Published: 15 May, 2009, 04:54
Edited: 15 May, 2009, 04:54
An ivory statuette found in southern Germany, believed to be 35,000 years old, could be the oldest ever known example of figurative art – and of ancient pornography.
The little female figurine which is about 6cm tall and named “The Venus of Hohle Fels” – after the cave it was discovered in – has “outsized breasts, huge buttocks and exaggerated genitals,” The Times says.
Nicholas Conrad of the University of Tuebingen, who unearthed the statuette, told the Nature journal that its appearance “results from the deliberate exaggeration of the sexual features of the figurine.”
Several so-called Venus figurines found across Europe share similar features.
Before Conrad’s find, the most famous of them was “The Venus of Willendorf” discovered in Austria in 1908.
“The sexual imagery was consistent with other carvings made at a similar time,” Paul Mellars of the University of Cambridge said.
As for the intended use of “The Venus”, it remains wrapped in mystery and has already aroused debates among scientists.
Some of them suggest that it could have been used as a decoration – for instance a pendant as the statuette has no head but a ring instead it.
While others insist it could be nothing but a kind of Stone Age pornography.