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The Venus of Willendorf
The Venus of Willendorf is a superbly crafted sculpture of a naked obese woman from the stone age. It is made of oolitic limestone, and was covered with red ochre when found. The vulva is particularly well carved, by someone with a good knowledge of anatomy. The feet are rendered as very small, with no indication of ankles. Opinion is divided about the pattern around the head. Some say it is braided hair, others say it is a woven (or crocheted) hat pulled low over the face. There is evidence for woven textiles from that time. It could also be basketry.
The Venus of Willendorf was carved from oolitic limestone, and was covered with a thick layer of red ochre when found. The figurine was unearthed during the Wachau railway construction
in 1908.
Photo: Vienna Natural History Museum Postcard
I spent some time in the Vienna Natural History Museum one day in September 2008. This is the best image of the Venus of Willindorf from that session.
Opinion is divided about the pattern around the head.
Some say it is braided hair, others say it is a woven (or crocheted!)
hat pulled low over the face. There is evidence for woven textiles
from that time. It could also be basketry. Note the "golf ball" venus (at the bottom of the page on the link) from Kostienki, which is a head totally covered with basketry, and the
similar full figure with the head almost covered in a similar texture.
But all agree that it is deliberate, to hide the face. The question is, why?
All sorts of theories have been put forward - that it is an anonymous
female, or that it is the earth mother, whose face not only cannot
be seen, but must not be seen.
All conjecture, and your guess is as good as anyone else's.
The thick circles at the top of the breasts of the Willendorf venus
are vestigial arms. If you look at the figure closely, you can see the
matchstick arms starting at the shoulders, and continuing down the
body and across the breasts. Look closer still, and you can see
bangles or arm ornaments at the wrists. Even hands with fingers are
indicated.
Depending on your browser, you may have to click on this image a couple
of times to see it at full magnification.
Photo: Don Hitchcock, 2008
Source: Original in the Vienna Natural History Museum
View from the site of the discovery of the Venus of Willendorf. The Venusium museum is the red walled, dark tiled roof structure below the railway track on the right.
Larger image, 1.1 Mb
Depending on your browser, you may have to click on this image a couple of times to see it at full magnification.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Willendorf on the Donau, where the Venus of Willendorf was discovered, viewed from a ship on the Donau.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2000
Painting of Willendorf on the Danube before the railway was constructed, and before the venus was discovered.
Photo: http://www.simskultur.net/taxonomy/term/167
View of the Wachau valley in the Willendorf area, view from southeast. Indicated in red are the sites:
Willendorf I (WI), Willendorf I Nord (WI-Nord), Willendorf II (WII), Willendorf III (WIII), Willendorf IV (WIV), Willendorf V (WV), Willendorf VI (WVI), and Willendorf VII (WVII).
Photo: T. Bence Viola, Graphic: Philip R. Nigst
Source and text: Nigst et al., 2008
The eastern bank of the Danube Valley is formed by cliffy and steep slopes. The western bank shows flatter slopes because of the loess accumulation in the lee of the dominating winds from the west.
Further, large alluvial fans, formed by streams from the hinterland (e.g. Willendorfer Bach) transporting large amounts of material into the Danube Valley, are recognised on this western bank. The deposits of the site Willendorf II are lying on top of a lower terrace of the Danube.
The Palaeolithic layers are found in the upper half of the about 20 m thick deposits. The site is part of the Willendorf site cluster, a total of 8 sites are known: Willendorf I, Willendorf I North, and Willendorf II to VII.
Text above: Nigst et al., 2008
During the Upper Palaeolithic, ice age hunters used the slopes of the Danube valley repeatedly. The area around the left bank of the Danube between Aggsbach and Krems along with the tribitary valleys to the west and north of the Danube valley was an important habitat for ice age man living in the east of what is now Austria. The Palaeolithic settlements between Willendorf and Schwallenbach are located in a somewhat broader section of the Wachau on the west bank of the Danube. Nussberg, the hill to the west, sheltered the settlement near Willendorf from westerly winds. From very early on, the Danube connected eastern and western Europe and was of particular significance for cultural contacts and the ongoing development of Palaeolithic cultures.
