‘Venus’ Figurines in Prehistoric Europe: The Emergence of Art and Belief
Posted on 04/09/2007 2:38:27 PM PDT by blam
Mystery of the fat Venus
The Dominion Post | Monday, 9 April 2007
WORLD OF SCIENCE - BOB BROCKIE
We all know about those hand-sized Ice Age women carved in stone – those plump ladies with huge breasts and behinds, tiny heads, artful hairdos and no faces.
They're known as Palaeolithic Venuses and they raise a lot of puzzling questions: How come these almost identical figurines were found all the way from France to Siberia? How come this stylised carving tradition was practised and passed down over 20,000 years? What purpose did they serve?
There are as many answers to these questions as there are archaeologists and art critics. Frankly, the Venuses are a mystery. But the mystery has just deepened and widened.
The latest issue of the journal Antiquity tells of dozens of small portable statuettes recently unearthed in Germany, France, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
The figurines, chipped in flint, or carved in ivory or bone between 14,000 and 16,000 years ago, are of stylised women, or parts of women, with over- sized buttocks, long straight or arched trunks, small or missing breasts, and no heads, arms or feet. At Wilczyce, in Poland, the archeologists have also dug up more than 100 ancient stylised pictures of these women's long straight backs and large bustles engraved on schist plaques.
Some of these strangely-shaped flint objects were discovered years ago when archaeologists misidentified them as early tools, and called them "strangled blades". Last year, however, the research team, led by Romuald Schild at the Polish Academy of Sciences, discovered the tools are all in mint condition. They have never been used to scrape, cut, or hammer anything.
Professor Dale Guthrie, from the university of Alaska, and author of The Nature of Paleolithic Art, is surprised that while Paleolithic people were surrounded by plenty of things – babies, men, animals, plants, battle scenes, clan symbols – these things were never represented in their art, only well-endowed women. Guthrie suggests that all the figurines were made by young men and "it's not too difficult to theorise about what was on their minds in their free time". He thinks the similarly stylised Venus figures represent a cross-cultural view of women shared by prehistoric Europeans – well prehistoric men – for more than 20,000 years.
That a fashionable body shape should persist for 20,000 years is almost beyond the comprehension of modern Europeans. Our fashionable shape- shifting ladies have rapidly morphed from the Belle Epoche hourglass, to the Edwardian bustle shape, to the curveless boy-like creatures of the 1920s, to today's skeletal catwalk strutters foisted on us by women and poofter fashion designers.
These days a red-blooded man can lose all respectability by admitting to a penchant for well-endowed women. But, underground, hankering after Ice Age beauties is alive and well.
A minute on the Internet will reveal about a million adult sites displaying beckoning super-curvy ladies with acres of arched backs and Paleolithic backsides.
But back to the figurines. Other schools of archaeologists don't go along with the caveman porn theory. They suggest these carvings served as fertility symbols or for some mystical or religious purpose.
Any better suggestions?
Oooops. Bob Brockie's off to rehab.
What is this guy, crazy?
Larry Flyntstone.
Decidedly callipygian.
No no more ounces for the bounces which result in more ouches.
callipygian
Main Entry: cal·li·pyg·ian
Pronunciation: "ka-l&-'pi-j(E-)&n
Variant(s): also cal·li·py·gous /-'pI-g&s/
Function: adjective
Etymology: Greek kallipygos, from kalli- + pygE buttocks
: having shapely buttocks
callipygian
Main Entry: cal·li·pyg·ian
Pronunciation: "ka-l&-'pi-j(E-)&n
Variant(s): also cal·li·py·gous /-'pI-g&s/
Function: adjective
Etymology: Greek kallipygos, from kalli- + pygE buttocks
: having shapely buttocks
Reminds me of “Eaters of the Dead” or the movie based on that book, “The 13th Warrior”. The bad guys all had these figurines.
I may may have to use that one on the wife.
:singing:
“Fat-Bottomed Girls, you make the rockin’ world go ‘round!”
ROFLMAO!
I swear Mom, I was carving a tool, not a stylized big breasted woman!
I have a better suggestion. when language was primative and probably unintelligible between even proximate tribes, roving bands of men carried items that they could use as a form of sign language. A cylindrical rock could be used to show that he was seeking beer, a flat, round rock could ask if there was somewhere close by where he might get a pizza, and the woman-shape might have asked if there might be any frisky females around.
Why aren't they known as Paleolithic Helen Thomas with bag on head?
That's all it was.
Helen WISHES she had that waist.
Maybe they ran low on clay.
Baby got back!
“with over- sized buttocks, long straight or arched trunks, small or missing breasts, and no heads, arms or feet.”
Statues of my ex-wife?
Agreed...! Me - I'm turned on by a mere, fleeting pulse and anything above that!!!
Gneiss one!
ping
Of course, but to err a little on the Rubenesque side is better in most guys opinion. Of course there is the danger of rationalization, which can lead to the Rubeneque outcome.
(It's not Like El Gato Gordo can talk, he's the master of such rationalization!)
Token good for one free "go" at neolithic brothel chain
Junk in the trunk.
Joke-of-the-day award!
I thought the article said “little or no breasts”? I’d like to see their understanding of large breasts!
...chipped in flint...
Proof the author is an idiot.
Don't let me bore you but you do know that that book and movie are rewrites of Beowulf. Crichton wrote it on a bet that he could make Beowulf readable to a modern audience.
Bill Clinton says, “I’d hit on it.”
Shaved kitty. Love it!
The picture you posted, from Russian, is very similar to the very well known Venus of Willendorf.
Cro-magnun man
Neanderthal man
Bodankadonk man
I find it amusing that one find a handful of figurines and suddenly they become representative of a culture. A molar and some bone fragments become a wondrous new source of scientific funding because they are interpreted as a possible human ancestor.
I would venture that the reason curvaceous boyish girls have become so popular is because so many fashion designers are homosexual. It is not because most men desire woman who look like young boys it is because those who decide what is fashionable like young boys. I do believe that the increasing acceptance of sexual androgyny has fueled increase in molestation and sexual confusion but what do I know. lol
BOB BROCKIE
likes the (audience participation).
According to Rick Potts “these paleolithic or ancient stone-tool people made one simple implement for nearly a million years.” According to Potts, the stone axe “was the Swiss Army knife of the paleolithic period.”
The fact that these Paleolithic Venus objects were around for thousands of years does not mean that much in light of unchanging stone axes for a million years.
My guess is these Paleolithic Venuses were carved by women not men. I see women as having more time on their hands than men who are out hunting with “Swiss Army” knives. Most likely these “women” would be young girls who are about to “marry” and who desire to be fertile and have babies. Somehow they used these Paleolithic Venuses (perhaps in coming of age ceremonies) as votives to be fertile.
I see this as much more likely scenario than paleolithic porn.
Another scenario is the were collectibles (e.g beanie babies) with which some Stone Age Thomas Kinkade flooded the market.
nah rehab is a poofter yank idea. Blokes don't do it.
Proof that Homo sapiens continues to evolve.
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