Ca. 4000-3000 BC. Predynastic Period. A group of prehistoric stone tools and a statuette. The three tools are knapped flint and are each roughly rectangular in shape. One has received surface treatment to give it a geometric decorative pattern in a rectangular area. These would have been used as blades to cut things like food in the preparation of meals. The figure is a schematic rendering of a human, with a simple face showing a smiling expression, and a body that has truncated limbs and wide hips. The enlarged hips and missing limbs are quite typical of the so-called 'female figurine'. This fascinating object type has a difficult history of interpretation, but they are currently thought to have been representations of the life-giving abilities of women and birth, abilities which were evoked by these figurines within tombs in the hopes of the tomb-owner gaining new life and being reborn in the afterlife. These objects were typically highly schematised to focus on the reproductive elements of the body alone. Size: L:Set of 4: 22 -- 77mm / W:33 - 36mm ; 40g. From a London private family collection; formerly acquired on the UK art market in the 1960s - 1970s; thence by descent.