What period is the image of the Paleolithic Venus woman typical of? Beauties of the Stone Age: “Paleolithic Venuses”

Where did Human culture begin? When and in what form did he cease to be an animal and become a rational being? Obviously this happened when he began to reflect the world around him in spiritual images. And also try to reproduce them. After all, no animal has yet succeeded in doing this! But where did he start? From the images on the walls of the caves or was anything else added to them? And, yes, indeed, he wanted to reflect what he saw and felt, and he did it. But for some reason in the sculptures of the corpulent “Venus of the Paleolithic” - a name that has become a general name for many found prehistoric figurines of women who have many common features and date back to the era Upper Paleolithic. These figurines are mainly found in Europe, but they are also found far to the east, for example, at the Malta site in the Irkutsk region, so it can be said without exaggeration that their territory is all of Eurasia: from the Atlantic coast to the Siberian taiga region.

Prehistoric era of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia ( National Museum, Prague)

As is known, the Upper Paleolithic culture included several successive cultures: Aurignacian (which existed in France and Spain 30-25 thousand years BC), Gravettian (35-19 thousand years BC), Solutrean - 19-16 thousand years BC. e. and Magdalenian culture. There were their own cultures, of course, located in other territories, but most of the finds belong to the Gravettian culture, although early figurines were discovered that belong to the Aurignacian culture. This is the famous “Venus of Hole Fels” (made approximately 35 thousand years ago); and those figurines that experts attribute to the Magdalenian culture.

The material from which they are cut are bones (for example, mammoth tusks) and soft rocks (marl, limestone and the like). There are figurines molded from clay and fired over fire, that is, ceramic, the oldest of their kind, since ceramics appeared only in the Neolithic era, and not even at its very beginning. Well, that's all to our XXI century More than a hundred such “Venuses” were found, and all of them are small in size and have a height of 4 to 25 cm.

The first “Venus” of the Upper Paleolithic era was discovered by the Marquis de Vibres in the town of Laugerie-Basse in the Dordogne department in southwestern France back in 1864. He gave his discovery a somewhat indecent name - “Venus dissolute”, thus contrasting it with what was known by that time the famous Venus of Medica. Over time, it turned out that it belongs to the Magdalenian culture, that is, this creation is extremely ancient. The figurine had no head, arms or legs, but had a clearly made cut indicating its gender. The next recognized example of “Venus” was the “Venus of Brassempouille”, which Edouard Piette found in 1894 in the town of Brassempouille in France. At first, the term “Venus” was not applied to it, as well as to other similar figurines, but then four years later Salomon Reinach described a whole group of figurines of this type from caves in Balzi Rossi, made of soapstone, and it became obvious that they were needed as - typologize. Well, and then the specialists of the early 20th century who studied primitive society, considered that these figurines quite possibly embodied prehistoric ideals of female beauty and called them “Venus” after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, adding only the word “Paleolithic” in order to accurately indicate the time of their creation.

September 2008 brought a new discovery to the scientific community: archaeologists from the University of Tübingen found a six-centimeter-high figurine of a woman made from mammoth ivory, called the “Venus of Hohle Fels.” Its age was determined to be 35 thousand BC. e. IN currently- This is the oldest example of sculpture in general. True, there is also a figurine of “Venus from Tan-Tan”, and it is estimated to be 300-500 thousand years old, but its dating is controversial and no exact verdict has been made on it. The figurine from the Hohle Fels cave in Germany is the most typical “Venus” with an emphasized large belly, massive bust and wide hips.

And all these features are precisely the general typologizing features of the “Paleolithic Venuses”. The most common are diamond-shaped figures, tapering at the top and bottom (head and legs, respectively), and maximally wide in their middle part (stomach and hips). The abdomen, buttocks, breasts and genitals are reproduced very carefully, while the face, for example, is often not there at all (apparently according to the principle “don’t drink water from your face” or “it’s still dark at night”), but besides that there are also no arms and legs , although not always. “Venuses” have heads, but they are relatively small in size and lack any conspicuous details. Although sometimes the head is depicted with a hairstyle or a headdress such as a bathing cap.

But this is a part of the body found in the same place where the “Brassempuis Venus” was found. Mammoth bone. (National Museum of Archaeology, Saint-Germain en Laye, France)

It should be noted, however, that not all of the “Paleolithic Venuses” are so obese and have clearly emphasized feminine features. Also, not all of the figures have no faces. But since most of the figurines are available, very similar friends to each other both in style and in their basic proportions, it can be argued that in the distant past the concept of a single concept, common to vast territories, had already been developed artistic style or the canon, according to which the chest and hips fit into a circle, while the figure itself fits into a rhombus.

