Art and Design 40,000 Years Ago

Design has often been considered a defining feature of modern societies. Archaeological evidence, however, shows that these capacities have much deeper roots. Long before written language or settled life, early humans developed complex technologies, produced figurative artworks, created musical instruments, and engaged in symbolic and ritual behavior.

On Monday, 9th February, Nicholas Conrad’s talk at HfG Offenbach traces the emergence and long-term development of material culture, from the earliest evidence of systematic tool production around 3.3 million years ago to the present. A central question is when humans first acquired abilities that can be described as intellectual, creative, and symbolic in a modern sense. To address this, the lecture examines the technologies and symbolic practices of late archaic humans and the first anatomically modern humans who migrated out of Africa and spread across Eurasia.

Special attention is given to the innovative tools, figurative artworks, and musical instruments dating to around 40,000 years ago that were discovered in caves of the Swabian Jura in southern Germany. Based on these finds and their archaeological contexts, the talk explores where, when, and why figurative art, music, and religious behavior emerged. The evidence suggests that by at least 40,000 years ago, humans were already as creative and artistically capable as people today.

Poster: Johanna Siebein

About the speaker

Nicholas Conard is an American archaeologist and one of the leading scholars in the study of the origins of human culture, art, and symbolic behavior. He is Professor of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology at the University of Tübingen and has conducted research in Europe, Africa, and the Near East. Over several decades, he has played a central role in establishing the Swabian Jura as a key region for understanding early modern human creativity.

Conard has directed excavations at internationally significant Paleolithic sites such as Hohle Fels, Vogelherd, and Geißenklösterle. His work includes the discovery and analysis of some of the world’s oldest known figurative artworks carved from mammoth ivory, as well as the earliest known musical instruments, including bone and ivory flutes. These findings have had a lasting impact on debates about the emergence of symbolic thinking, art, music, and religion in early Homo sapiens.

His research emphasizes the close interdependence of technology, social organization, and symbolic expression, arguing that art and music were not marginal phenomena but central elements of early human societies. Several of the sites associated with his work are now part of the UNESCO World Heritage “Caves and Ice Age Art of the Swabian Jura.”

About the Monday Talks

With the “Monday Talks” series, the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) Offenbach invites inspiring figures from art, design, and related disciplines. The series aims to connect design with broader social, cultural, and historical perspectives. All interested members of the public are warmly invited.

9 February 2026, at 6:00 pm at

HfG Aula
Main Building, 1st Floor
Schlossstraße 31
Offenbach
Germany