A Different View on Those Ancient "Venuses"

'Palaeo-porn': we've got it all wrong

• 13 November 2012 by Jude Isabella
• Magazine issue 2890

The idea that curvaceous figurines are prehistoric pornography is an excuse to legitimise modern behaviour as having ancient roots, says archaeologist April Nowell

 

"Lady of Villners-Carbonnel", 2011.

 

Which Palaeolithic images and artefacts have been described as pornography?

The Venus figurines of women, some with exaggerated anatomical features, and ancient rock art, like the image from the Abri Castanet site in France that is supposedly of female genitalia.

 

You take issue with this interpretation. Who is responsible for spreading it, journalists or scientists?

People are fascinated by prehistory, and the media want to write stories that attract readers - to use a cliché, sex sells. But when a New York Times headline reads "A Precursor to Playboy: Graphic Images in Rock", and Discover magazine asserts that man's obsession with pornography dates back to "Cro-Magnon days" based on "the famous 26,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf statuette...[with] GG-cup breasts and a hippopotamal butt", I think a line is crossed. To be fair, archaeologists are partially responsible - we need to choose our words carefully.

 

Having studied Upper Palaeolithic figurines closely, what did you find?

They are incredibly varied beyond the few figurines seen over and over again: the Venus of Hohle Fels, the Venus of Willendorf and the Venus of Dolní Veˇstonice. Some are male, some are female; some are human, some are animals or fantastical creatures; some wear items of clothing, others do not. A recent study by my doctoral student Allison Tripp and her colleague Naomi Schmidt demonstrated that the body shapes of female figurines from around 25,000 years ago correspond to women at many different stages of life; they're a variety of shapes and sizes. All of this suggests that there are multiple interpretations.

 

Aren't other interpretations of palaeo-art just as speculative as calling them pornographic?

Yes, but when we interpret Palaeolithic art more broadly, we talk about "hunting magic" or "religion" or "fertility magic." I don't think these interpretations have the same social ramifications as pornography. When respected journals - Nature for example - use terms such as "Prehistoric pin-up" and "35,000-year-old sex object", and a German museum proclaims that a figurine is either an "earth mother or pin-up girl" (as if no other roles for women could have existed in prehistory), they carry weight and authority. This allows journalists and researchers, evolutionary psychologists in particular, to legitimise and naturalise contemporary western values and behaviours by tracing them back to the "mist of prehistory".

 

Will we ever understand what ancient art really means?

The French, in particular, are doing incredible work analysing paint recipes and tracing the movement of the ancient artists as they painted. We may never have the knowledge to say, "This painting of a bison meant this", but I am confident that a detailed study of the corpus of ice age imagery, including the figurines, will give us a window on to the "lived life" in the Palaeolithic.

Profile

April Nowell is a Palaeolithic archaeologist at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Her paper "Pornography is in the eye of the beholder: Sex, sexuality and sexism in the study of Upper Paleolithic figurines", co-authored with Melanie Chang, will appear next year.

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Well, she may well be correct with respect to some of the figurines and representations found over the years; but then again, it's hard to dismiss the so-called of "Lady of Villners-Carbonnel" (photograph from a 2011 article) as something other than a representation of a very impressive woman, indeed.  Now, was she a fertility figure?  Was she meant to be a Mother Goddess?  Was she an icon of a powerful female shamanic figure?  Was she a representation of a female clan leader?  Who knows?  I do not agree with calling this kind of art "pornographic" but certainly it was a very important part of prehistoric humans' legacy to us today and until we can uncover thousands of  figurines such as this one, as well as male and animal representations, I think the lady dost protest a wee bit too much. 

Let's wait and see what we find in the future, what dating tells us, what our own eyes tell us, what context tells us (if anything), and for now, let's just enjoy and marvel at the unique and wonderful beauty of each and every one of these pieces that have been found.  Imagine surviving 5,000 years?  Imagine surviving 25,000 years?  Maybe I'm being totally lame-o here, but I do not think that so many figurines of female figures survived BY ACCIDENT.  Just saying...

