Mauerner Höhlen, Prehistoric cave system in Rennertshofen, Germany.
Mauerner Höhlen is a karst cave system of five individual caves with seven entrances, cut into a reef-debris facies of the Upper Jurassic (Malm Zeta 5) on the left slope of the Wellheimer Trockental. The caves lie about 20 m above the valley floor at roughly 425 m above sea level and have a total length of 121 m and an area of about 600 m². They are registered as geotope 185H003 and as cave cadastre entries L 9a–L 9e.
Humans used the caves from the late Middle Paleolithic; the sediment sequence dates to the middle to late Würm glaciation. Michael Eckstein recovered the first Middle Paleolithic finds in 1935, and excavations followed in 1936–37 under Robert Rudolf Schmidt, in 1937–38 under Assien Bohmers, in 1947–49 under Lothar Zotz, and in 1967 and 1974 under Hansjürgen Müller-Beck. In 1948 a roughly 27,000-year-old limestone Venus figurine, the "Rote von Mauern", was found beneath the rock overhang between caves 1 and 2.
The caves are a protected geotope and nature reserve, and their entrances have been barred since 1977, so the archaeology is seen from outside. The name Weinberghöhlen recalls the vineyards once planted on this slope of the Wellheimer Trockental. The best-known find, the 27,000-year-old limestone Venus von Mauern or "Rote von Mauern", was recovered in 1948 beneath the rock overhang between caves 1 and 2.
All seven entrances of the five caves have been barred since 1977, so the interior cannot be entered; the find layers and the collapse-prone rock are the reason. The caves are reached on an unpaved footpath about 20 m above the valley floor of the Wellheimer Trockental, roughly at 425 m elevation. Sturdy shoes are useful on the slope.
The most famous find is the Venus of Mauern, a 27,000-year-old limestone figurine about 7 cm tall, discovered in 1948 beneath the rock overhang between caves 1 and 2. It is also called the "Red Venus of Mauern" because of its reddish colour.
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