Some of the figurines, such as the Venus of Willendorf and the Venus of Lossel, were painted with red ochre. Why this was done is impossible to explain today in principle, but the concept of the color red, coming from antiquity, as a symbol of life, as the “color of blood,” may clearly indicate some kind of ritual. That is, they were made red for a reason, but for a specific and, most likely, magical purpose.

It is interesting that the bulk of the finds of “Paleolithic Venuses” date back to the Upper Paleolithic (they mainly belong to such cultures as the Gravettian and Solutrean). At that time, obese figures were predominant. In more late time Magdalenian culture, their forms are more graceful, and besides, they are distinguished by much more careful elaboration of details. They are usually distinguished purely geographically, in accordance with the classifications of Henry Delporte, who simply named all those regions where one or another “Venus” was found. And it turned out that there are Pyrenean-Aquitanian (French-Spanish) “Venus”, there is a “Venus” from the island of Malta, there is a Rhine-Danube region, Central Russian (burials Kostenki, Zaraysk and Gagarino) and Siberian “Venus”. That is, their distribution area was extremely wide, but this also means that the people of that time had certain cultural connections with each other.

Why exactly our ancestors needed them, we will never know. But it can be assumed that they could be talismans, symbols of fertility, or served as images of the Mother Goddess. It is also obvious that there is no practical application they could not have and, therefore, could only relate to objects of spiritual culture. They are found, however, not so much in burials as in caves and remains of dwellings, so most likely they were not associated with the cult of the dead.

So, near the village of Gagarino in the Lipetsk region, in an oval half-dugout with a diameter of about 5 meters, seven such figurines were found at once, which could well serve as amulets. At a parking lot near the village of Malta in the Baikal region, they were also found inside a dwelling. And, apparently, in the “houses” of that time they were not only not hidden, but, on the contrary, they were in plain sight. So, when a person from a foreign tribe entered a dwelling, he saw them, and when he saw them, he took her image with him. Obviously, this is the only way to explain such a wide geographical distribution of these figures.

As for the obesity of the figures, in conditions of a half-starved existence, it was obesity that symbolized prosperity, fertility and seemed beautiful. It is not for nothing that even in the twentieth century in Russian villages (and Mordovian, neighboring ones!) the beauty of a woman was defined as follows: “What a beautiful girl, she’s plump!” However, this kind of comparison and comparison is nothing more than the result of speculative conclusions, but not a scientifically proven fact.

Recently two more very ancient ones were found stone artifact(dating 500,000 - 200,000 years ago), which, according to some experts, are also images of women. These are the "Venus of Berekhat Ram", found in the Golan Heights, and the "Venus of Tan Tan", which was found in Morocco. But the question is: were they processed by humans, or did they take their form due to the influence of natural factors? So far, both of these assumptions have not been 100% proven.

A number of scientists who have studied the “Paleolithic Venuses” believe that there is a direct connection between them and images of women of the later Neolithic era, and then the Copper-Stone and Bronze Ages. However, this point of view today is not consistent with that amazing fact, that for some reason such images are absent in the Mesolithic era. What happened then that these figures stopped being made, and did it happen at all? Maybe they just changed the material, switched to, say, wood and that’s why they all didn’t survive? Who knows... the truth is always out there somewhere...

About four years ago I visited the Hermitage and took photographs there in some distant corners( They don’t post the photo, it didn’t turn out very good) one of the “Paleolithic Venus”, these are one of the most ancient human products found by archaeologists, the average dating of any of them ( Hundreds of them have now been found.) 20 thousand years BC Think about this figure, one such figurine contains the entire human civilization, all the achievements that humanity has achieved can easily fit into the age of one such figurine..

Venus of Brassempouille
This is the second "Venus" of all those found on this moment. Discovered in France in 1894 near the village of Brassempouille. Made from ivory, it dates back to 26,000-24,000 BC. considered one of the earliest realistic depictions of the human face.


As you understand, this is only part of the whole figure, which, unfortunately, has not been preserved; the head and neck are 3.65 cm long.

Reconstruction of a possible appearance. What is on the head is interpreted as a schematic representation of hair or, as in the reconstruction, is considered a kind of hood, the second name of this figurine is “Lady with a Hood”

An even more unique figure is Lion Man.

