It is a statuette out of a total of 15, found during the excavations at the Balzi Rossi complex, a stone's throw from the French border, at the Barma Grande at about 6 meters deep, in a layer containing hearths and carved tools typical of the early Epigravettian , dated to 17.000 BC Indicated by White and Bisson, those who in 1998 represented 14 statuettes in a single painting, with the number 02; it is also called "Janus" because the face, with sculpted eyes and mouth, is represented on both sides of the flattened statuette. A series of discontinuous incisions are evident on the head to represent a hood or hairstyle. Carved on a fragment of opaque dark green steatite, it has oval-shaped breasts, with a prominent belly, flattened buttocks and a small open sculpted vulva; knees and feet are completely absent. Between the breast and the neck there is a hole made before the modeling of the breasts, probably because it was used as a pendant. There are evident traces of reddish material, probably ocher, especially within the furrow between the legs.

Historical notes

The figurine was discovered during the excavations organized between 1883 and 1884 by Louis Alexandre Jullien, a merchant from Marseilles, at the Barma Grande; after Jullien's death, one of the daughters, who in the meantime had moved to the United States, Laurence, sold it in 1944 to the Peabody Museum of Harvard University together with about 380 stone tools found by Jullien in the excavations at Barma Grande.
The historical information concerning the finds is described in the essay "Mothers of Time"and "The Balzi Rossi".