrids: The place of Neanderthals in human evolution |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |volume=96 |issue=13 |pages=7117–7119 |doi=10.1073/pnas.96.13.7117 |pmc=33580 |pmid=10377375 |bibcode=1999PNAS...96.7117T |doi-access=free}}</ref> The species was named ''Homo neanderthalensis'', [[Neanderthal]] man in 1864.

The oldest traces of [[homo sapiens]] in Germany were found in the cave {{ill|Ilsenhöhle|de}} in [[Ranis]], where up to 47,500-year-old remains were discovered, among the oldest in Europe.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Geoff M. |last2=Ruebens |first2=Karen |last3=Zavala |first3=Elena Irene |last4=Sinet-Mathiot |first4=Virginie |last5=Fewlass |first5=Helen |last6=Pederzani |first6=Sarah |last7=Jaouen |first7=Klervia |last8=Mylopotamitaki |first8=Dorothea |last9=Britton |first9=Kate |last10=Rougier |first10=Hélène |last11=Stahlschmidt |first11=Mareike |last12=Meyer |first12=Matthias |last13=Meller |first13=Harald |last14=Dietl |first14=Holger |last15=Orschiedt |first15=Jörg |last16=Krause |first16=Johannes |last17=Schüler |first17=Tim |last18=McPherron |first18=Shannon P. |last19=Weiss |first19=Marcel |last20=Hublin |first20=Jean-Jacques |last21=Welker |first21=Frido |title=The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo sapiens at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |date=31 January 2024 |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=564–577 |doi=10.1038/s41559-023-02303-6 |pmid=38297138 |doi-access=free |pmc=10927544 |bibcode=2024NatEE...8..564S }}</ref> The remains of [[Paleolithic]] [[Homo sapiens|early modern human]] occupation uncovered and documented in several caves in the [[Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura|Swabian Jura]] include various mammoth ivory sculptures that rank among the oldest uncontested works of art and several flutes, made of bird bone and mammoth ivory that are confirmed to be the oldest musical instruments ever found. The 41,000-year-old [[Löwenmensch figurine]] represents the oldest uncontested figurative work of art and the 40,000-year-old [[Venus of Hohle Fels]] has been asserted as the oldest uncontested object of human figurative art ever discovered.<ref name="Conard">{{Cite journal |last=Conard |first=Nicholas J. |date=2009 |title=A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=459 |issue=7244 |pages=248–252 |bibcode=2009Natur.459..248C |doi=10.1038/nature07995 |pmid=19444215 |s2cid=205216692}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ice Age Lion Man is the world's earliest figurative sculpture – The Art Newspaper |url=http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Ice-Age-iLion-Mani-is-worlds-earliest-figurative-sculpture/28595 |website=The Art Newspaper |access-date=24 November 2013 |archive-date=10 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810061713/http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Ice-Age-iLion-Mani-is-worlds-earliest-figurative-sculpture/28595 |url-status=dead }}{{better source needed|date=April 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Venus of Hohle Fels |url=http://donsmaps.com/hohlefelsvenus.html |website=donsmaps.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=25 May 2012 |title=Earliest music instruments found |publisher=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18196349}}</ref> These artefacts are attributed to the [[Aurignacian]] culture.

Between 12,900 and 11,700 years ago, north-central Germany was part of the [[Ahrensburg culture]] (named for [[Ahrensburg]]).

[[File:Smac Neolithikum 122.jpg|thumb|[[Stroke-ornamented ware culture]] settlement with [[Neolithic long house|long houses]] and
[[Neolithic circular enclosures in Central Europe|circular enclosures]] in [[Dresden]], c. 4700 BC|211x211px]]

The first groups of early farmers different from the indigenous hunter-gatherers to migrate into Europe came from a population in western [[Anatolia]] at the beginning of the [[Neolithic Europe|Neolithic]] period between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Eva |last=Fernández |date=5 June 2014 |title=Ancient DNA Analysis of 8000 B.C. Near Eastern Farmers Supports an Early Neolithic Pioneer Maritime Colonization of Mainland Europe through Cyprus and the Aegean Islands |journal=PLOS Genetics |volume=10 |issue=6 |page=e1004401 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004401 |pmc=4046922 |pmid=24901650 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Central Germany was one of the primary areas of the [[Linear Pottery culture]] ({{Circa|5500 BC|4500 BC}}), which was partially contemporary with the [[Ertebølle culture]] ({{Circa|5300 BC|3950 BC}}) of Denmark and northern Germany. The construction of the Central European [[Neolithic circular enclosures in Central Europe|Neolithic circular enclosure]]s falls in this time period with the best known and oldest being the [[Goseck circle]], constructed {{Circa|4900 BC}}. Afterwards, Germany was part of the [[Rössen culture]], [[Michelsberg culture]] and [[Funnelbeaker culture]] ({{Circa|4600 BC|2800 BC}}). The oldest traces for the use of wheel and wagon ever found are located at a northern German Funnelbeaker culture site and date to around 3400 BC.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=3400 BC: The oldest evidence for the use of the wheel and wagon originates from Northern Germany |url=https://www.uni-kiel.de/en/details/news/051-wheel-tracks |publisher=Kiel University}}</ref>