Prehistoric sculptures from Vogelherd, Germany. The history of animal sculpture is a fascinating journey that begins in prehistoric times. The earliest known works date back to the Magdalenian period, around 15,000 years ago. The humans of that time carved animals from mammoth ivory and bone. For example, the famous "small horse of Lourdes," found in the Espélugues cave in Lourdes, is a figure carved from mammoth ivory. However, the oldest animal sculptures in ivory were disc