Primitive Venus could be world's oldest erotic art

by Rich Bowden - May 14 2009, 15:00

Primitive Venus could be world's oldest erotic art. Credit: H.Jensen/Uni of Tubingen

A six-centimetre ivory figurine sporting large breasts and buttocks, which was found in 2008 in the Hohle Fels Cave area of southeren Germany's Swabian region, has been labelled as the oldest known example of erotic art.

The 35,000-year-old "German Venus" was carved by an artist out of the tusk of a mammoth and has been among a number of "objet d'sex art" discovered in the cave, including one carving that, according to researchers, could be interpreted as an ancient sex toy.

"This figurine was produced at least 35,000 calendar years ago, making it one of the oldest known examples of figurative art," said Professor Nicholas Conard of the University of Tubingen to Nature magazine.

Describing the importance of the find, Professor Conard said the discovery, "radically changes our views of the context and meaning of the earliest Palaeolithic art."

The location where the 'German Venus' was found. Credit: H.Jensen/Uni of Tubingen

He also said the Venus may well have been a symbol of fertility, as were typical of later Venus figures. He added that the find may well turn out to be the earliest example of figurine art.

"The most noteworthy figurative representations of roughly comparable age outside Swabia are limited to the schematic, monochrome, red paintings on rock fragments from Fumane Cave in northern Italy; the standing figurine from Stratzing in the Wachau of Lower Austria; and the impressive paintings from Grotte Chauvet in the Ardeche in southern France," he wrote in Nature.

Possibly used as an ancient pendant, the figurine was found in September of 2008 in six separate fragments. The statuette is missing an arm and shoulder, which researchers say they are hopeful of recovering in ongoing excavations around the cave complex.