"Earth Mother of the Somme"

As mother goddesses go, she is relatively young -- a mere 6,000 or so years old.  What is unique about her is that she is made of fired clay, and managed to survive, thanks to breaking apart during the firing process!  She also looks rather 'cyclidic', doesn't she...

From the independent.co.uk

The earth mother of all neolithic discoveries
John Lichfield

Paris

Saturday 10 December 2011

"Earth Mother of the Somme" or the "Lady of Villers-Carbonnel"

French archaeologists have discovered an extremely rare example of a neolithic "earth mother" figurine on the banks of the river Somme.

The 6,000-year-old statuette is 8in high, with imposing buttocks and hips but stubby arms and a cone-like head. Similar figures have been found before in Europe but rarely so far north and seldom in such a complete and well-preserved condition.

The "lady of Villers-Carbonnel", as she has been named, can make two claims to be an "earth mother". She was fired from local earth or clay and closely resembles figurines with similar, stylised female bodies found around the Mediterranean.

Although neolithic experts are revising their opinions, the figures have long believed to have been connected with the existence of a cult which worshipped a goddess of the hearth or of fertility.

The Somme "earth mother" appears to have broken into five or six parts while she was being fired between 4300 and 3600 BC. She was found in the ruins of a neolithic kiln at a French government "preventive" archaeological dig near Villers-Carbonnel on the banks of the river Somme in the département of the same name.

The figurine may be just the beginning of a vast archaeological harvest in Northern France in the next few years, stretching from palaeolithic times to the First World War. The French government's "preventive archaeology" agency, Inrap, has been given permission and the funds to explore 77 sites along the 60-mile course of the new 50m-wide Seine-Nord Europe canal for ocean-going barges linking the river Seine to Belgium and the Rhine.

The archaeologist in charge of the Villers-Carbonnel dig, Françoise Bostyn, told The Independent: "The statuette is very beautiful and remarkably preserved. We sometimes find fragments of such statuettes but rarely the whole figure."

The "earth mother of the Somme" may owe her survival, paradoxically, to the fact that she was broken while being made. Her various pieces were discovered in a collapsed kiln or oven.

Ms Bostyn said that the stylised figure, with inflated buttocks and thighs and rudimentary head and arms, closely resembled similar figures from the period found as far away as the Middle East.

Could the "lady of Villers-Carbonnel" represent the neolithic ideal of female beauty, long before the coming of fashion magazines, airbrushes and Photoshop?

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A big booty is still sought after by many women today...

Fake doctor arrested for illegal cosmetic surgeries, November 21, 2011,
ABC News. This is the doctor with "surgically" altered buttocks.

Stone Age "Erotic Art" Discovered in Germany

I believe this is a new discovery after reading the article, but I'm not 100% certain.  I would appreciate it if anyone can confirm and provide more details.  No photos provided in the article.  Of course the headline is deliberately provocative!

Stone Age erotic art found in Germany
(AFP) – 2 days ago

BERLIN — Researchers in Germany have discovered Stone Age cave art in the country for the first time including carvings of nude women that may have been used in fertility rites, officials said Wednesday.

Archaeologists working for the Bavarian State Office for Historical Preservation came upon the primitive engravings in a cave near the southern city of Bamberg after decades searching, a spokeswoman for the authority said.

The spokeswoman, Beate Zarges, confirmed a report to appear in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit that the engravings were believed to be around 12,000 years old, which would make them the first Stone Age artwork ever found in Germany.

"They include schematic depictions of women's bodies and unidentifiable symbols, among other things," she said.

The ancient artists appear to have taken their inspiration for the erotic images from rock formations in the caves resembling breasts and penises and then carved the images in the walls of the cave, Zarges said.

Die Zeit quoted geologist and archaeologist Bernhard Haeck, a member of the discovery team, as saying that the five-metre-long (16-foot-long) chamber in the cave may have been used for fertility rituals.

"It is a place full of magic," he said.

