The Three Mothers

The earliest renderings of human figures are three small statuettes of abundant women… did they save the human race?

Among the earliest pieces of art, so far discovered relatively in tact, is the Venus of Hohle Fels, carved in ivory to resemble a very well-endowed female figure. It is a small statuette, measuring only about six centimetres, but with proportionally huge breasts, belly, thighs and genitalia, whilst the head is reduced to little more than a nub. (She kinda resembles a roast chicken!) Radiocarbon dating supports the archaeological evidence and confirms the figure as being 35,000 to 40,000 years old, making it the oldest known artificial representation of the human figure.

Before 2008, when the Venus of Hohle Fels was discovered, that title had been held by another, so called ‘Venus’: the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, found in the Czech Republic in 1925 which is almost 30,000 years old and also remarkable in being the earliest known ceramic figurine, predating fired pottery. It is another small figure that fits neatly in the hand at around 11 centimetres and again we see the huge breasts, belly and thighs with the head and other features reduced to very basic forms.

The Venus of Hohle Fels also predates, by up to ten millennia, what had until its discovery been the oldest known piece of carved sculpture: the Venus of Willendorf, which was discovered a century earlier in 1908. This Venus remains the most widely known and artistically…