The Dame de Brassempouy (or Venus of Brassempouy) is a tiny head carved from mammoth ivory. It dates from the Upper Paleolithic and is about 25,000 years old. The fragmentary figurine is one of the earliest known realistic representations of a human face.
The Venus of Brassempouy is preserved in the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris. Since ivory is very susceptible to damage from factors such as temperature change, moisture, and light, the figure is not part of the Palaeolithic’s department, but it is exhibited in the Salle Piette of the Museum, only opened with reservation.
The Paleolithic Period coincides with the geological age known as the Pleistocene, which is marked by a general cooling of the earth’s temperature and the corresponding expansion and retreat of glaciers.
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Krista Marson 