World's oldest portrait reveals the ice-age mind

17:35 25 January 2013

Julia Sklar, reporter

Twenty-six thousand years ago in the Czech Republic, one of our ice-age ancestors selected a hunk of mammoth ivory and carved this enigmatic portrait of a woman - the oldest ever found. By looking at artefacts like this as works of art, rather than archaeological finds, a new exhibition at the British Museum in London hopes to help us see them and their creators with new eyes.

(Image: Moravian Museum, Anthropos Institute)

Human ancestors date back millions of years, but the earliest evidence of the human mind producing symbolic imagery as a form of creative expression cannot be much older than 100,000 years. That evidence comes from Africa: this exhibition explores the later dawning of representative art in Europe and shows that even before the remarkable paintings of the Lascaux cave, France, humans were able to make work as subtle as the expressive face above.

"By looking at the oldest European sculptures and drawings we are looking at the deep history of how our brains began to store, transform and communicate ideas as visual images," says Jill Cook, the show's curator. "The exhibition will show that we can recognise and appreciate these images. Even if their messages and intentions are lost to us, the skill and artistry will still astonish the viewer."

Cook points to a figurative 23,000-year-old mammoth ivory sculpture from Lespugue, France, which is also in the exhibition. It so fascinated Pablo Picasso with its cubist qualities that he kept two copies of it. "This figure demonstrates a visual brain capable of abstraction, the essential quality needed to acquire and manipulate knowledge which underpins our ability to analyse what we see," says Cook.

Ice Age Art: Arrival of the modern mind runs at the British Museum, London, from 7 February to 26 May

The question foremost in my mind after I read this article and examined the carving was "how do they know this is a woman?" And, guess I'm not alone. So, I typed my comment/question and submitted it, before reading what anyone else said about this carving. Lo and behold, most of the other commenters were wondering the same thing. Five of the six comments at the time asked the same question I did - how do you know it's a woman?

Is it because many of the earliest ivory carvings that archaeologists have discovered are of well endowed, rotund faceless females? Is it because of the sort of female feline look to the face? It almost looks like a blend between a female feline and a human woman -- like a creature caught between two worlds. And just when did felines and females become identified, so much so that even today there are slang/gross sexual terms for females and certain parts of the female anatomy that allude to the feline? But in many cultures in later times men were often identified with lions and tigers, so -- who knows? Is it because of the "hairdo," that looks like a woman with her hair pinned up with a "bun" on top? But it could just as easily be a depiction of a hat, cap or headdress and how would we know?

I was thinking it's someone who lost an eye! Perhaps a "hunter?" After looking and looking, I don't see any indication that the eye on the right side (looking at the image) was damaged somehow over the years. It looks like it was deliberately placed lower than the eye on the left, the eyebrow -- if that is an eyebrow -- is shaped a lot differently than the one on the left of the image, and it appears there is no iris, unlike the eye that is shaped on the left.

The thing is, we have no fricking idea what the culture/life of people who lived 26,000 years ago was like in the land we today call the Czech Republic. We should not be projecting our gender and cultural biases on this carving.

As for what this carving reveals about the mind of the person who carved it - that's just a joke. I've no idea, and anyone who says otherwise is just guessing. I mean, really! Why can we not appreciate these artifacts for their beauty and amazing stories of actually having survived all this time, against all odds, instead of trying to inject more into and upon them? Geez!