clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk   
Rare artefacts from the late Stone Age have been uncovered in Russia.
Palaeolithic figurine (Antiquity)
The carving has a feminine form, reminiscent of "Venus" figurines found from Siberia to the Pyrenees

The site at Zaraysk, 150km south-east of Moscow, has yielded figurines and carvings on mammoth tusks.

The finds also included a cone-shaped object whose function, the authors report in the journal Antiquity, "remains a puzzle".

Such artistic artefacts have been found in the nearby regions of Kostenki and Avdeevo, but this is the first such discovery at Zaraysk.

This collection of artefacts is spectacular in a number of ways
Jeffrey Brantingham, UCLA