The four lower excavation levels at Willendorf reveal early Upper Palaeolithic or Aurignacian settlements, while the five levels above originated in the Mid-Upper Palaeolithic period during the Gravettian culture. Both of these cultures are named after archaeological sites in France.
Text above from a display at the Venusium, the Museum at Willendorf devoted to the Venus of Willendorf and its discovery.
The Vienna Natural History Museum, in which the Venus of Willendorf is on display.
Photo: Don Hitchcock, 2008
Although available light does not give good resolution, it shows sculptural forms clearly.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008, Canon, available light
Source: Original in the Vienna Natural History Museum
Larger images with better resolution
Venus of Willendorf
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008, Canon
Source: Original in the Vienna Natural History Museum
Smaller images, some with better depth of field
Venus of Willendorf
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008, Canon
Source: Original in the Vienna Natural History Museum
Venus of Willendorf
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008, Pentax
Source: Original in the Vienna Natural History Museum
Venus of Willendorf posters. When I arrived in Viena in September 2008, there were posters advertising the Venus of Willendorf everywhere.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008, Canon
Venus of Willendorf II
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008, Pentax
Source: Original in the Vienna Natural History Museum
Venus of Willendorf II
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008, Canon
Source: Original in the Vienna Natural History Museum
Venus of Willendorf II
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008, Canon
Source: Facsimile in the Vienna Natural History Museum
Venus of Willendorf II reconstruction.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008, Canon
Source: Vienna Natural History Museum
Venus of Willendorf III
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008, Pentax
Source: Original in the Vienna Natural History Museum
Venus of Willendorf III
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008, Canon
Source: Original in the Vienna Natural History Museum
Venus of Willendorf III
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008, Canon
Source: Facsimile in the Vienna Natural History Museum
Venus of Willendorf II and III
Photo: Matthias cable
Date: 14th January 2007
Permission: GNU Free Documentation License
The Site of the Discovery of the Venus of Willendorf
Hugo Obermaier, Josef Szombathy, and Josef Bayer at the centre of the excavations where the Venus of Willendorf was found.
Wilendorf had already been known as a Palaeolithic site for over 20 years when, in 1908, systematic excavations by Szombathy, Bayer and Obermaier began.
By the 1870s at the latest, the owner of the Brunner brickyard at Willendorf had found flint tools there. Leopold Koch and Ferdinand Brun learned of these finds in late 1883. Brun had noticed bones at the surface of the Brunner brickyard on several occasions. He carried out initial archaeological investigations in 1884. At the end of the 1880s, bones were discovered during digging for a new clay pit on the Ebner property. Ludwig Hans Fischer carried out excavations of this site in 1890. Remains of human skeletons were reported to have been discovered while digging for clay between 1904 and 1905.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf. © NHM Wien
Text: Display at Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
Willendorf II, 7th August 1908: discovery of the Venus I of Willendorf. The man standing at the findspot of the figurine is J. Bayer.
(This photo shows more of the site than the one on the right, above - Don )
Photo: J. Szombathy; © Archive of the Department of Prehistory, Museum of Natural History, Vienna; nr. 4796)
Source: Nigst et al., 2008
Map of the Willendorf digs I, II and III by Bayer on 19th May 1908.
As early as 1904, Szombathy made a drawing of the Grossensteiner brickyard and noted that the Wachaubahn railway would pass just above or below it. Excavation for the railway began in January of 1908. On January 18, Josef Bayer published and appeal to the population of the Wachau to be watchful for any finds made in the loess. He also informed Szombathy that the excavation work had already touched on levels of finds from the Palaeolithic period. Szombathy then charged Hugo Obermaier and Josef Bayer with observing the excavation work. On May 11 the two of them followed the railway bed from Krems to Willendorf and noted three additional archaeological sites besides the former brickyard. They purchased some of the finds and made sketches of the sites. In early June, an engineer of the imperial railway construction authority named Kann reported finds from the railway bed to the central commission in Vienna. Szombathy carried out negotiations with Kann and ALbus, the subcontractor from Groisbach who was supplying tools and labour. On July 22 he summoned Bayer and Obermaier to Willendorf on July 29.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf. © NHM Wien
Text: Display at Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
Josef Bayer on the 7th August 1908 on the level where the Venus of Willendorf was discovered.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf. © NHM Wien
The site of the dig at Willendorf.
