Gutenberger Höhle

Bones and cave history(s)

Gutenberg Cave with its impressive forecourt is considered one of the most beautiful dripstone caves in the Swabian Alb. As the nearby Gußmannshöhle, it is a fissure cave. These are formed when slightly acid rainwater finds its way along fractures and crevices in the rock (fissures), thus gradually enlarging them.

Six larger halls are connected by narrow, high passages. A bank of fossil bones measuring three meters in diameter was discovered here. It was hidden behind a sinter wall and preserved over thousands of years by the special climate in the cave. Evidence was found for hyena, giant deer, cave bear, cave lion, rhinoceros and even monkeys (Inuus Suevicus = Swabian monkey).

These finds were the only ones in Germany. They tell us today about the animal world of the Ice Age. We therefore know that cave formation must have started long before the ice age in the Quaternary, since the cavity already existed when those animals lived.