Is There a "Twin" to the Moravian Venus of Predmosti?

Very interesting...

Czech prehistoric engraved "Venus" has "twin sister" in USA
ČTK | 7 February 2011

Venus Predmosti.

Brno, Feb 4 (CTK) - The prehistoric Czech "Venus of Predmosti", north Moravia, an engraving of a woman on a mammoth tusk, which is one of the oldest artifacts in Europe, may exist in another version that is in a U.S. collection, Martina Galetova, from Brno's museum, has told CTK.

The engraving dating back to the Upper Palaeolithic Age was found over 100 years ago by archaeologist Martin Kriz. It is housed in the Moravian Land Museum (MZM) in Brno. (Image, right: line drawing of engraving on bone).

The possible "twin sister" of the "Venus of Predmosti" is owned by U.S. art collector Duncan Caldwell.

Both engravings are very similar. Experts from the Moravian museum are not fully convinced that Caldwell's artifact is genuine.

"It must be further examined thoroughly. However, he (Caldwell) has not given his consent to it yet," Galetova, from the museum, who examined Caldwell's Venus for a short time, told CTK.

If it were proved that both artifacts were made in the same locality at the same time, while one of them disappeared and was uncovered only recently, it would be a real sensation since "Venus of Predmosti" is unparalleled in Europe.

The prestigious Journal of Archaeological Science will report on the find of another "Venus ofPredmosti" in March.

Galetova said she hoped that she would persuade Caldwell to agree with a further exploration of his artifact.

The "Venus of Predmosti" is unique thanks to its style since an engraving of a female figure was not typical for palaeolithic artists who mainly created geometrical engravings and plastic artifacts. Moreover, the woman's head on the engraving is in an unusual triangular shape.

According to some expert opinions, it might be a shaman's work.

Caldwell showed his "Venus" (also an engraving on a bone) only recently to researchers in France. Galetova, who was in France then, had a chance of having a look at the work.

Caldwell's artifact has the same part missing as the "Venus of Predmosti" and there is also an inscription on it identifying the excavation site: Predmosti and "Moravie" (that is Moravia).

It is certain that Kriz, the pioneer of archaeology in Moravia, had no idea about the existence of another "Venus of Predmosti."

Archaeologists have found out that the "sister" was in the hands of the noble family of de Saint-Perier several decades ago.

The family members were fans of prehistoric art and expressed interest in the archaeological research in Predmosti. Around 1990 the heirs offered the "Venus" for sale and Caldwell bought it.

"It is certainly a (pre)historical piece, not an imitation. It was created by a similar engraving method. However, it is hard to say whether it really comes from Predmosti," Galetova noted, adding that it cannot be ruled out either.

Stone Age "Venus" Figurines

Stone Age site reveals 'extraordinary' artworks From CNN.com/Technology December 3, 2008 By Richard Allen Greene CNN CNN) -- Archaeologists in Russia have discovered an "extraordinary" group of Stone Age artworks which appear to have been carefully buried in pits and covered with mammoth bones, the researchers announced this week in a newly published paper. Archaeologists uncovered these Stone Age figures buried in pits southeast of Moscow. At least some of the 21,000-22,000-year-old objects appear to have been regarded as magical, the scientists surmise. The collection includes the only example of engravings of images found to date at the site -- what appear to be three overlapping mammoths only a few centimeters long and carved onto the rib of a mammoth. "The main lines of the image are clear, not ragged; they were made by confident, unbroken movements," Hizri Amirkhanov and Sergey Lev write. The carving may have been part of a hunting ritual, Lev told CNN. The objects they describe in their new paper "show an extraordinary repertoire of incised carving on mammoth ivory plaques and carving in the round, including representations of women and large mammals, and geometric decoration on bone utensils," they write. They also uncovered two female figures, including one 16.6 centimeters tall with a head they call particularly accurate in shape. The figures, which Lev called Venus statuettes, had been carefully placed in pits and surrounded with colored sand, Lev said. The archaeologists uncovered the objects in 2005 at a site called Zaraysk, which was discovered in 1980. The site is about 100 miles southeast of Moscow. Researchers have been excavating the site since 1995, and have found a necklace made of teeth of the arctic fox and a carving of a bison made from mammoth ivory. Zaraysk is the northernmost known location for a style of Stone Age artwork called Kostenski-Avdeevo after two other locations where art of that type has been found. Lev said the Zaraysk site was on a par with Kostenski and Avdeevo "in terms of the splendor and variety of its art." The site dates from the Upper Paleolithic period, which began about 40,000 years ago and lasted until roughly 10,000 years ago. Amirkhanov and Lev's article, "New Finds of Art Objects from the Upper Palaeolithic Site of Zaraysk, Russia," is to be published in the December issue of the magazine Antiquities, a York, England-based journal that describes itself as a quarterly review of world archaeology. A version of their article appeared on the journal's website on Monday; the print version is due out soon, reviews editor Madeleine Hummler said. The researchers are associated with the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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Here is a link to the online version of the article at Antiquity.