On the morning of August 7, Josef Szombathy arrived in Willendorf on a routine visit. He and Josef Bayer were present when a worker, Johann Veran, discovered the Venus of Willendorf. Hugo Obermaier learned of the find only later, in the course of the day. In 1925 Hugo Obermaier wrote to his friend Menghin, head of the Institute of Prehistory and Early History at Vienna University, that no one had been present when the statue had actually been found. He and Bayer had been occupied with excavating the levels. Szombathy alone had gone from one worker to another and noticed the object lying among the finds made by Veran.
Obermaier's letter became a source of later speculation. Some suspected that none of the three researchers had actually been at the excavation site when the Venus had been found. This may be ruled out, however, since Obermaier himself also wrote that he and Bayer had been working above and Szombathy had been observing their work.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf. © NHM Wien
Text: Display at Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
The site of the dig at Willendorf.
The people in the photo are standing at the place where the Venus figures were found. The person in the foreground is standing at the site where the Venus I was found, and the person in the background is standing at the site where the Venus II was found.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf. © NHM Wien
Text: My translation of the caption on the photograph.
View of Willendorf I, I-North, and II from the eastern bank of the Danube in 1908 after the completion of the railroad.
Photo: Szombathy; © Archive of the Department of Prehistory, Museum of Natural History, Vienna; nr. 4777)
Source: Nigst et al., 2008
Human thighbone, Willendorf I.
Age: 24 000 BP.
This looks like a facsimile.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Vienna Natural History Museum.
Human jaw, Willendorf II.
Age: 24 000 BP.
This looks like a facsimile.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Natural History Museum of Vienna
The beginnings of the open air camp site in Willendorf.
Willendorf II/Layers 1 - 4, in the district of Krems, Lower Austria.
Older Upper Palaeolithic, Aurignacian.
Layer 4: 32 000 ± 250 BP.
Over many millennia, the inhabitants here put up their camps on the east facing slope made of wind blown rock flour, loess, of the left bank of the Danube at Willendorf. Little remains to be found of the first three layers, except for some stone tools and some jewellery, a pierced snail shell.
In the fourth layer are numerous stone tools and multiple blades, awls and points made of bone. They hunted, in particular, Ibex and Reindeer. This indicates that the climate was very cold.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Natural History Museum of Vienna
Scrapers from Layer 4 of the Willendorf II site, 32 000 ± 250 BP.
Scrapers are unifacial tools that were used either for hideworking or woodworking purposes. Whereas this term is often used for any unifacially flaked stone tool that defies classification, most lithic analysts maintain that the only true scrapers are defined on the base of use-wear, and usually are those that were worked on the distal ends of blades - i.e., 'end scrapers' or grattoirs. Other scrapers include the so-called 'side scrapers' or racloirs, which are made on the longest side of a flake, and notched scrapers, which have a cleft on either side that may have been used to attach them to a handle.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Natural History Museum of Vienna
Text: Adapted from Wikipedia
Shells from Layer 4 of the Willendorf II site, 32 000 ± 250 BP.
These are marine snail shells brought by humans from the sea a long distance away and thus very valuable, pierced to be strung on a leather thong.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Natural History Museum of Vienna
Text: Adapted from Wikipedia
Bone points from Layer 4 of the Willendorf II site, 32 000 ± 250 BP.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Natural History Museum of Vienna
Kielkratzer, keeled or carinated end scrapers, from Layer 4 of the Willendorf II site, 32 000 ± 250 BP.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Natural History Museum of Vienna
Willendorf II / Layer 5, in the district of Krems, Lower Austria.
Middle Upper Palaeolithic, Gravettian.
Layer 5: ca 30 000 BP.
Sharp spear points
Five superimposed Camps of the Gravettian (layers 5-9) completed the deposits at the site where the Venus of Willendorf was found. At the oldest of this group of camps, layer 5, bones of mammoth, reindeer, ibex and deer have survived as remnants of the animals they hunted, once again pointing out the periglacial climatic conditions that prevailed in this area 30 000 years ago.
