Some of the most iconic artifacts of the Ice Age are more than 200 so-called Venus figurines. Made by hunter-gatherers from stone, bone, ivory, and even kiln-fired clay 10,000 to 40,000 years ago, these female statuettes have been found at archaeological sites from France to Siberia. Were they toys, educational aids, dolls, personal ornaments, or sexual artifacts? All of these at once—or something else entirely? Paleolithic archaeologist April Nowell explores what they might have meant to the societies who made them and the complicated history of the interpretation of Venus figurines. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)