The sculpture of a woman made of ivory was presented today by German archaeologists in Tuebingen, Germany. The figure, found in 2008 in a cave in Schelklingen, is supposedly the world's oldest reproduction of a human with an estimated age of at least 35,000 years. Photo: EFE/Marijan Murat.

The finding is a sensation, since it offers a new light on the first artistic expressions of primitive man in Europe and probably in the whole world, informed Nicholas Conard, professor of archaeology from the University of Tuebingen and responsible for the excabations.

The figure, which measures just 6 centimeters long, was found in September during the excavations at Hohle Fels, close to Scheklingen, in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg, even though the discovery had been kept a secret until now.

"We were left speechless after seeing it", said Conard after presenting the figure in public for the first time. "It's very sexually charged," he added.

His colleague Pau Mellars wrote an article that will be published tomorrow in the scientific magazine "Nature", stating that the new venus is almost pornographic, taking into consideration the aesthetic values and morals of today.

The venus, which will be shown starting in september at Kunstgebäude in Stuttgart, was found broken in six piecesm some 20 meters from the entrance to the cave and is missing the left arm.

The site of Hohle Fels stands 534 meters above see level in the Ach River Valley, a tributary of the Danube. The excavations at Hohle Fels are currently directed by Nicholas Conard and Hans-Peter Uerpmann and have been ongoing since 1977. Hohle Fels Cave has yielded tens of thousands of finds dating to the Magdelanian ca. 13,000 years ago, and the Gravettian ca. 29,000 years ago. These finds include diverse stone tools, ornaments, remains of fireplaces, and the remains of game animals including reindeer, horse, mammoth and woolly rhinoceros.

Current evidence indicates that the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany was one of the central regions of cultural innovations after the arrival of modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago.

The research at Hohle Fels is conducted by the University of Tübingen and is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Heidelberger Zement company, the village of Schelklingen, the Office of State Archaeology in Baden-Württemberg and the Gesellschaft fªr Urgeschichte.