Statue of 35,000-year-old nude woman

A German scientist has discovered a statue of nude ivory women dating to 35,000 years. This is the oldest evidence of human obsession with naked women.

The ivory statue has an exaggerated style, depicting a woman with big breasts, a wide ass and a big thigh.Photo: AP.

The small statue, found at Hohle Fels cave in southwestern Germany in September 2008, may be the oldest work in human art. It is 6 cm long, headless and made from the tusks of a mammoth. This finding can help scientists understand the origin of painting and the creation of imaginary thinking (including complex language). The person who found it was Nicholas Conard, an anthropologist from the University of Tubingen (Germany).

'If we need to draw some conclusions from the statue, we can say that sexual obsession began at least 35,000 years ago. However, this is not surprising, because if people are not obsessed with sex then we cannot survive for 2 million years , 'anthropologist Paul Mellars of Cambridge University (UK). stated.

However, nude women are not the only objects inspiring original artists. People also find many statues of male genitalia in Europe. They have the same age as the nude female statue in Germany.

Archaeologists have also found many paintings that are older (75,000-95,000 years ago) in Africa, but all have abstract content. This is the first ancient work of art to represent a real object.

The transition from abstract art to descriptive art is considered an important step for humanity. Anthropologists believe that it marks the "jump" in human thinking ability. Some experts also argue that the development of art goes hand in hand with the evolutionary path of language.

'Language is a symbolic system, because words represent things and phenomena. Art also shows the ability to abstract thinking. Because abstract thinking is the nucleus of language, people often try to associate art and language with each other , 'Mellars explained.

Anthropologists not only appreciate the chronology of the nude female statue, but also pay attention to its distinctive shaping style. 'The statue possesses exaggerated characteristics about women such as big and raised breasts, exposed sexual organs, enlarged buttocks and big thighs. By the standards of the 20th century, one could consider the statue to be pornographic. But at that time, it most likely represented women's fertility , 'Mellars said.