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Ice Age Art: Sculptures and carvings dating back thousands of years on display

 
Extraordinary pieces of art created between 10,000 to 40,000 years ago are to be displayed at the British Museum. The collection gathers pieces on loan from museums all over Europe. The work will be show alongside modern pieces by Mondrian, Matisse and Henry Moore, who in particular felt the influence of the ancient art. The exhibition is open from February 7 and continues until May 26.

Spear thrower made from reindeer antler, sculpted as a mammoth. Found in the rock shelter of Montastruc, France, the sculpture is estimated to be between 13,000 and 14,000 years old (The Trustees of the British Museum)

Sculpted from steatite, found at Grimaldi, Italy, about 20,000 years old. Musée d'archéologie nationale, France (RMN/Jean-Gilles Berizz)

The Venus of Lespugue, a 25,000 year old ivory figurine discovered near the Pyrenees in 1922. Collection d'anthropologie du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle / Musée de l'Homme. (MNHN - MH / Daniel Ponsard)

A carving on the tip of a mammoth tusk depicts two reindeer one behind the other; 13,000 years old approximately, Montastruc, France (The Trustees of the British Museum)

A fragment of decorated reindeer bone has two reindeer engraved on the surface with two reindeer, one of which is now incomplete; Palaeolithic age which ended 10,000 years ago (The Trustees of the British Museum)

The oldest puppet or doll made of mammoth ivory, on loan from Moravian Museum, Anthropos Institute

The Venus of Dolní Věstonice, the oldest ceramic figure in the world dated between 29,000 - 25,000 BC, found at the Dolní Věstonice archaeological site in the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic. On loan from Moravian Museum, Anthropos Institute

The oldest known portrait of a woman sculpted from mammoth ivory found at Dolní Věstonice, Moravia, Czech Republic. c.26,000 years old (Moravian Museum, Anthropos Institute)