Image – 25,000-Year-Old Venus Figurine

Venus of Dolní Věstonice

This image is a ceramic statuette of a woman found in July 1925 in an archeological dig at the Paleolithic site of Dolní Věstonice in Moravia, Czech Republic. The figure is 4.4 inches tall and 1.7 inches wide and depicts a woman some suggest is pregnant or shows signs of previous pregnancies. She is faceless by design, not due to wear or damage. Although the mammoth tusk Venus of Hohlefels is the oldest female statuette,) Dolní Věstonice remains the oldest example of ceramic artwork in the world. The date of the creation of the statuette is estimated by radiocarbon dating at 29,000 to 25,000 years ago. The piece was discovered broken into two pieces in the ashes of a Paleolithic hut. Since then over 700 small ceramic figurines of animals have been discovered at Dolní Věstonice but the Venus remains the oldest. The ceramic is a composite of clay and crushed bone and was fired in a low heat kiln that was found in the hut. The purpose of the statue is not certain but it may have been used in religious rituals. A 2004 scan of the piece revealed a child’s fingerprint preserved in the clay but the identity of the artisan is still unknown. It is housed at the Moravian Museum at Brno but now is protected for research and rarely on exhibit.

Source: Walter Geiersperger / Getty Images