The Venus of Dolni Vestonice is a 31,000-year-old figurine found in the Czech Republic, depicting a nude woman with large breasts and hips. It is one of several dozen “Venus figurines” of similar age and unknown purpose. The Venus of Brassempouy, found in France, is the earliest known depiction of a human face. Two possible even older figurines, the Venus of Berekhat Ram and the Venus of Tan-Tan, have been discovered but are controversial.
The oldest known figurines that are not controversial date to about 31,000 years ago, the Upper Paleolithic, as represented by the Venus of Dolni Vestonice, found near Brno in today’s Czech Republic. This figure is also the earliest known use of pottery, made of clay fired at a relatively low temperature. Like other Venus figurines, the Venus of Dolni Vestonice depicts a nude woman with large drooping breasts, a slim torso, broad hips, and a featureless face. Her color is black. The figurine is approximately 4 inches tall and 1.7 inches at its widest point.
The Venus of Dolni Vestonice is one of several dozen “Venus figurines”, statuettes that depict nude female figures with large hips and breasts. Some archaeologists have associated them with religious tributes to fertility, but the truth is we don’t know what they were carved for. They may have been carved simply as a curiosity or for amusement. Most of the Venus figurines were small enough to hold in the hand and dated between 20,000 and 30,000 years old. Numerous cave paintings have been found from the same period, and the oldest European cave paintings are of similar age to the oldest Venus figurines.
Of all the Venus figurines, the one with the best resemblance to a human face is the Venus of Brassempouy, which depicts a calm-looking female head and long, patterned hair. Found in France, this is thought to be the earliest known depiction of a human face and is dated to around 25,000 years ago, when continental glaciers still covered northern Europe. This is one of the few figurines of the period to be carved from mammoth ivory. Most of the others are in stone.
More recently, two possible even older figurines have been discovered in the Golan Heights and in Morocco. These are the so-called Venus of Berekhat Ram, and the Venus of Tan-Tan, but their shape is so vague and poor that some scientists have argued that they are just pieces of stone that look like human figures due to accidental natural processes. This argument applies especially to the latter, because microscopic examination of the Venus of Berekhat Ram has revealed tool marks that are unmistakably artificial. These figures are dated to approximately 250,000 BC and between 300,000 and 500,000 BC, respectively. If they are indeed figures, the earliest known figurines could date between a quarter and a half million years before the present. Modern humans didn’t even evolve until about 200,000 years ago.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