Only a few bone tools were found. The people of Willendorf used scrapers, burins, and minute stone points known as 'Gravettespitzen' (Gravettian points, Pointes de la Gravette), and 'microliths' - for their work.
Fossil Dentalia shells extracted from ancient limestone deposits, as well as perforated deer and fox teeth, were hung as pendants around the neck.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Natural History Museum of Vienna
Pointe de la Gravette - a term introduced by Henri Breuil in 1906.
Different views of the same specimen.
A Gravettespitze or Gravettian point is a narrow, pointed blade, usually made of flint, having a steep retouched back (right end in the figure). The retouching was used as a hafting area for gluing to a grooved shaft of wood or bone.
The retouching is applied to the base of the point, (proximal end) gradually disappearing as it gets to the point (distal end). This suggests it was used as reinforcement when used as a tip in a spear. Another form of the Pointe de la Gravette is the Micro-Gravettian point, which is sometimes defined by a Gravettian point with a length of less than 30 mm.
Gravettian points are the signature tool of the older Gravettian, 31 000 to 25 000 years ago, or the Perigordian IV, a culture of the Upper Paleolithic.
Material: Flint
Dimensions: 60 × 10 × 4 mm - 2 grams.
Origin: Gavaudun, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Photo: Didier Descouens , 8 January 2011
Source: Muséum de Toulouse, MHNT.PRE.2009.0.231.2
Permission: GNU Free Documentation License , Version 1.2
Willendorf II, Layer 5: ca 30 000 BP.
Bone point and microliths.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Natural History Museum of Vienna
Josef Bayer continued excavations in Willendorf in 1909. After these excavation works he renamed the levels found in 1908 (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6a, 6b, 6 and 7) to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, recognising that layers 6a and 6b were refuse layers from different occupations of the site. Further excavations at Willendorf were hindered by the outbreak of the First World War. Bayer was informed in 1926 of substantial damage to the soil strata.
Upon initial investigation of unauthorised digging, Bayer discovered an ivory figure about 22 cm tall - Venus II of Willendorf, resting on the lower jawbone of a mammoth. It had not been completed and the head had been truncated. Bayer carried out intensive research at the site in the following years. In addition to drawing a plan of the most significant finds, he packed them individually, so that even today we are able to faithfully reconstruct the original position of each. This is an indication of the high scholarly standards Bayer followed in his archaeological research.
The nine levels of finds encompass a period spanning more than 20 000 years, from around 20 000 BP to 40 000 BP
Photo: Nigst et al. (2008)
Text: Display at Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
As a result of differences between Szombathy, Bayer and Obermaier, the finds from Willendorf were not published. Only after the Second World War Fritz Felgenhauer of Vienna University worked through the great amount of material that had been discovered. He himself conducted excavations at Willendorf. With his work Felgenhauer created a high standard of presentation which allowed researchers for the first time to obtain an impression of the finds and the excavation site without actually viewing the original material. The percentage shares of the various types of tools as well as clearly defined tool types were specified so as to enable comparisons of similar archaeological sites throughout Europe.
The first C14 data was gathered in order to verify level chronology in absolute terms. Integration of natural sciences (i.e. mineralogy, palaeontology and others) became a standard for prehistoric research work. Whereas the Venus of Willendorf had occupied researchers' attention up to this time, after Felgenhauer the level sequence moved into the focus of interest of European scholars.
Text: Display at Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
Venus statue at the site.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
(This is an excellent display which illustrates graphically the time scale involved in the various layers of the Willendorf site. Each successive occupation was covered by wind blown fine material called loess, blowing from its source in the glaciated regions to the north, where the advance and retreat of the ice cap and associated glaciers ground rock into rock flour and left it piled up in front of the ice. This dust was then picked up by the strong, icy winds of the time and blown south. It accumulated here, on the northern bank of the Danube, and was responsible for the shallow slope leading down to the river, giving an ideal living environment, and for the subsequent burial of each succeeding layer at this open air site - Don )
The uppermost layer of the excavation from 1908 was situated two metres below the surface. The two ivory figurines (Venus II and III) were found there, in layer 9. The famous Venus I from Willendorf was unearthed in layer 8, 25 cm below layer 9. The radiocarbon data are between 23 000 and 25 000 BP.
