Throughout an archaeological dig close to the village of Willendorf in Decrease (Japanese) Austria in 1908, a laborer dug up a small statue that proved to be one of the vital necessary items of prehistoric artwork ever present in Europe.

This 4.5-inch (11-centimeter) carved human figurine was ultimately labeled the Venus or Girl of Willendorf, in recognition of the potable object’s outsized female options and obvious connection to historical fertility rites or goddess-centered perception programs. Radiocarbon courting of natural supplies within the surrounding soil urged the statue was about 25,000 years previous, which dated it to the Higher Paleolithic interval that ended with the receding of the glaciers 10,000 to 12,000 years in the past.

As they reveal in a new article within the journal Scientific Stories, a workforce of Austrian scientists led by College of Vienna anthropologist Gerhard Weber and geologists Alexander Lukeneder and Mathias Harzhauser from Vienna’s Pure Historical past Museum have found that the Venus rock got here from northern Italy.  Willendorf is a number of hundred miles or kilometers from the situation the place the rock was apparently sourced, which exhibits that both the completed statue or the unfinished oolite traveled an astounding distance for prehistoric instances.

The unique Venus from Willendorf. Left: lateral view. Proper-top: hemispherical cavities on the proper haunch and leg. Proper backside: present gap enlarged to kind the navel. (Lois Lammerhuber / Scientific Reports)

The Oolite Limestone Venus of Willendorf Thriller

The Venus of Willendorf has at all times been one thing of an anomaly, as a result of it was created from a sort of limestone generally known as oolite. This was an uncommon selection for such a statue, since some of these collectible figurines have been often created from bone or ivory (simpler substances to carve). Extra intriguingly, this kind of rock can’t be discovered anyplace within the area round Willendorf, that means it needed to be imported from some place else.

However from the place? That has at all times been the query, and no passable reply had ever been offered—till now, due to pioneering analysis that has uncovered the reality concerning the origin of the fabric used to make the Venus of Willendorf.

Tentative migration routes from northern Italy to Decrease Austria. Sega di Ala is situated close to the necessary paleolithic web site of Grotta di Fumane, Italy. Willendorf is situated close to a cluster of paleolithic websites from totally different epochs in Decrease Austria . (Scientific Reports)

Archaeological X-Rays Reveal a Distinctive Venus “Fingerprint”

Beforehand, the Venus figurine had solely been topic to floor examinations. However Gerhard Weber needed to get a greater have a look at the inside of the statue, and to take action he tried a high-tech process generally known as micro-computed tomography.

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Micro-CT is a three-dimensional imaging course of that makes use of X-rays to see deeply inside an object, slim slice by slim slice. Weber used this expertise to investigate the statue’s oolite rock inside all the way down to a decision of an ultra-tiny 11.5 micrometers, which matches the size that may be obtained with a microscope.

This process turned out to be fairly helpful, because it picked up an oddity that gave the oolite a novel figuring out attribute.

“Venus doesn’t look uniform in any respect on the within,” Weber stated, in a University of Vienna press release about his analysis. “[This is] a particular property that may very well be used to find out its origin.”

Geologists Lukeneder and Harzhauser knew loads about oolites, having examined and analyzed many samples of this rock earlier than. For this analysis, they obtained samples of oolite mined from places in Germany, the Ukraine, France, the islands and mainland of Italy, and different elements of Austria. The concept was to see if any distinctive traits may very well be present in these samples that may match the uneven and inconsistent materials composition of the Venus oolite.

The researchers digitally analyzed 1000’s of oolite grain samples, painstakingly and over the course of many months, searching for a “fingerprint” match. Surprisingly, not one of the samples taken from inside a 125-mile (200-kilometer) radius of Willendorf even remotely resembled the Venus oolite. However when the researchers in contrast the Venus rock to a pattern taken from a spot close to Lake Garda in northern Italy, the grains from the 2 sources have been discovered to be practically similar.

Photos derived from µCT scans of the Venus of Willendorf. Left: Segmented bivalve (Oxytomidae) that was situated on the proper facet of the Venus head. Center: Quantity rendering of the digital Venus; six embedded limonite concretions. Proper: Single µCT-slice displaying the porosity and layering of the oolite; word the relative density of the limonite concretion. (Scientific Reports)

This was a outstanding discovery. It implies that both the figurine or the un-sculpted rock had traveled greater than 400 miles (650 kilometers) to succeed in its ultimate vacation spot, passing from south of the Alps to the Danube River north of the Alps. It could have been carried all that means by Paleolithic hunter-gatherers making the whole journey on foot.

