Venus figurines of Nebra

The Venus figurines of Nebra are highly stylized statuettes from the late Upper Palaeolithic, which are among the oldest known works of art in Saxony-Anhalt. They were produced in the 12th to 11th millennium BC and excavated near Nebra in 1962. The figurines can be seen in the permanent exhibition in the State Museum of Prehistory. In 2009, the Nebra statuettes were presented at the Moravské zemské muzeum and in 2011 at the Musée National de Préhistoire.
The figurines were found in the summer of 1962 during an archaeological emergency salvage on the site of the Altenburg, a red sandstone spur in the Unstrut valley northeast of Nebra. A 120 m² dwelling place of hunters from the late Upper Palaeolithic, the Magdalenian, was uncovered. In total, the excavators, Volker Toepfer, Helmut Hanitzsch and Dietrich Mania, discovered about sixty pit-like depressions and parts of a bright red stone slab pavement on a semicircular area of 9 m × 3.5 m, whereby the Stone Age traces had been partially destroyed by later Bronze Age settlement remains and a medieval fortification ditch. Most of the pits had a depth of more than half a metre and contained, in addition to a large number of artefact types made of stone, antlers and bone, well-preserved remains of hunting animals and sandstone slabs, which had apparently served to wedge the tent poles. The analysis of the animal bones found showed the fauna, which was mainly composed of wild horses and reindeer. Furthermore, mountain hare, polar fox and ptarmigan were detected. The finds and findings thus point to a Palaeolithic winter campground of the Ice Age hunters and suggest an older stage of the Magdalenian.

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