At that time at least one other Willendorf site and another in Aggsbach were being used by Palaeolithic hunters. Due to the important finds of this layer, this part of the Gravettian is also called the Willendorf-Kostenkian after Willendorf and the Russian site of Kostenki.
Layer 8 is about 25 000 years old. It is the uppermost layer of the Willendorf sequence which can be seen today.
The Gravettian Layers 6 and 7 contain bigger tools than Layer 5. Shark teeth and Moldavites have been collected.
(Moldavite is an olive-green or dull greenish vitreous substance formed by a meteorite impact. It is one kind of tektite. It was named for the town of Moldauthein (Czech: Týn nad Vltavou) in Bohemia (the Czech Republic), where it occurs. It is sometimes cut and polished as an ornamental stone under the name of pseudo-chrysolite. - Don, from Wikipedia )
The layers date to between 26 000 and 27 000 BP. At that time the babies from Krems Wachtberg had been buried.
Layer 5 is the lowest Gravettian layer and dates to between 27 000 and 30 000 BP. It ranks among the oldest layers of this culture and contains many microlithic tools.
Layer 4 is the second and uppermost Aurignacian layer. It is characterised by a series of bone tools, scrapers and carinated (keeled ) endscrapers. This layer dates to between 31 000 and 32 000 BP. At that time the female statuette of 'Fanny' from Galgenberg was made.
Layer 3 is the first Aurignacian layer and is about 38 000 years old.
In Layer 2 there are tools from the Early Upper Palaeolithic which dates to about 42 000 BP.
Layer 1 contains no characteristic material.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium Museum, Willendorf
(The people who lived here left no evidence of their dwellings. This is an artist's recreation of a possible habitation, which uses skins and available tree branches well guyed to the ground to construct a small semi-permanent structure which would have kept out the howling winds and snows of winter.
Notice the slope of the ground towards the river, and the slope of the tent roof, which would have needed to be almost horizontal to the north in order to provide the least purchase on it by the prevailing strong northerly winds, tempered somewhat by the position of the encampment in the valley of the Donau.
The upslope floor of the tent may well have been dug out to provide more space inside, though I know of no evidence for this conjecture. This artwork seems to be showing the tent in spring, after some of the snow had melted. In winter, the snow on the roof would have helped somewhat to insulate the occupants from the worst of the weather, and keep the skins in place.
Dwellings of this type can be surprisingly comfortable, if cramped. Double layers of skins with dry grass between can help to keep the temperature inside the tent reasonably warm and weatherproof, even in the ice age conditions of the time - Don )
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Display, Venusium Museum, Willendorf
This is part of the staggering number of tools from levels 8 and 9 at Willendorf II, the Gravettian, ca 25 000 - 24 000 BP.
The Venus of Willendorf was found in level 9.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Vienna Natural History Museum
Willendorf II, section cleaning 1993.
In 1981 Paul Haesaerts started his work in Willendorf II. His team cleaned a small section and took a number of samples. It was the first stratigraphic work on Willendorf II using modern methods. The results including the first set of 14C-dates for the whole sequence were published (Haesaerts, 1990).
About 10 years later, in 1993, Paul Haesaerts, Freddy Damblon, and Gerhard Trnka started a collaborative research program on Willendorf II in order to enlarge the 1981 section and to collect more well provenienced (provenience refers to the three-dimensional location of an artefact or feature within an archaeological site - Don ) samples for dating and palaeoenvironment reconstruction, as shown in the photo at left. The results of this analysis form the basic description of the sequence up to now. Haesaerts et al. (1996)
Photo: G. Trnka
Text: Nigst et al. (2008) with definition from Wikipedia.
In 1996 the local museum society wanted to protect the section left by Paul Haesaerts’ team with a wooden roof construction and clean the section. The cleaning of the section was done by a team led by Spyridon Verginis of the University of Vienna. In the course of this work Verginis' team removed between 5 and 30 cm of sediment from Paul Haesaerts' section and collected a number of samples. These results are not yet published.
Text above: Nigst et al. (2008)
This is the shelter put up by the local museum society, which has protected the site, and added valuable information for those who visit.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Soil Profile at the discovery site, Willendorf II.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
The Venusium - A museum in Willendorf devoted to the Venus of Willendorf and associated material.
