With its outsize bulbous breasts and hugely exaggerated genitalia, a statuette of a woman has pushed back the history of female figurative art by at least 5000 years, to about 35,000 years ago.rnDiscovered in the Hohler Fels caves of Germany, the "Venus" figurine, carved from mammoth ivory, is remarkably well-preserved, with only the left arm and shoulder missing (see below).rn"It is perhaps the earliest example of figurative art worldwide," says Nicholas Conard of the University of Tubingen in Germany, adding that the oldest previously known female figurines date from less than 30,000 years ago.rnConard says the exaggerated sexual features imply that the figurine may have been a fertility symbol. A small loop where the head would be suggests that it may have been hung on a string and worn as a pendant (Nature, DOI: 10.1038ature07995).
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