The Venus of Dolní Věstonice ( cs, Věstonická venuše) is a

Venus figurine A Venus figurine is any Upper Palaeolithic statuette portraying a woman, usually carved in the round.Fagan, Brian M., Beck, Charlotte, "Venus Figurines", ''The Oxford Companion to Archaeology'', 1996, Oxford University Press, pp. 740–741 Most ...

, a

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, ...

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

tte of a nude female figure dated to 29,000–25,000

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

(

Gravettian The Gravettian was an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years BP. It is archaeologically the last European culture many consider unified, and had mostly disappeared by 2 ...

industry Industry may refer to: Economics * Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity * Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery * The wider industrial sector ...

). It was found at the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

site

Dolní Věstonice Dolní Věstonice (german: Unterwisternitz) is a municipality and village in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 300 inhabitants. It is known for the eponymous archaeological site. Geography Dolní ...

in the Moravian basin south of

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

, in the base of

Děvín Děvín (german: Mayden Berg) is a double peak mountain in the Pavlov municipality in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. With an elevation of , it is the highest mountain of the Pavlov Hills within the Mikulov Highlands, and of the ...

Mountain in what is today the Czech Republic. This

figurine A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with clay ...

and a few others from locations nearby are the oldest known

articles in the world.

Description

It has a height of , and a width of at its widest point and is made of a

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...

body fired at a relatively low temperature (500–800 °C). The statuette follows the general morphology of the other Venus figurines: exceptionally large breasts, belly and hips, perhaps symbols of

fertility Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Ferti ...

, relatively small head and little detail on the rest of the body. A feature which no longer remains a part of the sculpture, is the fact that it is thought to have been originally ornamented with four feathers. This is evidenced by the four small holes on the top of the head. Although the type of feather has not been determined, the holes are said to be produced with a tool that is relatively sharp – of which a feather would satisfy. The

palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

settlement of

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The ...

, a part of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

at the time organized excavation began, now located in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, has been under systematic archaeological research since 1924, initiated by

Karel Absolon Karel Absolon (16 June 1877 – 6 October 1960) was a Czech archaeologist, geographer, paleontologist, and speleologist. He was born in Boskovice. Absolon was the grandchild of paleontologist Jindřich Wankel. During his studies at Charles ...

. In addition to the Venus figurine, figures of animals –

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the No ...

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus '' Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adu ...

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

, fox, rhino and

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

– and more than 2,000 balls of burnt clay have been found at Dolní Věstonice. The figurine was discovered on 13 July 1925 in a layer of ash, broken into two pieces. It was found situated in a central fireplace. Once on display at the

Moravian Museum Moravian is the adjective form of the Czech Republic region of Moravia, and refers to people of ancestry from Moravia. Moravian may also refer to: * a member or adherent of the Moravian Church, one of the oldest Protestant denominations * Morav ...

, it is now protected and only rarely accessible to the public. It was exhibited in the

National Museum A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

from 11 October 2006 until 2 September 2007 as a part of the exhibition ''Lovci mamutů'' (''The Mammoth Hunters''). It was presented in the Moravian Museum in Brno at an expo "Prehistoric Art in Central Europe". It has returned to depository as of June 2009.Venus of Dolní Věstonice and of Venus of Willendorf shown in Anthropos
Brno Now, June 26, 2009 Scientists periodically examine the statuette. A

tomograph Tomography is imaging by sections or sectioning that uses any kind of penetrating wave. The method is used in radiology, archaeology, biology, atmospheric science, geophysics, oceanography, plasma physics, materials science, astrophysics, quantu ...

scan in 2004 found a fingerprint of a child estimated at between 7 and 15 years of age, fired into the surface; the child who handled the figurine before it was fired is considered by Králík, Novotný and Oliva (2002) to be an unlikely candidate for its maker.

Gallery

Vestonicka venuse.jpg, Front Vestonicka venuse back.jpg, Back Vestonicka venuse left.jpg, Left side Vestonicka venuse right.jpg, Right side

References

General Information * National Geographic Society. ''Wonders of the Ancient World; National Geographic Atlas of Archaeology,'' Norman Hammond, Consultant, Nat'l Geogr. Soc., (Multiple Staff authors), (Nat'l Geogr., R.H.Donnelley & Sons, Willard, OH), 1994, 1999, Reg or Deluxe Ed., 304 pgs. Deluxe ed. photo (pg 248): "Venus, Dolni Věstonice, 24,000 B.C." In section titled: ''The Potter's Art,'' pp 246–253.

External links

OverviewJihomoravske venuse - South Moravian Venuses - video ( 2010 )''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Venus Of Dolni Vestonice Archaeological discoveries in the Czech Republic Archaeological discoveries in Europe Archaeology of Moravia Ceramic sculptures Dolni Vestonice Gravettian Nude sculptures Stone Age Czech Republic South Moravian Region Terracotta sculptures Upper Paleolithic discoveries Sculptures of women in the Czech Republic Statues in the Czech Republic

Description

Gallery

See also

References

External links