Venus of Laussel

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Venus von Laussel, Musée d'Aquitaine, Bordeaux
Venus von Laussel, detail of the head
Venus von Laussel, detail: right arm and horn
Venus von Laussel, detail: left arm

The Venus von Laussel (also Venus with horn ; French Vénus à la corne ) is an approximately 25,000 year old and approximately 42 cm high representation of a woman carved in limestone . The half-relief ( French: bas relief ) comes from the archaeological culture of Gravettia . It was in 1911 as part of the Abri from Laussel near the village of Marquay ( Dordogne ) of surgeon J.-G. Lalanne found.

Thematically and chronologically, the representation belongs to the Venus figurines , but in contrast to these is not a small work of art from the Upper Palaeolithic , but a half-relief carved into the limestone rock. The figure was probably originally painted with red ocher , of which traces can still be seen. In her right hand the naked woman holds a horn that is often interpreted as that of a bison . It is provided with 13 notches, which is sometimes interpreted as the number of female cycles in the year or associated with the phases of the moon. Other interpretations are based on the horn of an ibex . According to this view, the notches, which can then be addressed as 13 annual rings, indicate the optimal hunting age for ibexes. The woman's left hand lies on her stomach, the head is faceless, the navel is recognizable. There is a Y-shaped mark on the right hip.

The relief was on a boulder several cubic meters in size that had broken out of the roof of the demolition. Four other reliefs were found in the immediate vicinity. These relief works were carried out in 40 to 50 centimeters large, transportable limestone slabs. Due to the spatial proximity of the five reliefs, this place was interpreted as a kind of cella , i.e. a primitive sanctuary.

The four other reliefs by Laussel are the following:

  • the Venus of Berlin ( French Vénus de Berlin ). This relief was sold to the Ethnological Museum in Berlin and was lost during the Second World War. Here, too, a woman is shown with a horn. A relatively poor copy of this relief is in the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin , another in the Musée d'Aquitaine in Bordeaux . The best preserved copy is in the Prehistory and Early History Collection of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg .
  • a male person in a hunter pose (French Le chasseur ). This classic interpretation is controversial, it could just as easily be a young female person.
  • a woman with a headgear (French: Vénus à la tête quadrillée ).
  • a relief with two people, one of which is certainly female (French personages opposées ). A delivery may be shown.
For comparison: Venus of Berlin (copy), Museum of Prehistory and Early History, Berlin

literature

  • Jean-Gaston Lalanne: Découverte d'un bas-relief à représentation humaine dans les fouilles de Laussel. In: L'Anthropologie , Volume 22, 1911, pp. 257-260.
  • Jean-Gaston Lalanne, Jean Bouyssonie: Le gisement paléolithique de Laussel. Fouilles du Dr Lalanne. In: L'Anthropologie , Volume 50, 1941-46, pp. 1-163.
  • Henri Delporte : L'image de la femme dans l'art préhistorique . Ed. Picard, Paris 1979.
  • Alain Roussot: La Vénus à la corne et Laussel , Éditions Sud-Ouest, Bordeaux 2000.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ R. Dale Guthrie: The Nature of Paleolithic Art, Chicago 2005. pp. 366-371, pp. 260

Coordinates: 44 ° 56 ′ 50 ″  N , 1 ° 6 ′ 25 ″  E