Female figure made from a fragment of stalactite
Montastruc, Bruniquel, France.
Calcite
Height: 3 cms
The British Museum
Palart.710
This figure is a transformation of the fortuitous shape of a fragment broken from a thin straw of stalactite. The top of the torso and lower slope of the buttocks are formed by the removal of flakes to create oblique facets which lack the rough outer surface of the raw material visible on the rest of the figure. The curvature of the buttocks is also slightly modified by a picking action and the concavity of the front of the figure from the waist down and along the thigh is ground down to form its distinct feminine line.