It is a female statuette in soapstone (translucent steatite between yellow and brown) known as the "Statuina di Grimaldi" (Italian town on the border with France) or "Statuine of Menton" (French town on the border with Italy) for the locality where it was found, the Barma Grande cave in the Balzi Rossi complex, located on the border between Italy and France. It is dated to the Upper Paleolithic (about 18.000 BC), presenting the typical characteristics: naked figure with pendulous breasts resting on the belly, the latter and the prominent buttocks, pubis and vulva well marked; the arms are missing with sloping shoulders, while the legs are interrupted at the knees; turning the piece upside down, the lower part has 2 holes with a conical section, one for each missing limb which probably went missing. The head is oval with no facial features, with a headdress (in some cases a thick mane of hair) extending down the back as a triangular appendage. Several traces of ocher are present around the neck, breasts, pubis and between the legs.

Historical notes

The figurine was found by a certain Louis Alexandre Jullien, a merchant from Marseille, between 18 and 23 December 1883 (together with another called the "lady with the goiter", made of deer bone) in the Barma Grande of Balzi Rossi. After more than a decade it was offered for sale to Salomon Reinach, then director of the Musée des Antiquités Nationales of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a purchase which was completed in 1896 together with other objects from the same cave.
The historical information concerning the finds is described in the essay "Mothers of Time"and "The Balzi Rossi".