The statue is considered one of the oldest famous sculptures in the world and the oldest zoomorphic sculpture. The figurine dates back to 32,000 BC! Made from mammoth ivory, 29.6 cm high. There are seven parallel, horizontal lines on the left hand.
The presence of such a figure at that time speaks of exactly two things: this is a figurine of some kind of deity, which means that already at that time there were some kind of religious views, anthropologists, having compared the size and scale, rejected the version that this was a man in a lion’s skin, i.e. shaman. And the second, let's say, presence abstract thinking and imagination is recognized by modern scientists in a person of that time only theoretically, and there is a point of view that all known Paleolithic Venuses were made from life, that is, what the artist saw, he sculpted..
An interesting fact is that in South India there is still worship of Narasimha, the human lion.

There is also this Venus, she is interesting because in her hand she is believed to be holding a bison horn.

Venus of Lossel. The figure is a bas-relief made in limestone. Dates back to 25,000 BC. The figure is notable for the horn itself, which has thirteen cuts-13 lunar months in the year. Experts in prehistoric religion also believe that this horn later became known as the Cornucopia ( I consider it an afterthought and far-fetched, although much later images of goddesses with various objects in hand, in that number and horn).

And finally, a very recent find.

Venus from Hohle Fels
It was discovered in 2008 near Schelklingen, Germany. By the way, in the same area as Chelovekalva.
At the moment, the figurine is the oldest recognized (there are two much earlier "Venuses", but the human features are generally sketchy there) work of art of the Upper Paleolithic and prehistoric figurative art in general. Its age dates back to between 35,000 and 40,000 BC. It dates back to the time when the Cro-Magnons had just begun migrating to Europe. Made from the tusk of a woolly mammoth, height 6 cm, in place of the head there is a hole, giving the right to conclude that the figurine was used as a pendant.

A small clarification regarding “what the artist saw and sculpted”; there is a long-standing dispute in the scientific community; some researchers consider the emphasized anatomical features of the human body: abdomen, hips, buttocks, breasts, vulva, as real physiological features, similar to those observed in representatives Khoisan peoples (Bushmen and Hottentots) South Africa.


Other researchers dispute this point of view and explain their emphasis as a symbol of fertility and abundance.
By the way, not all Paleolithic Venuses are obese and have exaggerated feminine features. Also, not all figures lack facial features.

Paleolithic Venus, list:
Paleolithic Venus is a general concept for many prehistoric figurines of women with common features(many depicted as obese or pregnant), dating from the Upper Paleolithic. The figurines are found mainly in Europe, but the range of finds extends far to the east up to the Malta site in the Irkutsk region, that is, over most of Eurasia: from the Pyrenees to Lake Baikal.

1. Venus of Berekhat Rama - a stone found during archaeological excavations in the Golan Heights in 1981. It is an anthropomorphic tuff stone, 35 mm long, with at least 3 cuts, possibly engraved with a pointed stone. The object was identified by N. Goren-Inbar, an archaeologist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She claims that this is nothing more than a figurine - an artifact made by a representative of the species Homo erectus (Acheulean culture of the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic, approximately 230 thousand years ago).

2. Venus of Brassempouille - or “Lady with a Hood” - the first “Paleolithic Venus” to be discovered. It is a fragment of an ivory figure from the Late Paleolithic era, discovered near the French village of Brassempouy in 1892. It is considered a product of the Gravettian culture (about 22 thousand years ago). This is one of the earliest relatively realistic depictions of the human face.

3. The Vestonice Venus is a “Paleolithic Venus” discovered at Dolní Vestonice in Moravia on July 13, 1925 and is currently on display in the Moravian Museum in Brno, Czech Republic. It is the oldest ceramic figurine known to science. The height of the figurine is 111 mm, width is 43 mm. Belongs to the Gravettian culture and dates variously - between 29,000 and 25,000 BC. BC e. A tomographic examination revealed an ancient imprint of a child’s hand on the figurine, left before firing.

4. Venus of Willendorf - small figurine female figure, discovered in one of the ancient graves of the Gravettian culture near the town of Willendorf in Wachau, a village in the commune of Agsbach, in Austria, by archaeologist Joseph Szombati on August 7, 1908. Together with the Galgenberg Venus, it is exhibited in Vienna Museum natural sciences. The 11 cm high figurine is carved from oolitic limestone, which is not found in the area (which indicates the movements of ancient peoples) and tinted with red ochre. According to the latest data (2015), the age of the figurine is 29,500 years. Almost nothing is known about the place, method of manufacture, or cultural purpose of this figurine.

The woman's figure is made in an interesting style. Her breasts, stomach and hips are made in an exaggerated manner. Clearly defined lines highlight the navel, genitals and arms folded over the breasts. Well-cut hair or headdress is visible on the head; facial features are completely absent.
According to other researchers, the figurine may have been a fertility idol and may have been used vaginally as a symbol to increase fertility. This is evidenced by clearly defined breasts and genitals, the absence of feet (the figurine should not have stood as intended by the author). The short length of the arms was necessary for best dive into the process.