On a cold, wet and windy Monday afternoon in September 2008, my wife and I arrived on our bicycles, looking like drowned rats, at a Pensione in Willendorf. We were on a trip from the source of the Danube in the Black Forest of Germany, cycling along the banks of the Danube to Budapest in Hungary. After warming up with a hot shower, I looked out the window and saw this sign, and my heart sank - the museum is only open for a few hours each weekend.
However, we talked to our hosts, and they arranged for the curator of the museum to open it especially for us, for which we were very grateful.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
The Museum is fairly new, and beautifully organised, with excellent displays.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
This display has been set up to recreate the hearth and materials near where the Venus was discovered.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
These are some of the huge number of flint tools found at the site.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
Deer antler modified for human use, and the jaw of a wolf.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
Mammoth tusk.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
Reindeer antler
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
Dentalium shells used as jewellery
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
Bone and a Dentalium shell used as jewellery
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf. Photographer A Schumacher, © NHM Wien
Individual gastropod shells found at the site.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf. © NHM Wien
Bear Skull
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
Mammoth molar.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
Mammoth femur.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
A model dressed in the clothes of the time, carrying a spear thrower and a spear.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
Hunting the hairy mammoth by driving it into marshland using men and fire.
Research by anthropologists has determined that adult males at the time were from 160 to 190 cm tall, and females between 150 and 175 cm tall. People wore jewellery made of mussel and snail shells or pendants carved from ivory, antlers or stone.
There were permanent settlements as well as hunting camps. Hunting camps were preferably located in areas favourable for finding a certain kind of animal. There the hunt was slaughtered and the unusable parts left behind. Bones from meat-rich parts of the animal, or which could be used for fashioning tools were more likely to be found at the main camp. Due to the wide variety of tasks carried out at the main camp, one would expect to find a greater variety of tools there. For these reasons, a main camp for ice age man is believed to have existed at level 9 of Willendorf II.
The temperature during the glacial periods was an average of about 3° to 6°C colder than today. With little precipitation in winter, only a thin layer of snow covered the ground, hence there was an adequate supply of nourishment even for large herbivores such as the mammoth. Yet the sequence of layers found at Willendorf spans a period of 20 000 years, and accordingly contains evidence for widely varying climatic stages. Layers 1 to 4, assigned to the period of the Aurignacian culture, consist of deposits which formed 42 000 to 31 000 years ago, at a time when the climate was more moderate than when level 5 was formed.
Following a period of extreme cold, a period characterised by wind deposits of loess began about 26 000 years ago, when culture level 6 was formed. This period lasted until approximately 24 000 years ago, until the time of the culture layer 9, the 'Venus layer'. Tiny snails, good indicators of climatic and environmental conditions in the ice age, are found in the loess in the upper levels at Willendorf and denote a dry, cold climate. The environment consisted of an open plain with a few bushes and trees. Nussberg, a hill to the west belonging to the Jauerling massif, while providing the settlement with some shelter from westerly winds, was probably bare.
Among the finds in layers 8 and 9 at Willendorf are the remains of animal bones, including foxes, arctic foxes, rabbits, wolverines, bears, cave lions, elk, reindeer, mountain goats, horses, mammoths and golden eagles. Particularly worthy of note is the large number of arctic foxes and foxes at level 9. Large numbers of small animals among the spoils found at a site are seen as evidence of a more sedentary lifestyle, i.e. animals found in the vicinity provided a sufficient supply of food. The particular species of animals hunted at Willendorf suggest that the site was used in the cold season.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Source: Venusium, the museum at Willendorf © NHM Wien
Text: Display at Venusium, the museum at Willendorf.
Willendorf II and its place in the context of the early Upper Paleolithic in central Europe
Willendorf II, lithic tools from layers 2 (1-4) and 3 (5-9):
1. sidescraper
2. retouched blade
3-4. single endscrapers
5, 7. carinated endscrapers
6. nosed endscraper
8-9. retouched blades
(after Teyssandier, 2003).
