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Laussel Goddess This stylized depiction of the Great Mother dates to 20,000 BCE. The original is 17 inches tall, carved into an undulating slab of limestone at the entrance to a paleolithic sacred cave in the Dordogne region of France. Her featureless head inclined gracefully, her pregnant belly and thighs in prominent relief, she gazes at the bison horn held in her right hand, while her left points to the sacred triangle of her vulva. For Ice Age humanity the bull's horn symbolized both the sexual vigor of the male and the lunar crescent. Thirteen incisions of this horn represent the lunar months, and other finds within the womb-like cave suggest it was the location of fertility rituals.
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