(CNN) -- The first modern humans in Europe were not just hunters and gatherers; some were quite skilled artists as well.
Three small ivory carvings found at Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany suggest a high level of artistic skill among craftspeople living between 30,000 and 35,000 years ago.
"A lot of colleagues have suggested that art would evolve gradually, with primitive pieces first," said archaeologist Nicholas Conard of the University of Tuebingen, Germany.
But it's clear that these three figurines, of a horse, a water bird, and a part human, part cat-like creature are "well developed and aesthetically well executed," said Conard, whose work appears in the scientific journal Nature this week.
While life was far from cushy during the time period, early humans were not on the edge of starvation.
"They had good weeks and bad weeks just like we do," said Conard. But for the most part, they had day-to-day life under control, he said.
Other scientists studying human evolution have a couple of theories about these and other early artifacts found at four different German archeological sites. The objects are considered the oldest examples of figurative art in the world.
One hypothesis is that the carvings, of lions, bears, mammoths and bison, depicted powerful animals that early humans viewed with awe and perhaps fear.
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The waterbird and other mammoth ivory figurines from a German cave date back 30,000 years or so. 
I find these discoveries to be inspirational, as it speaks to the artists' ability to overcome their surroundings to do their craft (i.e., they obviously had no lighting in their caves or materials readily available). In this day and age, we have all the tools at our finger tips and more. We do not have the limitation of only being able to work during daylight hours, winter, spring, summer, or fall. And it represents another tangible connection to our ancestors.
