Neolithic standing figurine
6th–5th millennium B.C.
The minimal amount of detail preserved on this abstract human form includes short arms pinched from the sides, and a horizontal projection believed to be the breasts. With so little information to go on, it might be difficult to understand how scholars can be confident this is a female figure. But male figures from the Neolithic era are rarer, and this figure lacks the clearly articulated genitals with which those male figures are typically defined.
Images courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0)