A tiny ivory carving of a busty woman may be not only the oldest known example of erotic art--it may be the oldest art depicting any human figure at all.
Named the Venus of Hohle Fels after the cave in southwestern Germany where it was recently excavated, the object dates to at least 35,000 to 40,000 years ago, based on more than 30 radiocarbon measurements conducted at the site [Discovery News].
The statue is also "bordering on the pornographic" by our modern standards, one expert says, with its huge, bulbous breasts and oversized genitalia. Germany's southern caves
were presumably inviting sanctuaries, scholars say, for populations of modern humans migrating then into central and western Europe. These were the people who eventually displaced the resident Neanderthals, around 30,000 years ago. Dr. Conard reported that the discovery was made beneath three feet of red-brown sediment in the floor of the Hohle Fels ...