Zarges said the examination of the site was still ongoing and thus closed to the public.

The world's oldest cave paintings are believed to be the Chauvet Pont d'Arc murals in southern France, the subject of German director Werner Herzog's most recent documentary, "Cave of Forgotten Dreams". The artwork is thought to be more than 30,000 years old.

Copyright © 2011 AFP.

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.

Are You Kidding? Modern Man Rediscovers Ancient Goddess Symbols!

This article - okay - I'm retracting my first statement, which was THIS ARTICLE IS A JOKE.  Forget I wrote that.  Instead, I'm just writing "Duh!" 

Gimbutas depicted such symbols in her many books on "Old European" culture that are twice as old as this one beginning - what - 30 years ago!  Those "zig-zags" - I call them "M's" and "W's" - wave patterns, are extremely ancient, dating back to at least 25,000 BCE and are found in many places in Europe; the symbols travel the width and breath of the Old World across time, and are evidence in the art work of Native Americans too.  The most likely explanation is not independent invention by relocating populations but that the extremely ancient patterns and symbols travelled with the people to the New World.   

What's the symbol for the primal waters of the deep in many ancient cultures in their later writing - DUH!  Wavy lines!  One that immediately comes to mind is "n-n" -- pronounced something like "nuuuun" in ancient Egyptian, drawn something like vvvv or wwww, -- in heiroglyphics.  It meant WATER, more importantly, the very first waters out of which the first mound of earth (the black dirt) arose, from which all things on earth were then created.  From the ancient waters of the deep came the first earth, and from the first earth all things of creation were made.

I don't have my notes/research from many years in front of me, so I'm working from memory, but these forms (wwww's and vvvvv's - zig-zags) are well documented by many researchers, not just Gimbutas. In many extremely early instances they were associated with carvings of "bird" or "eye" goddesses.  So making a big hoo-ha about this relatively young carving on an antler is, to my way of thinking, way out of proportion.  It is nice to see that the work of the early pioneers is being confirmed by modern-day discoveries, but they are adding nothing new to the subject and give scant credit to the work upon which they are building.  That's just not right.

From Discovery News
Stone Age Fertility Ritual Object Found
Etchings on a carved elk antler dating to nearly 11,000 years ago, may have been used to promote fertility
By Jennifer Vargas
February 4, 2011

A Stone Age-era artifact carved with multiple zigzags and what is likely a woman with spread legs suggests that fertility rituals may have been important to early Europeans, according to new research.

The object, which will be documented in the March issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, is made out of a large elk antler and has been radiocarbon dated to about 10,900 years ago.

"The ornament is composed of groups of zigzag lines and a human representation, probably a woman with spread legs with a short zigzag nearby," lead author Tomasz Płonka told Discovery News. "The woman may be nude, but the geometrical style of representation does not allow us to answer (this question)."

Płonka, a University of Wroclaw archaeologist, and his colleagues analyzed the object, unearthed by a farmer at Swidwin, Poland.

At first the scientists believed the geometrical figure carved onto the antler could have been either the mentioned woman, or a nude man raising his arms. Measurements to determine the ratio of the stick figure limbs, in addition to comparisons with other early human representations, lead the researchers to support the woman interpretation. [Turn it one way, it's a man with a long penis! Turn it the other way, it's a woman with raised legs!  Neolithic optical illusion, all within an economical sketch of  - how's that for pushing an art form back!]

Zigzags are very popular motifs on artifacts from many cultures throughout the world, with many possible meanings, but Płonka said, "I think our zigzag lines are connected with water and life symbolism." [Gee! Ya think?]

Rest of article. 

Ancient Female Figurine 'Factory' Uncovered

Reported at the Cyprus Mail (online):
Ancient figurine ‘factory’ uncovered
Published on June 10, 2010

A BRITISH archaeology team has located evidence for the production of cruciform figurines such as the Idol of Pomos (image, left, not from the article), which is depicted on the Cypriot one and two euro coins, the Antiquities Department said yesterday.