5. Venus of Galgenberg - “Paleolithic Venus” of the Aurignacian culture, about 30 thousand years old. Discovered in 1988 near the city of Stratzing in Austria, where the Venus of Willendorf was previously discovered nearby. The height of the “dancing” figurine is 7.2 cm, weight 10 g. It is made of green serpentine. Exhibited at the Natural History Museum in Vienna.

6. Venus from Gönnersdorf - Paleolithic venus about 11.5 - 15 thousand years old, discovered in the second half of the 20th century in Gönnersdorf, area of ​​the city of Neuwied (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany), during excavations led by Gerhard Bozinski. The figurines belong to the Magdalenian culture and reflect the main trends in the depiction of the female figure, characteristic of that era: minimalism, abstraction, absence of a head and legs, emphasized shapes of the buttocks. Their closest analogues are specimens from Andernach, Nebra and Olknitz, which allows us to speak of a separate “Honnersdorf type” of Paleolithic Venus. In addition, at this site, slate plates were discovered with drawings of profiles of female bodies, which were similar in shape to figurines.
A total of 16 Gönnersdorf Venus were found, the materials for which were animal bones, mammoth ivory, deer antler, as well as local slate rocks

7. Kostenkovsky Venus - the conventional name of ten Paleolithic figurines of women discovered at the Kostenkovsky sites in Voronezh region. Similar figurines were also found at the Avdeevskaya site in the Kursk region. Created approximately 23-21 thousand years ago by carriers of the Kostenki-Avdeevka culture. Stored in State Hermitage.
In general, the figures are characterized by a single artistic canon: the rounded shapes of the chest and abdomen are hypertrophied, very thin arms are folded on the chest, legs are slightly bent, faces are almost smooth, without details. In 1977, the first “Paleolithic Venus” was found in Avdeevo with a carefully detailed face (down to the hairstyle or cap, which is represented by rows of notches). Decoration is visible on several figures, including bracelets and a belt protecting the chest.
The figures are made of stone (limestone, marl) or mammoth ivory. The cultic and ritual purposes of figurines made of tusk and stone obviously varied. “The heads and legs of the limestone figurines were deliberately broken off, and the chest and abdomen were damaged,” while the tusk figurines were preserved intact: they were “stored in special recesses with other significant objects.” ancient man objects."

8. Venus of Lespug - a prehistoric 15-centimeter female ivory figurine, which belongs to the so-called group. "Paleolithic Venus" and dates back to the Gravettian period (26-24 thousand years BC).
The figurine was discovered in 1922 in the Rideau cave near the village of Lespugue on the slopes of the Pyrenees (French department of the Haute-Garonne). It was damaged when being pulled out of the ground. Exhibited at the Paris Museum of Man.
"Venus of Lespug" is unique for several reasons. Among all the “Paleolithic Venuses” (traditionally interpreted as amulets of the cult of fertility), the secondary sexual characteristics of women are most pronounced here, and primarily hypertrophied breasts.

9. Venus of Losssel - Venus of Losssel, fr. V?nus de Laussel is one of the Paleolithic Venus of the Gravettian culture (about 20,000 years ago, Upper Paleolithic). It is a bas-relief on a limestone block, painted with red ocher. IN right hand naked Venus holds an object resembling a turium horn. Venus of Lossel was discovered in 1911 during excavations near the village. Laussel in the Marche commune, Dordogne department, France.

9. Malta Venus - the conventional name for three dozen “Paleolithic Venuses” from mammoth ivory, which were discovered by Soviet archaeologists at the Malta site in the Irkutsk region and dated 21-19 thousand BC. Height ranges from 3.7 cm to 13.6 cm. Stored in the State Hermitage. These figurines were found much further east than other “Paleolithic Venuses”. Before the study of the Siberian site, similar objects were found exclusively in Europe. Despite significant variations among themselves and the identification of two main types (massive and gracile), taken together, the figurines of the Siberian Paleolithic are noticeably different from the European ones, which convey nudity and do not highlight facial features:
— The heads of the figurines are large and often have a schematically modeled face. The ornament on the head is an attempt to convey a hairstyle. — The surface of some female figurines is covered with a continuous ornament in the form of longitudinal notches. According to the hypothesis of A.P. Okladnikov, this is how fur clothing common to Siberian peoples is depicted. — Secondary sexual characteristics are weakly expressed, the breasts are represented by a shallow carved line, some figurines seem to be asexual.
Usually the figurines taper at the bottom, probably so that they can be stuck into the ground. Sometimes holes were drilled in the bottom, allowing them to be hung as an amulet.

