Sculpted female
Ölknitz, Thringens, Germany
Mammoth ivory
Height: 4.8 cms
Museum für Ur-und Frühgeschichte Thüringens, Weimar
847/69
This female figure sculpted from mammoth ivory has an elegant convexity along its body length. Confidently cut from a platelet extracted from a tusk, the figure was scraped smooth and then polished possibly using ochre as bright red specks occur all over the piece and in surviving tool marks whereas the sediment covering the site is dark brown in colour. The back is formed by four cuts. The first downward facet forms the oblique, slightly concave line of the torso to the waist. The prominent, disproportionately large buttocks are formed by two cut facets from the waist to the prominence and from there into the thigh. This formed a point that was polished and rounded. From the base of the buttocks another facet forms the backward slope of the thin thigh. The front shows a rounded breast emphasised with incisions on the side directed towards the nipple. Below the breast the contour shows the striations caused by a scraping action. How such figures were viewed, shared and curated is unknown and this begs the question of whether their makers considered them as works of art treasured for their own sake or as amulets, charms or totems with some significance in a system of practices related to beliefs or social relationships.