ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Venus of Tan-Tan

Okay kiddo, have you ever heard of the Venus of Tan-Tan before? It's a really old piece of rock that some people think looks like a little statue of a person!

A long, long time ago, before cars or even bicycles existed, there were some people who lived in a place called Africa. They didn't have TV or video games like we do now, so they spent a lot of time exploring the world around them. Sometimes they would find special rocks or stones and they would make them into special things.

One day, some of these people found a rock that looked sort of like a person. They called it the Venus of Tan-Tan. Venus was a goddess in ancient Roman mythology who was very beautiful, and Tan-Tan is the name of the place where the rock was found.

Now, the Venus of Tan-Tan isn't a real person or even a real statue - it's just a piece of rock that looks like one. But it's still really important because it was made a very long time ago, even before your great-great-great-grandparents were born!

Scientists have studied the Venus of Tan-Tan and they think it might be one of the oldest human-made objects ever found. That means that people from a really long time ago, maybe even before there were books or written languages, were already making things and leaving their mark on the world.