10. Venus of Moravan - a Paleolithic venus from a mammoth tusk, found in 1938 in western Slovakia. The figurine was discovered by the Slovak farmer Stefan Gulman-Petrich near the village of Podkovica near Moravany nad Váhom in the late 30s of the 20th century and during the Second World War it fell into the hands of the German archaeologist Lothar Tsots, who sent it for examination by Henri Breuil in Paris . It was only in 1967 that Venus was returned back to Slovakia.
In terms of its external characteristics, temporal correlation (22-23 thousand ago, Gravettian culture) and the relatively small distance of the finds, the Moravan Venus is close to specimens from Willendorf and Vestonice, which also have emphasized curvaceous bodies.

11. Venus of Neuchâtel - (also Venus of Monruz, French V?nus de Monruz) - Paleolithic Venus, found in 1990 in the suburb of Monruz, Swiss Neuchâtel, during security excavations at the construction site of the A5 highway. The figurine was created about 12-13 thousand years ago and belongs to the Madeleine culture. As a material for making ancient sculptor I used easily processed jet.
Being relatively small in size (1.8 cm in height), the Neuchâtel Venus abstractly conveys the shape of a curved female body with protruding buttocks. Perhaps the figurine was used as a pendant or amulet, as evidenced by a drilled through hole in its upper part. External characteristics, as well as production material, bring this find closer to the Venuses from Petersfels, discovered at a distance of 130 km from Neuchâtel (south of Baden-Württemberg, Germany). As a result, we can assume that they were either created by one person, or belong to a single regional tradition of making such figurines.

12. Venus from Petersfels - (also Venus from Engen, German: Venusfigurinen vom Petersfels) - figurines of the Upper Paleolithic era, found in southern Germany from 1928 to 1978. In 1927, near Engen in Baden-Württemberg, the German researcher Eduard Peters discovered a Paleolithic site of ancient hunters of the Magdalenian culture, located near a rock that was later named after the scientist. In 1928-1933, under his leadership, large-scale excavations were organized here. Further studies of the site were carried out already in the 70s by archaeologist Gerd Albrecht.
Over the years of excavations at Petersfels, 16 Paleolithic venus were found, 15 of which were made of jet and one of deer antler, and range in size from 1 to 3.5 cm in height.

13. Venus of Savignana - - Paleolithic Venus made of serpentine, found in 1925 in the commune of Savignano sul Panaro in Italy. The figurine was discovered in 1925 in the Italian commune of Savignano sul Panaro near Modena local resident Olindo Zambelli during construction work at a depth of about 1 meter. Zambelli's wife advised him to throw away the useless "stone", but instead the farmer took the find to the artist and sculptor Giuseppe Graziosi, who bought the Venus and donated it to the Pigorini Museum.

14. Venus from Tan-Tan is an anthropomorphic quartzite figurine 58 mm long, discovered in 1999 by a German expedition in the floodplain of the Dra River south of the Moroccan city of Tan-Tan. According to one hypothesis, together with the Venus from Berekhat Rama (known since 1981), it represents the oldest (500-300 thousand years old) example of a “Paleolithic Venus” and, thus, the earliest monument of artistic creativity known to science. Interpretation of this find as exclusively anthropomorphic, especially like the Paleolithic Venus, is very problematic.

15. Venus from Hohle Fels - (“Venus of Schelklingen”, “Venus of Swabia”; German: Venus vom Hohlen Fels, vom Hohle Fels; Venus von Schelklingen) - the oldest Paleolithic Venus known to science, discovered in 2008 in the Hole cave. Fels near the German city of Schelklingen. Age - between 35 and 40 thousand years; belongs to the Aurignacian culture (beginning of the Upper Paleolithic), which presumably marks the time of the early presence of Cro-Magnons in Europe. It is the oldest recognized work of art of the Upper Paleolithic and prehistoric figurative art in general.

16. Lion Man - (German: L?wenmensch) - a statue of a creature with a human body and a lion’s head, found by archaeologists in Germany. Made from mammoth tusk, the statue is considered one of the oldest known sculptures in the world and the oldest zoomorphic sculpture. Scientists believe that the figure possibly represents a deity and was an object of religious worship. After radiocarbon dating, the age of the lion man was determined to be 32 thousand years. Later, a new dating was made, according to which the age of the sculpture is 40 thousand years.
Material prepared

The Venus of Willendorf is considered, as they would say now, the standard of beauty of the Paleolithic era. A small figurine depicting a plump woman was found in Austria in 1908. The age of Venus, as scientists suggest, is 24-25 thousand years. This is one of the most ancient cultural objects ever found on Earth.