Photo:
Teyssandier et al (2002)
Willendorf II belongs to a set of Upper Paleolithic sites located on the western bank of the Danube along the Wachau, some 70 km to the west of Vienna. The site was excavated from 1908 to 1927 by Josef Bayer of the Museum of Natural Sciences of Vienna. The excavations revealed the existence of at least nine Paleolithic layers (1 to 9 from the base to the top) in the upper half of loamy deposits about 20 m thick, preserved on the top of a lower terrace of the Danube. The lowest cultural layers 1 to 4 are of critical importance in the debate concerning the appearance of Upper Paleolithic industries in central Europe.
Cultural layers 1 and 2 are non-diagnostic from a chrono-cultural perspective. The paucity of artifacts and more particularly of diagnostic items make attributions and comparisons extremely difficult. Only non-diagnostic tools are found in these assemblages; typical Aurignacian or transitional forms are totally lacking.
The available lithic assemblage of layer 3 was numerically equivalent to that of layer 2 and consisted of only 38 pieces. However, the morphology of the different tool-types changes: more tools are made on blades, thick endscrapers appear for the first time, and retouched blades are more diversified with two true Aurignacian blades (Fig. 6, nos. 8-9) that are very similar to those usually assigned to the Aurignacian elsewhere. Layer 3 has always been interpreted as Aurignacian.
We, however, stress the small number of diagnostic artifacts and the small size of the assemblage, which make comparisons extremely difficult. We need thus to be cautious in using data of layer 3 of Willendorf II in theoretical and global models. Nevertheless, the best points of comparison for layer 3 are found in Early Aurignacian contexts. Recently, several hundred artifacts from layer 3 of Willendorf II have been re-discovered in the cellar of the Department of Prehistory of the Museum of Natural History in Vienna. These artifacts apparently confirm the classification of the Willendorf II, layer 3 assemblage as Aurignacian.
Adapted from: http://aace.metapress.com/index/WEBUVLCTJ77MXE4J.pdf
58 ENDOCRINE PRACTICE Vol. 4 No. 1 January/February 1998
Obesity in the Palaeolithic Era?
The Venus of Willendorf
Eric Colman, M.D.
The Venus of Willendorf is one of numerous
similarly shaped, uniquely feminine, statuettes dating to
the Upper Paleolithic Period (circa 20 000 to 30 000 BC)
This faceless work of art, with its pendulous breasts,
fleshy hips, and protruding buttocks, has been considered
by some to be a true to life depiction of obesity. Are
we to believe that obesity plagued prehistoric women?
Although we cannot discount the existence of a singular
case of obesity due to Cushing's disease, hypothyroidism,
or pituitary dysfunction, several lines of reasoning suggest
that obesity must have been exceedingly rare, if it existed
at all, during prehistoric times.
Excessive dietary fat and calories, sedentariness, and aging (particularly after menopause) are
commonly associated with weight gain and obesity. These
factors, in all probability, did not have a major role in the
lives of prehistoric women. First, the people of that era
lived as hunter gatherers. Obtaining food supplies required
daylight, accommodating weather, time, and luck.
Provisions were probably scarce. In addition, primarily
because of the leanness of wild animals, our prehistoric
ancestors consumed a diet low in fat, approximately 20%
of total calories. Therefore, consumption of an overabundance of calories by those women is difficult to imagine. In fact, the studies of paleonutritionists support the
contention that undernutrition was a pervasive health problem during prehistoric times.
Second, the nomadic
hunter gatherer lifestyle was not sedentary. Indeed, some
archeologic data suggest that prehistoric people engaged in
perennial treks from mountainous to coastal regions to take
advantage of seasonally abundant food sources. Third,
the life expectancy of prehistoric women was short. Studies
of skeletal remains indicate that most people of that time
did not live beyond their mid 30s. Accordingly, age and menopause related increases in body weight would not
have manifested themselves in most cases. Collectively,
therefore, the lifestyle of Paleolithic women seems unlikely to have fostered the development of obesity.
What then remains as an alternative interpretation of
the Venus of Willendorf? Some may argue that because
obesity was rare and may have conferred a survival benefit
during times of food shortage (much like non insulin
dependent diabetes mellitus and the thrifty genotype), it
was desirable and worthy of ritualisation in the form of
statuettes. At first glance, this is a reasonable hypothesis;
yet when one considers that no portly male figurines have
been discovered, this theory falls into disfavour.
