Small carvings of women that could fit into the hand made by the Cro-Magnon people. They were not portraits but rather faceless idealized representations of well fed, healthy, usually pregnant women with large buttocks. Because of these characteristics, they are thought by most paleoanthropologists to be ritual objects symbolizing female fertility. Many of these stylized carvings are reminiscent of modern abstract art. Venus figurines were made from 27,000 years ago down to the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago.