This stone-carving, dated between 24,000 and 22,000 BCE, has been dubbed Venus of Willendorf because she was found in Willendorf, Austria. Today she's housed in a museum in nearby Vienna.
It is carved from an oolitic limestone that is not local to the area, and tinted with red ochre.
Is she a primal mother goddess, representation of women or a particular woman, an image used in fertility rituals, or a doll?
The Venus is not a realistic portrayal, notes Wikipedia, but rather an idealization of the female figure. The figure has no visible face, her head being covered with circular horizontal bands of what might be rows of plaited hair, or a type of headdress.[2]
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