With a curvacious figure the discovery of the statue found in the ruins With a curvaceous figure and short stubby arms, the discovery of a 6,000-year-old earth mother in France shows how far the essence of beauty has changed over the centuries .
The unearthing of the extremely rare statue in Northern France has been given the rather grand title of ‘Lady of Villers-Carbonnel’ and is thought to be connected to a cult who worshipped a specific fertility goddess.
Immaculately preserved the 8 inch statue was made from local earth or clay and closely resembles figurines found across the Mediterranean.
It is unusual for a find to found so far north, experts told The Independent.
And it is because the figure was discovered broken in five or six parts while she was being fired, sometime between 4300 and 3600 BC, which has kept her so well preserved.
She was found in the ruins of a neolithic kiln on a dig near Villers-Carbonnell on the banks of the River Somme.
Archaeologist in charge of the dig, Francoise Bostyn, told The Independent the find could be one of many.
She said: ‘The statuette is very beautiful and remarkably preserved.
‘We sometimes find fragments of such statuettes but rarely the whole figure.’
She added the figure of the statue was very similar to figures found as far away as the Middle East from the same period.
The dig became possible after the French government ‘preventative archaeology agency, Inrap, gave permission and money to explore 77 sites along the 60-mile course of the new 50m wide Seine-Nord Europe canal.