Sculpted female figures
Nebra, Thüringens, Germany
Mammoth ivory
Height: 6.5 cms
Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt.
Landesmuseum fü Vorgeschichte, Halle
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The profile figure is a much more abstracted form made from ivory. It was found in a carefully made stone box buried in ground. The sides were lined with slabs and the bottom was covered by an oval slab and a horse shoulder blade. The box was filled with bone scraps and flint tools mixed with distinctive light grey sand, as well as the sculpture and a fragment of a dished stone utilized as a lamp. The pit was covered with a large slab when full. The female figure has a disproportionately long, rod-like upper body which tapers to a point at the top. There is no indication of a breast but the line of the front tapers in to the thigh from the area of the pudenda. The buttocks are prominent.
Like the other sculpted female figures from the site of Nebra this is an intellectual abstraction of the female which confidently minimalizes and transforms it to the essence of its sexuality and identity.
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