Paleolithic beauties

Archaeologists began to discover similar figurines in the middle of the century before last. All of them depict women with three-dimensional forms and date back to the Upper Paleolithic. The territory where such finds were made is quite vast: from the Pyrenees to Siberia. All figurines ( total number there are several hundred of them) today are united under the name “Paleolithic Venus”. Initially, the name of the ancient Roman goddess of beauty was used as a joke: the figurines were too different from the accepted canons of depicting the female body. However, it has taken hold and is used everywhere today.

Character traits

The Venus of Willendorf and similar figurines have a number of parameters that allow them to be combined into one category of art objects. These are curvy shapes, a small head, pronounced sexual characteristics, frequent absence or insignificant development of arms and legs. Many of the figurines have a diamond-shaped silhouette. The most voluminous part of the figure is the stomach and buttocks. The legs and head are much smaller, as if forming the vertices of a diamond.

There is debate among researchers about whether this structure is an image of the real body shapes found among some peoples of Africa (steatopygia), or whether it is an element of a fertility cult.

Venus of Willendorf: description

One of the Paleolithic figurines was discovered near the city of Willendorf in Austria. In 1908, excavations were carried out here on the site of a former brick factory, and now there is a small monument in the form of an enlarged copy of the found figurine.

The Venus of Willendorf is very small in size - only 11 cm. She is a naked woman with overly enlarged breasts and a voluminous belly. The head of Venus, compared to the body, is quite small and does not have drawn facial features, but it is decorated with braids carefully crafted by the ancient master. The woman’s hands are located on her huge chest and are also small in size; her feet are missing.

Age

Today you can find claims that the Venus of Willendorf is the oldest image of women found. However, the situation is somewhat different. The Venus of Willendorf, according to scientists, was created approximately 24-25 thousand years ago. Of course, the age is considerable. However, there are also more ancient figurines: Venus from Hole Fels (35-40 thousand years old), Venus of Vestonitskaya (27-30 thousand years old).

In addition, at the end of the last century, two figurines were discovered, whose origin is still unclear. If it is proven that they were created by human hands, and not by erosion and weathering, then the Venus from Tan-Tan and the Venus from Berekhat-Ram will become the oldest figurines (300-500 and 230 thousand years old, respectively) depicting a woman.

Material

The Venus of Willendorf is made of oolitic porous limestone. Interestingly, such material is not found in the area where the figurine was found. For some time, the origin of Venus remained a mystery to researchers. Museum staff were able to lift the veil of secrecy natural history in Vienna, where the figurine is kept today. The limestone was probably mined near the Czech city of Brno, which is almost 140 km from Willendorf. Stranska Skala is located here, the limestone massif of which is very similar in composition to the material of Venus. It remains unknown whether the figurine was made in the city of Brno or in Willendorf, where the material was delivered.

Another interesting point- the figurine was originally covered. This fact speaks in favor of the assumption about the ritual purpose of the figurine. Most often, religious objects were covered with ocher.

Faceless

The absence of any elaboration of facial features also speaks in favor of this version. In ancient times, it was believed that the face was the external expression of personality. The figures deprived of it embody something more than just people. Probably, the Venus of Willendorf and similar figurines were ritual objects of the cult of fertility, glorifying childbirth, fertility, and abundance. An enlarged belly and buttocks could also symbolize support and security.

We must not forget that in the distant times of our ancestors, food was obtained through hard work, and hunger was a frequent event. Therefore, women with curvy figures were considered well-fed, healthy and rich, capable of giving birth to strong and hardy children.

Perhaps the Paleolithic Venuses were the embodiment of the Goddess or were used as talismans that attracted good luck, symbols of fertility, stability, security and continuation of life. Most likely, scientists will never know the exact answer about the purpose of the figurines, since too much time has passed since their appearance and too little evidence of that era remains.

Modern attitude

People who see Venus from Willendorf for the first time react to it differently. For some, she evokes genuine admiration as a symbol of freedom from the stereotypes of female beauty that exist today (Barbie doll, 90-60-90, and so on). Sometimes Venus is even called a symbol of a woman's innermost essence. Someone, when they see the figure, is frankly frightened by the image because of its unusualness. In a word, as is the case with most valuable works of art, the Venus of Willendorf, the style of construction of which is characteristic of all Paleolithic figurines, evokes the most contradictory emotions.