In addition to a short life expectancy, prehistoric
women seemed to have suffered an increased risk of death
during their 20s. This finding may reflect mortality
associated with pregnancy and childbirth. It takes little
imagination to see the similarities (albeit exaggerated)
between the Venus and a pregnant woman. Although
admittedly speculation, the Venus of Willendorf may have
been used as a talisman in a precarious world of heightened obstetric related mortality. Similarly, some have proposed that this figurine was the object of a cult: a fertility
goddess used to conjure deities and obtain from them
fertility for the species.
Obviously, we will never know exactly what inspired
the creation of the Venus of Willendorf , nor will we know
its true meaning. Nonetheless, this ancient work of art
serves as a valuable reminder that obesity is a disease
unique to the modern world and one in which environmental factors, such as diet and exercise, assume critical etiologic roles.
Obesity, Venus figures, Marilyn Monroe and Barbie dolls
Firstly, the words above "obesity is a disease unique to the modern world and one in which environmental factors, such as diet and exercise, assume critical etiologic roles" are not my words, but those of Eric Colman, M.D., from a respectable medical journal.
I am aware that obesity was until recently desirable in western countries, and indeed in some societies is still highly desirable.
Some have said that Marilyn Monroe would be considered obese today. This is not correct. Marilyn Monroe would not even be considered overweight today, let alone obese. She had a perfectly healthy weight. Like most people, her weight varied, and according to her dressmaker was between 118 and 140 pounds.
Her BMI, even after she had gained a lot of weight because of depression before filming 'Some Like it Hot', and weighed 140 pounds, and had a height of 5'5", was only 22.9, well under the 25 cutoff for overweight, and way below the 30 cutoff for obese. If we take the studio's estimate of her weight, 120 pounds, her BMI was 19.7. Underweight is less than 18.5.
The present fashion for models to be very thin indeed is just that, a fashion. Marilyn Monroe was a healthy weight. And as others have said, she looked like a million dollars, invested in all the right places!
Photo: Cropped screenshot of Marilyn Monroe from the trailer for the film Some Like It Hot, 1959.
This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice.
Some venus figures are patently exaggerated in the same way as modern day Barbie dolls are exaggerated. Neither should be regarded as an accurate picture of what ordinary people look like.
If you would like to see a Palaeolithic Barbie figure, you have only to look at
The Hohlefels Venus
True obesity, however, has deleterious health effects. This is indisputable.
Obesity is associated with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus type 2, obstructive sleep apnea, some types of cancer, and osteoarthritis. It reduces life expectancy.
In palaeolithic times, the generally low life expectancy may have masked many of obesity's bad effects, and indeed may at that time have been associated with increased life expectancy because of the person with a high BMI having reserves of fat to survive famine more easily, and this may be part of the reason for the carving of venus figures with such rotund characteristics.
Even in Palaeolithic times, while obesity may have been seen as desirable for those who spent their time at the hearth, and did not move around much, it would not have been desirable for a hunter who had to move quickly and cover large amounts of ground in the chase. There are no obese marathon runners.
And I don't know where this came from, and the dates are wrong (should be ~20 000 BP, not 4 000 BP) but I can't resist….
References
- Haesaerts P., 1990: Nouvelles recherches au gisement de Willendorf (Basse Autriche)Bulletin de l’Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Sciences de la Terre60, 203-218
- Haesaerts P., Damblon, F., Bachner, M., Trnka G., 1996: Revised stratigraphy and chronology of the Willendorf II sequence, Lower Austria. Archaeologia Austriaca 80, 25-42
- Nigst, P., Viola T., Haesaerts P., Trnka G., 2008: Willendorf IIWiss. Mitt. Niederösterr. Landesmuseum 19 31-58 St. Pölten 2008
- Teyssandier, N., Bolus M., Conard N., 2002: The Early Aurignacian in central Europe and its place in a European perspective Trabalhos de Arqueologia 45 Towards a definition of the Aurignacian - Proceedings of the Symposium held in Lisbon, Portugal, June 25-30, 2002