The German name, Löwenmensch, meaning "lion-person" or "lion-human", is used most frequently because it was discovered and is exhibited in Germany.

Archeologist excavating at Hohlensteim-stadel, Germany found broken pieces of ivory from mammoth tusk that they soon realized were part of an entire figure. This ivory figurine is crowded over thousands of years of being under the surface and collagen is in places fully decomposed therefore the material is brittle. The statuette buske along it’s natural growth layer into numerous fragments. Which is said due to the influence of water. The head of the figure is oriented towards the tip of the tusk the entire tusk was used in carving.

In early 30,000 small figure of people and animals started appearing in Europe and Asia. These figurines were made up of Bone, ivory, stone and clay to us today these self contained, three-dimensional pieces are refer as sculpture in the round. An early and mysterious example of it is a human figure probably male with a feline head.

Robert Wetzel, a historian, oversaw the start of organised excavations at the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in 1937. Geologist Otto Völzing made the find of a broken mammoth ivory sculpture on August 25, 1939.One week later, World War II broke out, leaving the fieldwork unfinished and the examination of the finds unperformed.It wasn't until more than 200 shards were inventoried and put together by archaeologist Joachim Hahn did a figurine with both animal and human features start to take shape. The figurine was discovered to be nearly two-thirds complete during the procedure, which took more than six months. The legs lacked some ivory lamellae, and the back was severely deformed. The back of the skull, two-thirds of the mouth and nose, eyes, and ears were all still present. A reversible substance made of a blend of beeswax, synthetic wax, and chalk was employed to patch up the head and body. The height of the Löwenmensch figure increased from 296 to 311 centimetres.The project was finished in late 2013.