"Early Hooters Girl"
Lower Dordogne, France, 20,000 BCE
46 cm ~ Incised sandstone

 

French restaurants of the middle Pleistocene featured elaborately painted walls with scenes of wildlife. To boost attendance many restaurant owners featured topless or nude serving-girls, chosen for the robust figure that was popular at that era. This bartender's wench is delivering a horn of mead to a thirsty patron. The 13 marks on the side of the horn mean that this is his 13th serving for the night, which places the age of the carving at very nearly closing time.

 

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