Venus of Tan-Tan made from material quartzite
Description
The Venus of Tan-Tan was described by Robert G. Bednarik. The object is a 6 cm long, 2.6 cm wide, and 1.2 cm thick, 10 gram quartzite. It was discovered in 1999 during an archaeological survey by Lutz Fiedler, state archaeologist of Hesse, Germany, in a river terrace deposit on the north bank of the Draa River, near the bridge of the N1 national route over the Draa, about 10 km to the northeast of the Moroccan town of Tan-Tan.
No dating of the artifact nor of the deposit as a whole has been performed. Both are attributed to the Middle Acheulean, which occurs between 500,000 and 300,000 BP in this region.
The object, including its "arms" and "legs", was created by natural geological processes. The horizontal grooves on both sides of the object seem to be formed partly naturally partly artificially (by percussion). The object also contains traces of pigment, which seems to be iron and manganese according to preliminary study.
constructed from material fabricated from material composed of material formed from material manufactured from material