BY IVAN PETRICEVIC · 11/12/2014
The Venus of Willendorf is a small statuette made out ofoolitic limestone found a hundred years ago during the Wachau railway construction in 1908 on the Danube in Lower Austria. It remains an enigma for experts and has fed archaeological research at the site sine its discovery. The figure is the subject of most prominent exhibition at the Museum of Natural history. Scholars suggest that the The Venus of Willendorf is at least25,000 years old.
This naked statuette was hidden from the public for ninety years, locked in a safe, until in 1998 it was displayed for the first time to the public at the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. Its importance, according to the Austrian archaeologists is that it precedes the discovery of other similar figures found in the 20’s and 30’s in the French Pyrenees, Moravia and Russia, it is a statuette that has been incredibly well preserved and it can be attributed unequivocally to a certain time.
Since it was discovered in 1908, a few archaeological investigations were performed on-site, although the place where the statuette was found offers very interesting prospects such as important details on the prehistorical climate and it allows to investigate the evolution over a period of 35,000 years.
In 2006 the multidisciplinary research resumed at the discovery site with the help of biologists, geologists and researchers from other specialties; that focused on older layers. Results from the layers date back to 60,000 years while the most recent 24,000 years and according to scholars it constitutes a unique phenomenon in Central Europe. Thanks to this research, scientists were able to learn that 40,000 years ago in Europe enormous changes took place, biologically modern man relieved the Neanderthal, culturally because new technologies and tools were invented. Due to the fact several objects were found such as jewelry, tools made of bone and remnants of techniques for stone processing, researchers had to rethink what they thought they knew about the Neanderthals.
Researchers are looking for tools and other objects that could help them identify who exactly used them, where and why. Until now, researchers have found up to nine layers of soil at the excavations of Willendorf and have identified up to nine different cultures with different stone tool and remains of several camps of hunters that go back to the first Ice Age.
Scientists believe that ancient man formed groups between 15 and 25 men that used to stay in these camps for several months a year, mainly in winter, with different activities from ‘expeditions’ in search of materials, collecting fruits and pursue hunting. The analysis of sediments had indicated how cold the weather was in the Palaeolithic era; fossils of over 50 different snails were found on site, indicating that there were fewer cold intervals and many oscillations. Scientist have not yet identified what importance The Venus of Willendorf held for ancient man even though there are several theories, researchers believe that The Venus of Willendorf was an erotic symbol or a goddess of fertility.
For 90 years, the naked, plump, with prominent breasts and belly and originally painted in red, little woman rested in a safe, until 1998, was first shown to the public in an exhibition on archaeology in Schonbrunn Palace Vienna.
Experts do not know where this statuette was made, nor the origin of the limestone that was used to make it, but discoveries of statues of similar design in many parts of Europe suggests that it was a widespread perception across the continent.
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| Material | Oolitic limestone |
|---|---|
| Created | c. 28,000 B.C.E – 25,000 B.C.E. |
| Discovered | 1908 near Willendorf, by Josef Szombathy |
| Present location | Naturhistorisches Museum,Vienna, Austria |
The Venus of Willendorf, now known in academia as the Woman of Willendorf, is a 11.1-centimetre (4.4 in) high statuette of a female figure estimated to have been made between about 28,000 and 25,000 BCE.[1] It was found in 1908 by a workman named Johann Veran[2] or Josef Veram[3] during excavations conducted by archaeologists Josef Szombathy, Hugo Obermaier and Josef Bayer at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, a village in Lower Austria near the city of Krems.[4] It is carved from an oolitic limestonethat is not local to the area, and tinted with red ochre. The figurine is now in the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.[5]
Venus of Willendorf is named after the site in Austria where it was unearthed.[6]
Several similar statuettes and other forms of art have been discovered, and they are collectively referred to as Venus figurines, although they pre-date the mythological figure of Venus by millennia.
Dating
After a wide variety of proposed dates, following a revised analysis of the stratigraphy of its site in 1990, the figure was estimated to have been carved 24,000–22,000 BCE,[4] but more recent estimates have pushed the date back ‘slightly’ to between about 28,000 and 25,000 BCE.
It is believed that the figure was carved during the Paleolithic Period, also known as the “Old Stone Age”. This period of Prehistory started around 30,000 BCE.[6]
Purpose
Very little is known about its origin, method of creation, or cultural significance, however, it is one of numerous Venus figurines or representations of female figures surviving from the Paleolithic period.[7]
The purpose of the carving is the subject of much speculation. It never had feet and does not stand on its own. Parts of the body associated with fertility and childbearing have been emphasized leading researchers to believe Venus of Willendorf may have been used as a fertility goddess.[7] The figure has no visible face, her head being covered with circular horizontal bands of what might be rows of plaited hair, or a type of headdress.[8]
The nickname, urging a comparison to the classical image of “Venus,” is now controversial. According to Christopher Witcombe, “the ironic identification of these figurines as ‘Venus’ pleasantly satisfied certain assumptions at the time about the primitive, about women, and about taste.”[9] Catherine McCoid and LeRoy McDermott hypothesise that the figurines may have been created as self-portraits.[10]
She was originally nicknamed la poire – “the pear” – on account of her shape. For Piette, the name “Venus” may have come to mind in this particular instance because of the emphatic treatment of the vulva‘s labia and the prominent, slightly protruding pubic area, which he tastefully refers to as “le mont de Vénus” – the mound of Venus (or mons pubis). “Venus” has since become the collective term used to identify all obese Palaeolithic statuettes of women.[11]
References
- Jump up^ Nude Woman (Venus of Willendorf), Smarthistory
- Jump up^ Antl-Weiser, Walpurga. “The anthropomorphic figurines from Willendorf”. Niederösterreichischen Landesmuseum,. Retrieved 24 December 2012.
- Jump up^ The Testimony of the Spade, Geoffrey Bibby, Alfred A. Knoff, New York, 1956. P.139
- ^ Jump up to:a b Venus of Willendorf Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, 2003.
- Jump up^ Witcombe, Christopher. Venus of Willendorf. Retrieved on January 18, 2008.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities, 8th Ed.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Culture and values : a survey of the humanities. Belmont: Wadsworth. ISBN 9781133945338.
- Jump up^ “Woman from Willendorf”. Her headdress replicates shell formations. Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe. 2003. “The rows are not one continuous spiral but are, in fact, composed in seven concentric horizontal bands that encircle the head and two more horizontal bands underneath the first seven on the back of the head.”
- Jump up^ “Name”. Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, 2003.
- Jump up^ McDermott, LeRoy. “Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines“. Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 2, April., 1996. pp. 227-275.
- Jump up^ http://72.52.202.216/~fenderse/Venus.htm
- Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe, “Women in Prehistory:Venus of Willendorf”.
- Venus figures from the Stone Age – The Venus of Willendorf
- The Invisible Sex: Uncovering the True Roles of Women in Prehistory by J.M. Adovasio, Olga Soffer and Jake Page, ISBN 978-0-06-117091-1, gives a new ‘view’ of headdress as possible model for weaving a basket; Lauran Miller review at Salon.com: [1]
Irish history, folklore and all that 
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