Barbara Toy followed the Mediterranean coastline of North Africa, travelling through what was then French Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, to Cyprus, then down through Lebanon, Syria and then through Jordan to Iraq. While in Iraq she visited several archaeological sites, including in May 1951 Sir Max Mallowan's excavations at Nimrud where his wife Agatha Christie was helping with processing the finds. The work on the site had just finished, and the finds for that season included the stele of King Assur-nasir-pal II. Her journey home is not described in the book, although in her second book "A Fool in the
Venus figurines of Gönnersdorf always in profile without a head. The Montastruc decorated stone (Palart 518) in the British Museum has similar stylization. Venus figurines of Gönnersdorf The Venus figurines from Gönnersdorf, at Neuwied, are paleolithic sculptures depicting the female body. Gerhard Bosinski led the excavations between 1968 and 1976 at Neuwied a town on the Rhine in Germany. The figures consist of carved bone, antler or Mammoth tusk ivory. They are between 15,000 and 11,500 years old and stem from the Magdalenian period. These figurines are between 5.4 and 8.7 cm long. At the same place many engravings of animals, human beings and