Ice Age Art at the British Museum

The object pictured here could easily have been created by Henry Moore. Or by Henri Matisse. Or by Pablo Picasso. Indeed, Picasso was fascinated by this object and studied it and even had copies made. But this object is the oldest known ceramic figure in the world. It was found in Dolni Vestonice, Moravia, in the Czech Republic, and dates from between 31,000 and 27,000 years ago. Yeah, wow.

The British Museum has brought together a collection of Ice Age Art for us to compare it with a few well-chosen modern day pieces and decide if we think this is art. The team even tried an experiment to see how long it would take to replicate one of the prize pieces using the same tools and materials and they clocked up 400 hours of skilled work. That doesn't sound like a pure hunter-gatherer to me. I saw a preview of this exhibition so have written more about Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind.

• British Museum Visitor Information

Image: © Laura Porter | London Travel Blog