Woman of willendorf

Venus of Willendorf

The Venus of Willendorf . now known in academia as the Woman of Willendorf . is a 4.25-inch (10.8 cm) high statuette of a female figure estimated to have been made between about 28,000 and 25,000 BCE. [ 1 ] It was found in 1908 by a workman named Johann Veran [ 2 ] or Josef Veram [ 3 ] during excavations conducted by archaeologists Josef Szombathy. Hugo Obermaier and Josef Bayer at a paleolithic site near Willendorf. a village in Lower Austria near the city of Krems. [ 4 ] It is carved from an oolitic limestone that is not local to the area, and tinted with red ochre. The figurine is now in the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna. Austria. [ 5 ]

Venus of Willendorf is named after the site in Austria where it was unearthed. [ 6 ]

Dating [ edit ]

Venus of Willendorf

After a wide variety of proposed dates, following a revised analysis of the stratigraphy of its site in 1990, the figure was estimated to have been carved 24,000–22,000 BCE, [ 4 ] but more recent estimates have pushed the date back 'slightly' to between about 28,000 and 25,000 BCE .

It is believed that the figure was carved during the Paleolithic Period. also known as the "Old Stone Age". This period of Prehistory started around 30,000 BCE. [ 6 ]

Purpose [ edit ]

Very little is known about its origin, method of creation, or cultural significance, however, it is one of numerous Venus figurines or representations of female figures surviving from the Paleolithic period. [ 7 ]

The purpose of the carving is the subject of much speculation. It never had feet and does not stand on its own. Parts of the body associated with fertility and childbearing have been emphasized leading researchers to believe Venus of Willendorf may have been used as a fertility goddess. [ 7 ] The figure has no visible face, her head being covered with circular horizontal bands of what might be rows of plaited hair. or a type of headdress. [ 8 ]

The nickname, urging a comparison to the classical image of "Venus," is now controversial. According to Christopher Witcombe, "the ironic identification of these figurines as 'Venus' pleasantly satisfied certain assumptions at the time about the primitive, about women, and about taste." [ 9 ] Catherine McCoid and LeRoy McDermott hypothesise that the figurines may have been created as self-portraits. [ 10 ]

External video

She was originally nicknamed la poire - "the pear" - on account of her shape. For Piette, the name "Venus" may have come to mind in this particular instance because of the emphatic treatment of the vulva 's labia and the prominent, slightly protruding pubic area, which he tastefully refers to as "le mont de Venus" - the mound of Venus (or mons pubis). "Venus" has since become the collective term used to identify all obese Palaeolithic statuettes of women. [ 12 ]

The Venus of Willendorf is one of the earliest images of the body made by humankind. It stands just over 4 Ѕ inches high and was carved some 25,000 years ago. It was discovered on the banks of the Danube River, in Austria, and it was most likely made by hunter-gatherers who lived in the area. The environment at that time was much colder and bleaker then present-day, a remnant of Europe's last ice age.

The people who made this statue lived in a harsh ice-age environment where features of fatness and fertility would have been highly desirable.

The question is why were prehistoric humans stimulated by an exaggerated image such as this? The answer, according to neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran and others, lies in the workings of the human brain, in a neurological principle known as the "peak shift."

The people who made this statue lived in a harsh ice-age environment where features of fatness and fertility would have been highly desirable. In neurological terms, these features amounted to hyper-normal stimuli that activate neuron responses in the brain. So in Paleolithic people terms, the parts that mattered most had to do with successful reproduction - the breasts and pelvic girdle. Therefore, these parts were isolated and amplified by the artist's brain.

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History Meme. Eight Objects (2/8)

Venus of Willendorf, also called the Woman of Willendorf, is a female figure statuette carved from Oolitic Limestone, a stone not local to the area it was found. It is a 4.25 inch (10.8 cm) high and is estimated to be made between 28,000 and 25,000 BCE, in what is called the “Old Stone Age.”

It was discovered in 1908 by a man named Johann Veran during an excavation lead by archaeologists Josef Szombathy, Hugo Obermaier, and Josef Bayer at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, Austria.

Little is known about the origin or significance of the figure, but numerous female figures have been discovered from the Paleolithic period. The emphasized body parts have connections to fertility and childbearing, which leads to a theory that it may have been a figure of a fertility goddess.