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'Venus figurines' is an umbrella term for a number of prehistoric items in statuette form, of women (whether obese or pregnant is disputed) from the Aurignacian or Gravettian period of the upper Palaeolithic, found from Spain to Siberia. These items were carved from stone, bone or ivory, or molded in clay and fired. The latter are among the oldest ceramics known.
Like many prehistoric artifacts, the cultural meaning of these figures will never be known. Archaeologists speculate, however, that they may be emblems of security and success, fertility icons, pornographic imagery, or even direct representations of a Great Goddess or Mother Goddess or various local goddesses. The apparent obesity of the figures strongly implies a focus on fertility as, at the time of their construction, human society had not yet invented farming and did not have ready access to rich or plentiful foodstuffs. An image of excess weight may have symbolized a yearning for plenty and security.
The first known discovery of a Venus figurine occurred in Austria in 1908, when the Venus of Willendorf was found. The figurines continue without a major break, on through the Neolithic and into the Bronze Age high cultures. ^[1]
Examples of Venus figurines include:

★ Venus of Berekhat Ram (stone, about 233,000 to 800,000 years old)

★ Venus of Tan-Tan (stone, about 300,000 to 500,000 years old)

★ Venus of Lespugue (ivory, about 27,000 years old)

★ Venus of Dolní Věstonice (ceramic, about 27,000 to 31,000 years old)

★ Venus of Willendorf (limestone, about 24,000 to 26,000 years old)

★ Venus of Moravany (ivory, about 24,800 years old)

★ Venus of Brassempouy (ivory, about 22,000 years old)

★ Venus of Laussel (limestone relief, about 20,000 years old)
Two much older finds are also often categorized as Venus figurines — the Venus of Berekhat Ram, dating to between 800,000 and 233,000 BCE, and the Venus of Tan-Tan, which dates to between 500,000 and 300,000 BCE, the Middle Acheulean period. Found in Asia and Africa respectively, these were made of stone. Both pieces are very rough, and may have been given approximate human form by natural geological processes. However, the Venus of Berekhet Ram has striations suggesting human stone tool-work, and the Venus of Tan-Tan bears evidence of having been painted; "a greasy substance" on the stone's surface has been shown to contain iron and manganese and indicates that it was decorated by someone and used as a figurine, regardless of how it may have been initially formed.^[2]

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See also

Notes

External links

See also

★ Figurine

★ Pre-historic art

Notes

1. Walter Burkert, ''Homo Necans'' (1972) 1983:78, with extensive bibliography, including P.J. Ucko, who contested the identification with mother goddesses and argues for a plurality of meanings, in ''Anthropomorphic Figurines of Predynastic Egypt and Neolithic Crete with Comparative Materioal from the Prehistoric Near East and Mainland Greece'' (1968).
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3047383.stm

External links

★ Venus figures from the Stone Age

★ Images of women in ancient art

★ Venus from Cévennes National Park

★ Venus figurines through time - the mother goddess