No graphic object is isolated. The more "natural" is appears, the more culturally indicative it is

a stone wheel, Mesopotamia

Venus of Dolci Vestonice (11 cm) from upper paleolithic (circa 80,000 BC)

The point is that objects belong in a time and space. the venus of Vestonice is not a "venus" in our modern sense. It's a female symbol of fertility that upper Paleolithic people used. 

 

Young pregnant women would touch it, believing it would ensure many healthy births. 

It was not art. It was magic. 

We have to understand the history to understand the use and form.

Same with these masks:

oldest known masks (9,000 BC), late neolithic

People wore masks for ritual ceremonies. Today, we hang them on a wall.