I recently started listening to the BBC’s A History of the World in 100 Objects, a collaboration between BBC 4 and the British Museum. The goal of the program is, just like the title says, to tell the entirety of human history through 100 objects that can be found at the British Museum.
The seventh episode is all about the Ain Sakhri Lovers sculpture which is believed to have been carved around 9000 CE. Some have considered it the first depiction of human lovemaking in the arts. The stone is especially noted for its clever depictions depending on how it is viewed. As you can see from the picture above the stone can be two lovers embracing, a penis, a vagina, or breasts.
The reason I’m writing about it, is I was stunned and a little awed by the sculpture. That 11,000 odd years ago a man or woman who is nothing like me, but just like me, took this cobble out of a stream and sculpted this piece and here it is now speaking to me in a wordless language that is as powerful and understandable today as it was then…