For some contemporary artists she is a source of inspiration. One of the results of the creative processing of the image was the so-called Venus of Willendorf of the 21st century - a statue 4.5 meters high, the work of one of the graduates of the Academy of Arts in Riga. Like the prototype, it received a mixed reaction from critics and the general public.

The fact remains indisputable that Venus from Willendorf is one of ancient works art, a witness to a bygone era. It helps to penetrate for a moment into the distant past, to realize how changeable the norms and ideals of beauty are, how deep the roots of the culture familiar to us today go. Like everything strange and unusual against the backdrop of an established way of life and thinking, it encourages you to look at yourself and history from a slightly different angle, to doubt the truth of beliefs and dogmas, to let in creative inspiration and get rid of the dead and ossified.

• • Subject and basic concepts of the history of religion
  • Universality of Faith
  • Why does a person believe in God
    • Why does a person believe in God - page 2
    • Why does a person believe in God - page 3
• Early and Middle Paleolithic
  • Paleoanthropology as a subject in the history of religions
  • Modern "savage" and prehistoric man
  • What can we say about the religion of ancient man?
    • What can we say about the religion of ancient man? - page 2
  • Religious ideas of the Middle Paleolithic. Mousterian burials
    • Religious ideas of the Middle Paleolithic. Mousterian burials - page 2
  • Bear cult in the Middle Paleolithic
  • Ethical ideas of the Neanderthal
• Upper Paleolithic religion
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  • Religious meaning of Upper Paleolithic painting
  • The idea of ​​God in the Upper Paleolithic
    • The idea of ​​God in the Upper Paleolithic - page 2
  • "The Great Sorcerer"
  • "Paleolithic Venus"
  • Ethical ideas of the Upper Paleolithic
• Religious beliefs of the Neolithic
  • Theory of the "Neolithic Revolution"
  • The mysticism of grain and the beginning of agriculture
  • Honoring ancestors and the beginning of settled life
  • Mother is the damp earth
  • "Unknown God" of the Neolithic
  • Sanctuary and Temple
    • Sanctuary and Temple - page 2
  • "World of the Dead" and "World of the Living"
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  • Human sacrifice
• Megalithic religion
  • Culture « large stones»
  • Who and when created the megalithic civilization
  • Why were buildings made of “big stones” built?
  • "You must be born again"
  • "Owl-Eyed Goddess"
  • Heavenly Father
    • Heavenly Father - page 2
  • The end of megalithic religion
• Religions of modern non-literate peoples: god and spirits, mysteries of non-literate cultures
  • The Mystery of Unliterate Cultures
  • Ideas about the creator god among non-literate peoples
    • Ideas about the creator god among non-literate peoples - page 2
    • Ideas about the creator god among non-literate peoples - page 3
  • Mother Earth
  • Spirit World
    • Spirit World - page 2
  • Totem
  • The World Tree and the Supernatural Transition
• Religions of modern non-literate peoples: man and his world
  • A man of many parts
  • Is man a god or a beast?
  • Mirror instead of otherness
    • Mirror instead of other existence - page 2
    • Mirror instead of other existence - page 3
  • The moral imperative in the religions of non-literate peoples
    • Moral imperative in the religions of non-literate peoples - page 2
  • Cannibalism and human sacrifice
    • Cannibalism and human sacrifice - page 2
    • Cannibalism and human sacrifice - page 3
    • Cannibalism and human sacrifice - page 4
  • “Unliterate peoples” - causes of social stagnation
• Shamanism
  • Origin and meaning of the concept of shamanism
  • Who is a shaman
  • Who and how becomes a shaman
  • Shamanic initiation
  • The inner meaning of shamanic initiation
    • The inner meaning of shamanic initiation - page 2
  • The mystery of Tudinism
  • What is ritual?
  • Collecting Spirits
  • Magical heat and shamanic flight
  • Healing
  • Preservation of a saved soul
  • Final feeding and dissolution of the spirits
  • Shamanism as a cultural and religious phenomenon
    • Shamanism as a cultural and religious phenomenon - page 2

"Paleolithic Venus"

Another circle of Upper Paleolithic finds that have a meaning that goes beyond the boundaries of this everyday life are numerous figurines, reliefs and drawings of women. Of course, this plot was at first interpreted quite materialistically, as a manifestation of the erotic inclinations of ancient man. But, I must admit, there is little eroticism in most of these images.

The figurines of Paleolithic “Venuses,” which mostly belong to Aurignac and are disappearing in Madeleine, show that the interest in women thirty thousand years ago was very different from what it is today. The face, arms and legs are very poorly detailed in these figures. Sometimes the entire head consists of one lush hairstyle, but everything that has to do with the birth and feeding of a child is not only carefully described, but, it seems, exaggerated. Huge ass, thighs, pregnant belly, saggy breasts.

