Female Soft Limestone Figurine
Ritual function
Kostenki type, Russia
Eastern Gravettian
Around 25 000 years ago
Discovered on the floor of one of the dwellings, sculpture 83-2’s head and lower limbs were broken off and its right breast damaged before being buried [...] (in a pit).
J. Cook, Ice Age Art. The British Museum, London. 2013
Commentary :
Numerous female figurines or "Venuses" have been found in the Gravettian dwellings of Kostenki on the Russian Plain. One of them, made of limestone, is represented in a unique way; the body is bare, the hands are placed on the belly, she wears a bra made of scalloped ties.
Its head is found separate from the body.
25,000 years ago, this Venus is part of an original fragmentation or decapitation ritual, which also affect other human and animal figurines discovered in several pits of the Kostenki sites.
