Believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, though some theorize the statue actually represents the sea-goddess Amphitrite - venerated on Milos, the island where found. The work of Alexandros of Antioch & created between 150 and 125 BC, the statue is larger than life size, at 204 cm (6 ft 8 in) high & is one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Louvre
Before Romans invaded, Phoenecians & Carthaginians had long been trading, & by the 4th century BC, Iberians had developed a relatively sophisticated culture, as evidenced by this 55cm limestone bust. Originally coloured, it represents a woman wearing an elaborate headdress & large wheel-like coils ('rodetes') on each side. The opening in the rear indicates it may have been used as a funerary urn. National Archaeology Museum, Madrid.
The Late Bronze Age was a period of great prosperity for Cyprus, and it was a major supplier of copper, an essential component of bronze. Trade networks linked Cyprus to Egypt, the Hittite Empire of central Anatolia, the Kingdom of Ugarit on the Syrian coast, and the Mycenaeans of southern Greece. A late Bronze Age terracotta figurine of a 'woman with a child' from 1450BC-1200BC; Brit. Mus.
The “Queen of the Night “relief is a Mesopotamian terracotta plaque in high relief from about the 19th century BCE, depicting a winged goddess figure with bird’s talons, flanked by owls, and perched upon two lions. The high relief and large size suggest that it was used as a cult image, however, whether it represents Ishtar or Ereshkigal is under debate. Brit. Mus.
Agriculture started in southern Asia on Kacchi Plain near Bolan Pass, west of the Indus, modern Pakistan from 7000BCE. By 3000BCE they lived in mud brick houses, stored their grain in granaries, fashioned tools with local copper ore, lined their large basket containers with bitumen, & had developed the world's first tooth-drills & lost-wax casting. Burial figurines by the date had developed elaborate hair & prominant breasts, such as in this 9.5cm seated terracotta female. Barbier-Mueller Museum
As early as the 7th millennium BC, cultures in the Near East began to create organized settlements with well-developed religious & funerary practices. The Halaf culture of Anatolia (central Turkey) & northern Syria arose around 5000 BC & produced remarkable female figurines with distinctive fertility attributes. This terracotta statuette is seated with legs extended, arms cradling her protruding breasts. Bands of pigment emphasize the full, rounded forms of her limbs & suggest facial features.
A fragmentary ivory figurine from the Upper Palaeolithic, apparently broken from a larger figure at some time unknown. It was discovered in a cave at Brassempouy, France in 1892. About 25,000 years old, it is one of the earliest known realistic representations of a human face. Carved from mammoth ivory, the head is 3.65 cm high, 2.2 cm deep and 1.9 cm wide. While forehead, nose and brows are carved in relief, the mouth is absent. Musée d'Archéologie Nationale
Buttercup was a female mammoth, with peculiarly large tusks. She was very well preserved, with a leg missing, & some flesh which had been eaten before she was frozen. Otherwise, a very well preserved mammoth; with the majority of the internal organs, lovely soft orange-brown fur, & her trunk all still there. Buttercup’s teeth show us that this mammoth was well into her 50s. Female tusks grow more slowly when they are pregnant & feeding a calf; Buttercup gave birth to 8, & lost 1 while weaning.
People of Dolní Věstonice hunted mammoths & other herd animals, saving mammoth & other bones that could be used to construct a fence-like boundary. Within, thousands of the world's oldest ceramics were shaped into animals such as lions, rhinos & mammoths - interpreted to have been of ceremonial significance. 2 female figurines were found - Black Venus (pictured) & a woman with a disfigured face. Buried near was a 40-year old disfigured woman with a mammoth scapula, fox pelt & red ochre. Brno
The Venus of Willendorf is an 11.1-centimetre-tall (4.4 in) Venus figurine estimated to have been made around 25,000-30,000 years ago. It is carved from an oolitic limestone that is not local to the area, and tinted with red ochre. One of the 'Venus figurines', due to the widely-held belief that depictions of nude women with exaggerated sexual features represented an early fertility deity, perhaps a mother goddess. Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna
Venus of Hohle Fels is made of mammoth ivory, dated to between 40,000 and 35,000 years ago. Associated with the earliest presence of Cro-Magnon in Europe. The figure is the oldest undisputed example of a depiction of a human being. Prehistoric Museum of Blaubeuren.
In 2007, a Nenets reindeer herder named Yuri Khudi & his sons happened upon a 41,800-year-old female baby mammoth of 110 pounds & a little under three feet tall - the size of a large dog - in the permafrost of the Yamal Peninsula, Siberia. For reporting her to the authorities, he was allowed to name her - Lyuba, after his wife. Mud helped preserve her body, keeping it in near-pristine condition. In fact, not only was her trunk intact, but so were her eyes, skin, and organs. Shemanovsky Museum
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