The Venus of Hohle Fels (also known as the Venus of Schelklingen), an Upper Paleolithic “Venus” figurine found near Schelklingen, Germany, is dated to between forty thousand and thirty-five thousand years ago.
Belonging to the early Aurignacian, at the very beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, which is associated with the assumed earliest presence of Homo sapiens in Europe (Early European Modern Humans), it is the oldest undisputed example of Upper Paleolithic art and figurative prehistoric art in general.
The figurine is a representation of a woman, putting emphasis on the vulva and the breasts.
Consequently, it is presumed to be an amulet related to fertility.
It is made of a woolly mammoth tusk and had broken into fragments, of which six have been recovered, with the left arm and shoulder still missing.
In place of the head, the figurine has a perforation so that it could have been worn as a pendant.
Archaeologist John J. Shea suggests it would have taken "tens if not hundreds of hours" to carve the figurine.