Paleolithic Venus is not a graceful creature that captivates the imagination modern man, and not the blooming femininity of the Louvre Aphrodite, but a multi-bearing mother. These are the most famous “Venuses” from Willendorf (Austria), Menton (Italian Riviera), Lespuju (France). Such is the remarkable relief from Lussels (France), in which a woman standing in front holds in her right hand, bent at the elbow, a massive horn, very reminiscent of cornucopias, but most likely this is a sign of the presence of the Bison God.

And it’s not that the Paleolithic artist simply couldn’t or didn’t want to depict feminine beauty. On several monuments we can see that he did this very well in principle - the ivory head (Brassempouille), a relief in the La Madeleine cave, discovered in 1952. But the figurines and images of “Venuses” were by no means intended to glorify the perfection of female beauty.

Finds made in Ukraine by K. Polikarpovich clarify the meaning of the strange figurines. In the sanctuary on the Desna, in addition to mammoth skulls and tusks, in addition to howler monkeys, he also found a female ivory figurine of the “Venus” type. It used to be attached to something and was part of the mortuary sanctuary.

Most likely, these “Venuses” were images of “Mother Earth”, pregnant with the dead, who were yet to be born again to eternal life. Perhaps the essence thus depicted was the race itself in its continuation from ancestors to descendants, the Great Mother, always giving birth to life.

In Ukraine, in Gagarin, seven such figurines were located along the walls of the Magdalenian dugout. They stood in special niches. It was certainly an object of worship. For the keeper of the clan, individual “personal” characteristics are not important. She is forever pregnant with life the womb, the mother eternally feeding with her milk. It is unlikely that the thoughts of the ancients rose to high abstractions, but if they buried their dead in the ground, then they believed in their resurrection, and if they believed, then they could not help but worship Mother Raw Earth, who gives food, life and rebirth.

The hopes of the Cro-Magnons were not limited to the earth; their souls strove for the heavenly God-Beast, the all-powerful giver of life. But from everyday experience they knew very well that the seed of life must find the soil in which only it can germinate. The seed of life was provided by the sky, the soil by the earth. The worship of Mother Earth, so natural among agricultural peoples, actually turns out to be older than agriculture, since the purpose of worship for ancient man was not the earthly harvest, but the life of the next century.

Mircea Eliade is very mistaken when, in the introduction to “The Sacred and the Profane,” he states: “It is obvious that the symbolism and cults of Mother Earth, human fertility, ... the sacredness of Woman, etc., were able to develop and constitute a widely branched religious system only thanks to the discovery of agriculture. It is equally obvious that the pre-agrarian society of nomadic vagabonds was also unable to deeply and with the same force feel the sacredness of Mother Earth.

Differences in experience are the result of economic, social and cultural differences, in a word - History” - “The obvious” is not yet true, a religious scholar should have known this better than others. The cults of Mother Earth of the Upper Paleolithic hunters force us to assume that the religious is not always a product of the social and economic, but is sometimes their cause and prerequisite.

For a better understanding of the ambiguity of cause and effect in human culture, the “Venus” figurines from Dolní Vestonice are especially interesting. Vestonice “Venuses” are made of clay and fired. These are almost the first examples of terracotta in human history (25,500 years ago). The ancient mystic must have tried to capture in the material itself the great idea of ​​the earth uniting with the heavenly fire to receive into itself the heavenly seed. Perhaps a lightning strike that melted the soil brought him to these images. These specially fire-fired clay figurines of Mother Earth are separated by at least twelve thousand years from household ceramics that appeared in the early Neolithic.

The Magdalenian scene, discovered in the late 1950s under the canopy of the rock shelter of Angles-sur-l'Anglin, Vienne, France, is also very characteristic. Three women, with their gender clearly marked, stand close to each other. One is with narrow girlish hips, the other is pregnant, the third is old and flabby. The first one stands on the back of a bison, whose raised tail and tilted head show that it is depicted in the excitement of the rut.

Doesn't this relief reflect the rhythm of life and doesn't it emphasize that for the Cro-Magnon man this life was not an accident, but a divine gift, the seed of God, which must be properly disposed of in order to gain eternity? Or maybe this is the first of a long series of images of the Great Goddess in her three images - an innocent girl, a mother and an old woman-death, images - so characteristic of later humanity? Death, withdrawal from life in this case is not a complete disappearance, but only a stage of existence, followed by a new conception with the divine seed, a new birth.