Venus of Hohle Fels

The figurine comes from Aurignacian deposits dated to roughly 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. This makes it one of the earliest known examples of figurative art representing a human body.

It was carved from mammoth ivory and survives as a small figure only several centimeters tall. Archaeologists recovered its fragments from Hohle Fels Cave in Germany's Swabian Jura.

Instead of a carved head, the figure has a perforated loop at its upper end. That feature suggests it may have been suspended or worn, although its exact use cannot be proven.

Venus is a modern archaeological label for prehistoric female figures with emphasized sexual characteristics. The people who made the Hohle Fels carving left no written explanation of its name, meaning, or purpose.