Venus of Brassempouy [Dame à la Capuche]

French archaeologist, Edouard Piette, was born this date in 1827 and was the most fortunate discoverer of the Venus of Brassempouy [Dame à la Capuche (Lady with the Hood)] 67 years later in the Grotte du Pape [Pope's Cave] in Brassempouy, France. This beautiful figure was carved by a Cro-Magnon artificer from a mammoth's tusk and being only 1-1/2" in height and nearly 25,000 years old. It now is in the collection at the Musee d'Archaeologie Nationale at Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris. As far as I know, the oldest female figurine is the Venus of Willendorf and is about 35,000 years old.



Edouard Piette