Venus of Lespugue

The Venus of Lespugue is only about 15 centimetres tall, but it is one of the most striking pieces of Ice Age art. It was carved from mammoth ivory some 26,000 to 24,000 years ago, in the Gravettian period, and found in 1922 by René de Saint-Périer in the Rideaux cave at Lespugue, in the foothills of the Pyrenees in Haute-Garonne. The figurine was damaged during excavation, and what you see today is partly a reconstruction.

Among the so-called Venus figurines of Palaeolithic Europe, this one pushes the stylisation furthest. Seen from the front, breasts, belly and hips swell into a near-symmetrical diamond, while the small head and tapering legs almost disappear. The back is just as interesting: below the hips the carver cut a hanging skirt of parallel cords, twisted and frayed at the ends. Textile historians have pointed to it as one of the earliest known depictions of spun thread, evidence for string-making tens of thousands of years before weaving on looms.

The figurine belongs to the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle and is kept at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, in the Palais de Chaillot, where it is one of the emblems of the prehistory collection.

Getting there

The Musée de l'Homme is in the Palais de Chaillot at Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, about 120 metres from Trocadéro metro station, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. From Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), RER B runs into central Paris in about 35 to 45 minutes. The find site at Lespugue lies about 46 km from Auch and 55 km from Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées Airport (LDE).