The Origins of Art in Europe Over thirty thousand years ago Europe was to a great extent covered with glacial ice an steppe-tundra. Herds of mammoth wandered through the area, and terrifying cave lions prowled in search of prey amid. At this time our ancestors, ice age hunters and gatherers, began to create striking paintings as well as sculptures that are considered to be the oldest art known to mankind. It was a time known as the Aurignacian, named after the site Aurignas in southern France. The Aurignacian is well known for its more than 250 archaeologically significant locations in western and central Europe. Two of the most important occupation areas of this period are situated in both the French Pyrenees and the Swabian Alb in southern Germany. In 2005 the Transnational Cooperation project The Aurignacian an the Origins of Art in Europe started. Partner Regions are the LEADER+ Action Groups (LAG) Pays d’Ariège-Pyrénées, Pays Basque Intérieur in France and the German LAG Brenzregion as well as the French Region Aurignac, Pays de comminges. Priv.-Doz. Dr. Harald Floss, University of Tübingen, and Nathalie Rouquerol, Musée-Forum Aurignac, are the projects scientific leaders. An extraordinary event took place within the frame work of Cooperation on the 16th through the 18th September 2005. Experts from across Europe came to Aurignac at the foot of the Pyrenees to discuss one of the most significant and moving themes of our time “The Origins of Art”. In September 2006 the Partner Regions published the trilingual brochure “Caves and Stone Age Art of the Swabian Alb and the French Pyrenees”. A presentation took place at the Landesgartenschau-Exhibition 2006 in Heidenheim. The brochure can be ordered online here. In summer 2007 a illustrated bilingual conference transscript of the international symposium at Aurignac will be published in France and in Germany.