Ivory sculpture in Germany could be world's oldest

[Julian Delphiki]

35,000-year-old statue thought to be world's first nude sculpture

Obsession with naked women dates back 35,000 years

35,000-year-old statue thought to be world's first nude sculpture

A 35,000 years old buxom statuette has been unveiled by scientists as the world's earliest sculpture of the naked female form. The sexually explicit figurine was carved out of mammoth ivory and was given huge breasts and private parts along with a bloated belly and thighs that by today's standards "could be seen as bordering on the pornographic."

The prehistoric figurine, named 'Venus' after the Roman goddess of love, was no Kate Moss as small buttocks and a slender waist are very much a modern trend. Cavemen were obsessed with big breasts and bottoms and exaggerated these traits in their art as they regarded these parts of the female anatomy as signs of fertility. The statue, described in Nature, was found buried in the Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm in the Swabian Jura region of south-western Germany alongside stone, bone and ivory tools and was pieced together from six fragments. It stands only 2.35 ins (59.7mm) high and 1.36 ins (34.6mm) wide and has a thickness of 1.23 ins (31.3mm). Weighing 1.17oz (33.3 grams), only the left arm and shoulder are missing.

The 'Venus of Hohle Fels' lacks a head and instead there is an off-centre but carefully carved ring located above the figurine's broad shoulders. Around 10,000 to 40,000 years ago, a period known as the Upper Palaeolithic, humans made the transition from functional toolmaking to art and adornment. Professor Nicholas Conard, an archaeologist who found the relic, said: "This ring, despite being weathered, preserves polish, suggesting that the figurine at times was suspended as a pendant."

He said the Venus has "grotesquely exaggerated sexual features" and more than thirty radiocarbon dating measurements were taken to show it is 5,000 years older than well-known 'Venuses' from the Gravettian culture. Although abstract depictions have been documented at southern African sites that date back to 75,000 years ago, the earliest figurative representations were previously estimated to be between 30 and 40 thousand years old.

I was mildly amused by those headlines..

Nature has more details

http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/prehistoricpinup/

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7244/abs/nature07995.html

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7244/full/459176a.html

 

[Sharwood]

I'm sure the obsession with naked women dates back as long as they've been wearing clothes. Probably further, but we didn't have to work for it then. The point behind these figurines is more to do with fertility than women per se, I would imagine. The interesting thing is that these figures are so similar across such long distances and are found in many different cultures.

 

[Masada]

I'm sure the obsession with naked women dates back as long as they've been wearing clothes. Probably further, but we didn't have to work for it then. The point behind these figurines is more to do with fertility than women per se, I would imagine. The interesting thing is that these figures are so similar across such long distances and are found in many different cultures.

Humans are humans whatever way your dress us up. I personally believe that culture is a fairly inaccurate moniker to apply to what would have really been a bunch of different groups who more or less blended into each other with distance. Sharp differentiation probably didn't exist...

That or Zheng He did it.

 

[Sharwood]

Humans are humans whatever way your dress us up. I personally believe that culture is a fairly inaccurate moniker to apply to what would have really been a bunch of different groups who more or less blended into each other with distance. Sharp differentiation probably didn't exist...

That or Zheng He did it.

I was thinking Von Daniken's alien astronauts myself. But then, they were Zheng He, weren't they?

They doubtless blened together, but these things were found over one hell of a distance. It's unusual to have the same thing blend over such a large distance in relatively undiluted forms. It's what I'd call a cultural constant,* something that is constant in many different cultures simultaneously, despite other notable differences between them.

* God I hope I just invented that term, it's cool.

 

[Masada]

I was thinking Von Daniken's alien astronauts myself. But then, they were Zheng He, weren't they?

China has been populating the world since before man left Africa. It's been imposing its cultural imperialism since foundation by Zheng He!

They doubtless blened together, but these things were found over one hell of a distance. It's unusual to have the same thing blend over such a large distance in relatively undiluted forms. It's what I'd call a cultural constant,* something that is constant in many different cultures simultaneously, despite other notable differences between them.

Nope J.C Van Leur bet you to that before the Second World War in his rather nifty economic-history work Indonesian Trade and Society

 

[Sharwood]

Nope J.C Van Leur bet you to that before the Second World War in his rather nifty economic-history work Indonesian Trade and Society

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew it was too good for no-one to have pre-emptively stolen from me.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

it bugs the heck out of me when scientific articles use the word "caveman", as it is essentially meaningless.

 

[vogtmurr]

These remind me of a few German fraus.

 

[Plotinus]

it bugs the heck out of me when scientific articles use the word "caveman", as it is essentially meaningless.

The article is from the Telegraph, so it's hardly scientific.

What I can never understand is why these things are always called "Venus". I can't imagine anything less Venus-like!

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

Well, it's an article about science, so . . .

(I know that actual scientific papers are usually careful about using meaningful terms.)

 

[~Corsair#01~]

The second one looks a bit like two roaches having sex and the others I just can't make out at all. Are those tiny things at the top supposed to be heads?

 

[Plotinus]

The quoted article isn't very long, you know. You could have read it.

 

[Kafka2]

Who could have guessed it would have revealed an interest in women with unfeasible breasts and no body hair?

 

[Traitorfish]

What I can never understand is why these things are always called "Venus". I can't imagine anything less Venus-like!

I suppose that she's the most well known interpretation of the Mother Goddess archetype, the reccurring personification of female fertility. After all, even if the classical imagery given to the goddess didn't quite match this interpretation, she was derived from the same fundamental archetype, and is probably the most widely known expression of it, so it may make it easier to convey the religous significance of the objects to those unfamiliar with them.
That, and I think that archaelogists just get a chuckle out of watching people's faces contort as they try and figure out how these things have anything at all to do with the Venus de Milo.

 

[vogtmurr]

Well to be fair, these are 35,000 year old statuettes roughly carved in ivory, a little bit abstract perhaps, like a Picasso painting However, this same theme is repeated in different forms in different cultures, with steady refinement until more proportional stone carvings appeared as late as 7000 BC. And they all featured well-fed pregnant females with outlandish breasts. Some features might be exaggerated for emphasis, but not unrealistically so

Spoiler :

so this was the standard of beauty or essence of female fertility for a very long time, but to call them Venus is strictly an anthropologists' convention. She's still beter than this:

Spoiler :

this

 

[innonimatu]

The same people claim to have found also the world's oldest known musical instrument, a flute some 35000 years old.

 

[aronnax]

I like big butts and I can not lie
You other brothers can't deny....

 

[GoodGame]

I like big butts and I can not lie
You other brothers can't deny....

Not only that...it's art.

 

[Ancient Grudge]

I like big butts and I can not lie
You other brothers can't deny....

That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist, and a round thing in your face you get sprung

 

[RalofTyr]

Um, there's a problem here.

The first homo sapien sapien came to Europe about 30,000 years ago. Either their dating is wrong, modern man was in Europe earlier than we thought or the Neaderthals had a cult that survived long after they were extinct.