Venus from Dolní Věstonice

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Venus of Dolní Věstonice

The Venus of Dolní Věstonice is a Venus figurines of ceramic . Their age is estimated at 25,000 to 29,000 years and thus assigned to the Gravettian .

Find

The figure was found in 1925 during archaeological excavations, which were carried out under the direction of Karel Absolon in the years 1924–1938 in Dolní Věstonice (Unterwisternitz), Moravia , in what is now Okres Břeclav (Lundenburg district). A camp of Stone Age mammoth hunters was excavated (location: 48 ° 52 ′ 51.8 ″  N , 16 ° 40 ′ 6.3 ″  E, coordinates: 48 ° 52 ′ 51.8 ″  N , 16 ° 40 ′ 6.3 ″  E ) .

Comparable finds in the vicinity are the Venus von Willendorf (limestone) in Lower Austria or the Venus von Moravany (mammoth ivory) in Slovakia. In addition to the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, numerous small figures made of burnt loess loam were found in layers of the same age on the slope of the Pollau Mountains, particularly at the Pavlov I near Pavlov site about 600 m away . These are naturalistic, fully plastic representations of Ice Age animals: cave lions , woolly mammoths , wild horses , woolly rhinos , bears and wolverines . Burned pieces of loess clay were found around two hearths that were interpreted as stoves (ovens) in huts. Animal figures made of burnt loess clay were also found in 1930 by Josef Bayer at the Krems-Wachtberg site in Lower Austria .

description

The figure is one of the oldest ceramic products and is made of loess clay , which has been layered with animal bone meal to avoid shrinkage cracks . It is 11.1 cm high, 4.3 cm wide and 2.7 cm thick. Their shape resembles that of other simultaneous figures; d. H. Expansive breasts and hips, no individual facial features, eyes are indicated by two oblique slits. She was found broken in two. In the freshly formed state, a fingerprint was left on the back of the figure , which was taken from an 11 to 14 year old child or adolescent.

The Venus is kept in the Moravian Museum in Brno , but for conservation reasons only one copy is exhibited on the second floor.

  • front
  • back
  • Left side
  • right side

See also

literature

  • Thomas Einwögerer, Franz Pieler: In the beginning there was loess - attempts to manufacture Paleolithic ceramic figures. In: Archeology of Austria. Volume 12, 2001, pp. 16-21.
  • Bohuslav Klima: The Upper Paleolithic mammoth hunter settlements Dolní Vĕstonice and Pavlov in South Moravia - ČSFR. In: Archeology and Museum. Volume 23 (= reports from the work of the Office for Museums and Archeology of the Canton of Baselland). Liestal 1991 (for the exhibition "Man and Mammoth" in the museum in the old armory in Liestal).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karel Absolon: The exploration of the diluvial mammoth hunter station of Unter-Wisternitz on the Pollauer Mountains in Moravia. Work report for the second year 1925. Studies in the field of general karst research, scientific caving, ice age research and the neighboring areas, C. Palaeontological Series No. 6, Brno 1938.
  2. ↑ Miroslav Králík: Ancient ceramics and imprints on their surfaces. In Pavlov - Excavations 2007 - 2011. Vyd. 1st. Brno: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 2011. The Dolní Věstonice Studies, Vol. 18, ISBN 978-80-86023-85-4 , pp. 207-244 (Chapter III.10).
  3. ↑ Miroslav Králík, Vladimír Novotný, Martin Oliva: Fingerprints on the Venus of Dolní Věstonice I. In: Anthropologie. Volume XL / 2, 2002, pp. 107-113.

Web links

Commons : Venus de Dolní Věstonice  - album with pictures, videos and audio files