Figure of a woman insinuated in stone
Ölknitz, Thüringens, Germany
Slate
Height: 5 cms
Museum für Ur-und Frühgeschichte Thüringens, Weimar
2191/97
The suggestive shape of the slate pebble has been deliberately accentuated to reproduce the silhouette female form in three dimensions. Little flakes were knocked off using a stone hammer to enhance the curve of the buttocks and straighten the back. On the opposite edge the flaking has created the concave line from the thigh to below the breast and then the convexity of the bosom.
These minimally modified figures are found as exceptional objects among stone artefacts and foods remains on late Ice Age sites in France, Germany and Poland. They have clear signs of deliberate modification and conform to a style of abstracting the female form.
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