"Useless" art: Why did a prehistoric artist make this sculpture?

Using the techniques of prehistoric people, experimental archaeologist Wulf Hein recreated the Lion Man, a sculpture made around 40,000 years ago.

And something incredible was revealed in the process.

He said: "You scratch and scratch and days and days of working and working and blisters on my hands, my finger was aching".

It wasn’t just the pain that told Hein something but the sheer amount of time required. "In the end it was about four hundred hours then I stopped counting."

This was a revelation. "A real artist made this. He was set free by his community only to do this piece of artwork. If you do this you can’t go hunting, you can’t go fishing, you work all day on it."

Jill Cook, a curator from the British Museum, says that although the object was "useless for their physical survival", that doesn't mean that it wasn’t without value.

It might have been created, she suggests, for a wider purpose. "The image was about strengthening common bonds and group awareness to overcome dangers and difficulties."

Neil MacGregor, Director of the Humboldt Forum, sees a deep significance in how the original object was handled.

He said: "There was a story told by generation after generation around their fire, so that the Lion Man's torso became smooth as he was passed between them.

These people possessed something precious, a shared story, which showed each person their deep connection to one and other."

That story is lost to us but the Lion Man offers a fascinating glimpse into the customs of an ancient world.