The evidence comes from a settlement of 3000 BC located at Souskiou near Palaepaphos. The Pomos sculpture represents a woman with her arms spread. It was probably used as a fertility symbol.

“This is the first time that such detailed information on this subject has come to light in Cyprus,” a statement from the Department said.

“Among the remnants of a house lay the tools for making the figurines together with abundant fragments or chippings from the initial stages of production. These come from pebbles and blocks of raw material which the sculptors obtained, ultimately from the Troodos Mountains. A further production stage is evident from roughouts in which the figures begin to emerge from the parent rock. Also present were nearly finished figurines that were discarded because of imperfections.”

This unique evidence will allow archaeologists to reconstruct the techniques used by the prehistoric artisans and to see how the craft was organised within the Chalcolithic community. They said it was already clear that the workshop functioned in a building where domestic tasks were also carried out.

“There were many such houses at Souskiou which must have been a vibrant centre for the production of these iconic images. Eventually it may be possible to establish the characteristics of the Souskiou style and so to source some of the many figurines in museums,” the announcement added.

In another part of the settlement, the team investigated “rich economic data” such as animal bone, ceramics, charcoal and bone needles. “Normally washed away by erosion, the material here was trapped beneath buildings that were constructed over this ashy dump of food remains. It may have been deposited by temporary visitors to Souskiou before it was formally settled,” it said.

The four-week field work at the site was conducted by a team from the Lemba Archaeological Research Centre and the University of Edinburgh under the direction of Professor Edgar Peltenburg.

5,000 Year Old "Venus" Figurine Found

Only goes to show, you can't keep a good woman down! The one photograph with the story isn't very good, but you can see the white "Venus" figurine on the left, and the "seal" on the right, held by the man in the photograph. Story at todayszaman.con 5,000-year-old Venus figure found in Çanakkale 25 September 2009, Friday A 5,000-year-old Venus figure has been found as part of an excavation being carried out in Çanakkale's Ezine district. The excavation began in the field three weeks ago in cooperation with Germany's University of Tübingen. Assistant Professor Rüstem Aslan, who is vice head of the excavation, told the Anatolia news agency that the aim of the dig is to find settlements outside Troy from the Bronze Age. Some interesting findings have been unearthed during the excavation, Aslan said. “We found a 5,000-year-old Venus figure, which used to represent woman at the time, as well as a seal with which people used to mark their belongings in prehistoric ages. Such a seal is a rare piece. In addition to these items, we also found stone axes, well-processed and embellished pots and spindle-whorls, which were used for spinning wool.”

New "Venus" Figurine Discovered

Story from AP:

By PATRICK McGROARTY, Associated Press Writer Patrick Mcgroarty, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 13, 3:42 pm ET

BERLIN – A 35,000-year-old ivory carving of a busty woman found in a German cave was unveiled Wednesday by archaeologists who believe it is the oldest known sculpture of the human form. The carving found in six fragments in Germany's Hohle Fels cave depicts a woman with a swollen belly, wide-set thighs and large, protruding breasts.

"It's very sexually charged," said University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard, whose team discovered the figure in September.

Carbon dating suggests it was carved at least 35,000 years ago, according to the researchers' findings, which are being published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.

"It's the oldest known piece of figurative sculpture in the world," said Jill Cook, a curator of Paleolithic and Mesolithic material at the British Museum in London.

Stones in Israel and Africa almost twice as old are believed to have been collected by ancient humans because they resembled people, but they were not carved independently.

The Hohle Fels cave discovery suggests the humans, who are believed to have come to Europe around 40,000 years ago, had the intelligence to create symbols and think abstractly in a way that matches the modern human, Conard said

"It's 100 percent certain that, by the time we get to 40,000 years ago in Swabia, we're dealing with people just like you and me," Conard told The Associated Press, referring to the southern German region where the sculpture was recovered along with other prehistoric artifacts.

Conard believes the 2.4-inch-tall (6-centimeter) figure may have been hung on the end of a string. The left arm is missing, but Conard said he hopes to find it by sifting through material from the cave.

