Venus from Galgenberg

The Venus from Galgenberg in the Natural History Museum Vienna

Coordinates: 48 ° 26 '  N , 15 ° 36'  E

The Venus vom Galgenberg (also Fanny vom Galgenberg ) is a Venus figurine made of green serpentine , which was named after the place where it was found near Stratzing in Lower Austria . With a radiocarbon dating of the find layer to the time around 32,000 BP , according to more recent investigations of the site around 36,000 BP, it is the oldest generally recognized Venus figurine next to the almost 6 cm high Venus from Hohlefels found in 2008 . Both belong to the archaeological culture of Aurignacien , the 7.2 cm tall Galgenberg Venus was found in 1988.

history

The site is on the Galgenberg near Stratzing , directly on the municipality border between Stratzing and Krems-Rehberg in Lower Austria . The Paleolithic site owes its discovery to the researcher Emil Weinfurter, who in 1942 found artifacts and animal bones from the Aurignacian period ( later Paleolithic ) on the embankment of a ravine on the north slope .

In the summer of 1985, an excavation pit for an elevated water tank was dug on the Galgenberg, excavating the layers of the Paleolithic finds and bringing bones and stone tools to light. Johannes-Wolfgang Neugebauer was informed of the finds by the Department of Ground Monuments of the Federal Monuments Office, which immediately recognized their importance. In September and October 1985 he carried out the first rescue excavations on the base of the construction pit. The Viennese prehistorian Christine Neugebauer-Maresch was in charge of the further excavation of the site from 1986 .

The statuette was found during the ongoing excavation on September 23, 1988. The stone sculpture is 7.2 cm tall and weighs 10 g. The back of the figure is flat, the front is sculptured. She has a dancing posture. This representation gave her the nickname when she was found: "Fanny - the dancing Venus from Galgenberg", after the famous dancer Fanny Elßler . Since the representation is not clear, it is also interpreted as a hunter with a club .

As the carving waste shows, the statue may have been made at the site. The stone also comes from the area. The age determination is based on the ¹⁴ C dating of surrounding wood residues.

The original of the figurine can be seen in the Natural History Museum Vienna , a copy of the sculpture in the Weinstadtmuseum Krems an der Donau .

About 25 kilometers from Stratzing up the Danube is the site of the Venus of Willendorf, about 7,000 years younger .

See also

• Upper Paleolithic minor art
• List of Venus figurines
• Lion man

Web links

Commons : Venus vom Galgenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on Venus vom Galgenberg in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Entry on Venus vom Galgenberg in the database of the state's memory of the history of Lower Austria ( Museum Niederösterreich )
• Informative page about Venus vom Galgenberg by Christine Neugebauer-Maresch
• Photos of the Venus von Willendorf and Galgenberg
• The Gallows Mountain Venus - Fanny

Individual evidence

1. ^ ORF : "Venus von Willendorf" in new home , September 22, 2015
2. ↑ Christine Neugebauer-Maresch: On the new discovery of a female statuette at the Aurignac station Stratzing / Krems-Rehberg, Lower Austria. In: Germania. Volume 67, 1989, ISSN  0016-8874 , pp. 551-559.
3. ↑ Entry on Venus vom Galgenberg in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
4. ^ Christine Neugebauer-Maresch: On the Paleolithic settlement history of the Galgenberg from Stratzing / Krems - Rehberg. In: Archeology of Austria. Communications from the Austrian Society for Prehistory and Early History. Vol. 18/4. Vienna 1993, ISSN  1018-1857 , pp. 1.10 ff.