Sculpted female figures
Nebra, Thüringens, Germany
Mammoth ivory
Height: 5.2 cms
Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt.
Landesmuseum fü Vorgeschichte, Halle
v1
This sculpture of a woman viewed in profile was found carefully placed in the bottom of pit filled with scraps of animal bone and stone tools. Made from mammoth ivory the outline was skilfully cut from the hard outer surface of a tusk. Now corroded by natural processes that occurred while it was buried, the surface was originally polished.
The torso tapers to a point and shows the small, firm breast of a young woman full of sexual potential. The back is straight to the waist and curves out around prominent buttocks above the thigh that pinches to a point just above the knee. Although the proportions of the buttocks are slightly exaggerated, the figure is delicately attractive and must have taken time to create. Sawing through the ivory with small flint blade was hard, meticulous work requiring skill and artistry. The simplicity of the piece is not a clumsy expression of adolescent sexual awakening but a work of art suggestive of wider social or religious signicance