Prehistoric carved lion. Prehistoric carving in mammoth ivory of a lion. Some have identified the animal as a hippopotamus, hyena or rhinoceros. This Stone Age (palaeolithic) artefact (88 millimetres long) is among many found over the years from soil excavated in 1931 from the Vogelherd Cave, Germany. The ivory figurines have been dated to between 30,000 and 36,000 years ago, and are thought to have been produced by the Aurignacian culture. These early humans lived in Europe in the Late Stone Age (Upper Palaeolithic), between 45,000 and 30,000 years ago.