The Hohle Fels sculpture is curvaceous and has neither feet nor a head, like some of the roughly 150 so-called Venus figurines found in a range from the Pyrenees mountains to southern Russia and dating back about 25,000-29,000 years.

But Cook warned against trying to draw any connections between the Venuses and the Hohle Fels figure, saying that would be like comparing Picasso to a classical sculptor — too much time had passed.

"I wonder whether at this point we're looking at figures which are unique within themselves and unique within the cultures that they're arising in," she said.

Archaeologist Paul Mellars, of the University of Cambridge, suggested a clearer continuum. "We now have evidence of that sort of artistic tradition of Venus figurines going back 6,000 years earlier than anybody ever guessed," he said.

Neanderthals also lived in Europe around the time the sculpture was carved, and frequented the Hohle Fels cave. But Mellars said layered deposits left by both species over thousands of years prove the sculpture was crafted by humans.

"Nothing within a million miles of this has ever been found in a Neanderthal layer," Mellars said.

The archaeologists agreed the sculpture's age and features invite speculation about its purpose and the preoccupations of the culture that produced it.

Cook suggested it could be symbol of fertility, perhaps even portrayed in the act of giving birth. Mellars suggested a more basic motivation for the carving: "These people were obsessed with sex."

Conard said the differing opinions reinforced the connection between the ancient artist and modern viewer.

"How we interpret it tells us just as much about ourselves as about people 40,000 years ago," he said.

************************************************************************

Hmmm, the experts know better, I guess... All I can say is that when I looked at this image of the "Venus" and the other two images I saw, I thought it depicts two people intertwined in an embrace. Perhaps it's just the way the object was photographed that makes it appear that way.

Venus of Willendorf Celebrated

A feminine icon of fertility and goddessness receives her due. Mature women with post-menopausal "bulge" around the middle and bountiful breasts, revel in your beauty! Austrians fete voluptuous, prehistoric Venus By VERONIKA OLEKSYN, Associated Press Writer Thu Aug 7, 5:26 PM ET VIENNA, Austria - It's Venusmania in Vienna, where Austrians are celebrating the discovery 100 years ago Thursday of a tiny but voluptuous figurine that dates back 25,000 years to a time when mammoths roamed the region. Venus wine, Venus chocolates, and pancakes with Venus jam — Austria is going all out Friday to fete the limestone beauty known as the Venus of Willendorf for the hamlet along the Danube where archaeologists stumbled upon her a century ago. The Venus of Willendorf is just 4 inches tall but is celebrated for her undeniably curvy, feminine figure. Experts say the statuette dating back to the Paleolithic era is among the world's oldest depictions of a woman. But exactly what she represents — or who carved her all those thousands of years ago — remains a mystery. Was she a fertility symbol, a lucky charm, a goddess — maybe even a prehistoric piece of pornography? "That's of course an interpretation question," said Walpurga Antl-Weiser, an expert at Vienna's Natural History Museum who has written a book about her, adding that it's hard to know what the humans of that era were thinking. The figurine wasn't made from local materials, and over the years, similar statuettes have been found elsewhere, including France and Russia, Antl-Weiser told The Associated Press. Back then, mammoths, bison and woolly rhinos roamed Willendorf, with humans living in camp communities, according to the Natural History Museum. Modern-day archaeologists found the statuette during an excavation in 1908 and brought her for safekeeping at the Natural History Museum. She made her public debut in 1998. Before Friday's big bash, she'll make a brief homecoming trip back to Willendorf. Starting Saturday, the Venus of Willendorf — along with several "sisters" from Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic — will be on display at the Natural History Museum until February. Fact is, the figurine continues to fascinate. Reproductions of the Venus are widely available — as chocolate, marzipan, even as soap. On Friday, Austria's post office will officially unveil a special stamp in her honor. To Antl-Weiser, the interest is easy to explain. "She's very corpulent but still very beautiful," she said. "One gets the feeling she has become an icon."