23,000-Year-Old

This Newly Discovered 23,000-Year-Old Statue Has a Kim Kardashian-Worthy Booty

Archaeologists believe that a 23,000-year-old statue discovered in the Bryansk region of Russia was meant to depict Venus, but the artwork’s prominent rear end is prompting comparisons to what some might consider a modern-day goddess—reality star Kim Kardashian.

The Paleolithic statue, which is just two inches tall, was carved from a woolly mammoth tusk, and depicts a prehistoric women, possibly pregnant, of impressive proportions. The artwork’s shapely buttocks recalls Kardashian’s best-known feature, which she infamously flaunted for a 2014 cover of Paper Magazine that bore the headline “Break the Internet Kim Kardashian.”

“This statuette pictures a rather portly woman, but it looks fantastically delicate, probably due to the long and thin legs,” Konstantin Gavrilov, deputy head of Stone Age archeology department at the Archeology Institute, Moscow, and leader of the exhibition, told the Siberian Times. “The figurine with slightly bended legs recalls Danae,” he added, referring to the Greek goddess as painted by Rembrandt van Rijn.

Tabloids like the Daily Mail and the Mirror have predictably latched on to the more contemporary comparison, juxtaposing images of the prehistoric artwork with the photograph of Kardashian’s bare back and butt.

This isn’t the first time that the provocative Paper cover has been compared to ancient art: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art cashed in on the spectacle shortly after the magazine’s release, comparing Kardashian’s shapely rear end to a 6,000-year-old Neolithic female figure in its own collection. According to the museum, the full legs and bottom were likely meant to symbolize fertility.

The older statue discovered in Russia also appears connected to a cult of fertility, but, according to Gavrilov, that is unlikely as the artwork predates the existence of agriculture. The figure was found amid a cache of mammoth bones painted with sienna, and layers of limestone.

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