1), reposited at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, is exactly 110 mm in height and represents a symbolized adult and faceless female with exaggerated genitalia, pronounced haunches, a protruding belly, heavy breasts, and a sophisticated headdress or hairdo 4, 5.

Willendorf is thus one of the earliest evidences in Europe for early modern human settlings and emphasizes the significant role of the Danube corridor for modern human dispersal. The occupation of Willendorf II itself goes far back into the Early Aurignacian, when people first settled in a cold steppe-type environment 43,500 years BP 3. Both layers are associated with Gravettian industries. The excavation documentation leaves space for interpretation as far as the attribution of the horizon with the figurine to layer Willendorf II/9 (29.1–28.8 ka cal BP 3) is concerned, but the figurine evidently comes from an archaeological horizon 25 cm below 2 Layer 9, possibly equivalent with Layer 8a (< 30.8–29.2 ka cal BP 3), and is therefore roughly 30,000 years old. The Venus I figurine was found on the left bank of the Danube in Willendorf II/Lower Austria on August 7th, 1908 1, 2 during excavations led by Josef Szombathy, supervised by Hugo Obermaier and Josef Bayer.

Origin thin setup