“Folks within the Gravettian—the instrument tradition of the time—seemed for and inhabited favorable places,” Gerhard Weber defined. “When the local weather or the prey scenario modified, they moved on, ideally alongside rivers. Such a journey might have taken generations.”

The scientists have recognized two attainable routes that might have introduced historical Gravettian tradition folks from northern Italy to japanese Austria. One would have led them across the foothills of the Alps, avoiding the necessity to scale any vital heights however including better distance onto their final journey. The second route would have truly had them passing over and thru the Alps, presumably by means of comparatively low-altitude passes situated within the foothills.

Whereas the second chance is theoretically conceivable, it appears inconceivable. Along with encountering inhospitable altitudes, vacationers trying to scale the Alps 25,000 to 30,000 years in the past would most definitely have been blocked by Alpine glaciers (this was a minimum of 15,000 years earlier than the top of the final Ice Age).

Since migrating Gravettian peoples wouldn’t have been attempting to succeed in any specific vacation spot, it will have made extra sense to decide on the trail of least resistance, as they continued their seek for fertile and productive looking and gathering lands to the east.

Venus of Hohle Fels, the earliest Venus figurine, is rougher and extra distorted than the later Venus of Willendorf . (Ramessos / CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Venus of Willendorf: A Nearer Look

The Venus or Girl of Willendorf is certainly one of roughly 40 intact Venus collectible figurines which have been recovered from excavations courting to the Higher Paleolithic time-frame (50,000 to 12,000 years earlier than the current). Fragments from dozens extra have additionally been discovered, displaying how widespread the carving of those figures was throughout prehistoric instances.  

Whereas the limestone statue dug up close to Willendorf is clearly meant to depict a girl, the proportions of its options are distorted. The breasts, abdomen, and hips are massive and prolonged, whereas the arms are brief and never absolutely developed. The statue does have legs, however its toes are lacking totally.

Maybe probably the most uncommon facet of the Girl of Willendorf is its lack of facial options. It has a head, however that head is angled ahead and lined fully by a braided wrap that might characterize both a big headdress or a braided hair fashion.

The commonality of the statue has led archaeologists and anthropologists to take a position that collectible figurines like this characterize a fertility deity or mom goddess, of the kind that have been worshipped in lots of cultures internationally in historical instances. These statues at all times have exaggerated sexual or maternal options, strongly suggesting they characterize being pregnant, childbirth, and the procreative course of basically. That’s the reason these statues are known as Venus collectible figurines, although the precise goddess Venus didn’t seem in mythology till a number of thousand years after these statues have been created by Paleolithic sculptors.

Most who’ve studied the statue consider it’s in actual fact a sort of fertility deity. However one different principle claims the statue was created by a feminine sculptor, who was attempting to recreate what a girl’s physique would seem like if she was trying down at herself. That may clarify why the breasts and abdomen are massive, however the toes and palms nonexistent. The prominence of the hair or headdress and the dearth of facial options would possibly characterize how a girl trying down at herself would seem to somebody standing beside her.

The Higher Paleolithic sculptors who created these putting collectible figurines aren’t round to reply questions on what they really imply, or for what function they have been made. The odd and disproportionate shapes of the statues reveal them to be a minimum of partially summary, though they clearly characterize actual points of femininity, fertility, and motherhood.

A duplicate of the Gravettian Venus of Lespugue. The Gravettians produced numerous Venus collectible figurines. (Locutus Borg / Public domain)

An Unfamiliar Period Prepared for Additional Examine

Thus far, only some research have seemed extra deeply at how early people would have lived and survived in Austria and the encompassing areas of Europe throughout Paleolithic instances.

The invention of the reality concerning the origin of the Venus of Willendorf statue might enhance curiosity within the cultural habits and migratory patterns of those that lived a lot earlier.

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“We need to use these Venus outcomes and our new Vienna analysis community “Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences,” in cooperation with anthropology, archaeology and different disciplines, to additional make clear early historical past within the Alpine area,” Weber stated.

The Gravettian instrument tradition survived for roughly 12,000 years (from 33,000 to 21,000 BC) earlier than lastly going into decline, which exhibits that their cultural, social, and financial practices should have been fairly nicely tailored for the difficult instances wherein they lived.

High picture: 4 views of the Venus of Willendorf, which a current research proved was created from oolite limestone from a outstanding prehistoric web site in northern Italy.  Supply: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen / CC BY-SA 4.0

By Nathan Falde