"Venus" of Willendorf (Austria) is actually a statuette carved from an oolitic limestone c. 24,000-22,000 B.C.E. It is the most famous early image of a human, a woman. She has become an icon of prehistoric art. "Venus" exhibits a physical and sexual self that seems unrestrained, unfettered by cultural taboos and social conventions. Her image conveys natural femaleness and female powers.

It has been speculated and argued that the image of "Venus" of Willendorf denote the existence (during the Paleolithic period) a dominant female deity identified as the Earth Mother or the Mother Goddess. It's suggested that in Paleolithic society a matriarch existed and that women ruled.