depicting female figures such as engravings, statuettes, and relief carvings (Leonard 102) –featuring exaggerated buttocks, breasts, vulvas, and bellies with no details like fingers, toes, or even mouths and eyes. Ex. Venus of Willendorf (24,00-22,000 B.C.E.) and Venus of Dolni Vestonice (26,000-24,000 BCE.) B. Bridge These new findings raised a big question among archeologists. Connect this to how they thought there was a Great Goddess. Also add that currently many divines are male. How is this possible
The Venus of Willendorf is one of the best known examples of Paleolithic Art. Found in 1908, by archaeologist Josef Szombathy, it was discovered in an Aurignacian region of what is today Willendorf, Austria. The Aurignacian Culture, which stemed across central Afro-Eurasia around roughly 45,000 BCE to 27,000 BCE, were an Upper Paleolithic culture of hunter gatherers. Standing about four and a quarter inch, she is made out of Oolitic Limestone not indigenous to the area in which she was found. It
Throughout history, the importance of fertility has been identified and manifested by humanity. Venus Figurines are the earliest representation to the subject of fertility. One of the main concerns of prehistoric man was the ability to procreate and bring forward additional members to the clan. This concern was also shared by our ancestors during the last 10,000 years, and has been the subject of inspiration for many ancient history artists. The two great imperatives in the ancient world were to
adore and glorify female fertility. There are three reasons why most historians who study the Paleolithic era support this traditional idea. One, most analysts only use a sampling of the 188 figurines and most of them are pregnant. Secondly, the name Venus itself conjures up the notion of fertility. Thirdly, most analysts assume that during the Paleolithic era that childbearing was something that was sacred and thus needing to be glorified with a statue. Rice offers an alternative point of view of the
three images of female deities from three different cultures, the culture/religion that they represent, the function they have served, and how women are represented, and those are, Venus of Dolní Věstonice, the Yakshi bracket figure, and the Innana/Ishtar with Lions and Owls. With regards to the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, it is a sculpture molded of clay and bone ash and is 11.5 cm high and 4.3cm from its widest point, the pelvis, and it is located in in the Czech province of Moravia. According to