Lion-Human Sculpture

Story
Kara Marie White
There once was a woman named Gretta who lived in Germany in 14000 C.E.

Gretta was married to a hunter. Gretta’s husband would be gone for days at a
time searching for food his family.
Every time Gretta’s husband brought back a hunt he would bring back the whole
animal so his family could have enough to eat while he was out hunting.

Gretta would make use of all the parts of the kill, she would use the bones for
shelter and the organs that were not eaten or used for bait for the next hunt were
used for things such as clothing or collecting water.
One day Gretta’s husband came back with a group of other men from their
village. The group of men were carrying a mammoth.

Gretta’s husband had been the one to find and kill the mammoth but was not
able to carry it himself. He had made a deal with the other villagers that if the
men would help him carry the mammoth back home that they could share the
meat but Gretta would get the extra organs and bones.
Once all the families had eaten their share of the mammoth Gretta decided to
make a bigger home out of the large bones of the mammoth.

When she finished finding a use for all parts of the body all that remained were
the tusks. Most animals her husband had brought in did not have tusks so she
had to find a new purpose for them.
After much contemplation she started to saw off the tusk using a flint knife while
she waited for her husband to come home.

The process of removing the tusk took 10 long hours but Gretta was determined.
She completed it within one night after her husband had left.

The next day she began to carve away at the tusk.

The villagers were upset that Gretta had began to do something that was so
useless and a waste of time. She was not helping
What the artist was sharing with their community
How it was used
Cultural overlap