1. Vienna celebrates Venus centenary
The 11cm-tall (four-inch) stone figure - the Venus of
Willendorf - will be in a special show at Vienna's Natural
History Museum with similar statuettes.
Austria's post office is also to unveil a stamp in her honour
on Friday, the Associated Press reports.
Fans can already buy chocolates, soap and sweets
modelled on her famously voluptuous figure.
A very early representation of a female body, the statuette
was found by archaeologists in the hamlet of Willendorf,
by the Danube, in 1908.
Given to the Natural History Museum, she first went on
public show in 1998. The display to mark the centenary of
her discovery, opening on Saturday, will also feature
figurines of women found in Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the AP says.
The Venus of Willendorf, which was not made from local materials, dates back to the
Paleolithic era, a time when woolly mammoth still roamed the area.
Walpurga Antl-Weiser, at the Natural History Museum, told the AP it was difficult to know
what the statuette's makers intended her to represent - perhaps a fertility symbol or
goddess - but she held a fascination for people.
"She's very corpulent but still very beautiful," she said. "One gets the feeling she has
become an icon."