Discovery of Venus of Willendorf

The Venus of Willendorf is a small limestone figurine of a woman, about eleven centimetres high, uncovered during excavations at Willendorf in the Wachau valley in Lower Austria. It dates to the Upper Paleolithic, roughly thirty thousand years ago, and belongs to the Gravettian culture. The statuette has exaggerated breasts, belly and hips, a head covered with rows of curls and traces of red ochre, and no clear face. The limestone is not local, suggesting that it or its maker travelled a long way. Interpretations vary, from a fertility symbol to a self-portrait or a good-luck charm, and none can be proved. The figurine is kept in the Natural History Museum in Vienna.

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