Woman Of Willendorf Essay

The figure of the Woman of Willendorf, is carved from limestone and has remains of red ochre. It was probably made between 24,000 and 22,000 BCE.The sculptor may have created it to symbolize the importance of the role women played in societies, or it could have been a symbol of fertility or possibly a doll. The sculpture is of a naked, obese woman with no feet but mostly a full body sculpture. The breasts, the stomach and overall body is enlarged. The belly button is prominent There are folds of fat under the arms and on the buttocks. It may depict pregnancy or was she just fat?, the thin arms and hands, decorated with etched circles, rest on the breasts. It is faceless. The figure with the braided hair, braided close to the scalp is possibly

It was discovered in a cave at Brassempouy, France in 1892 and is approximately 25,000 years old; it is one of the earliest known realistic representations of a human face. She does have realistic facial detail but they are very plain and without expression. It is sculpted from mammoth ivory. The carving is 3.5 cm in height, 2.2 cm deep and 1.9 cm wide. Unlike the other Venus type sculptures found at Brassempouy and elsewhere, this particular one contains clear facial features of forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose but no mouth. The representation of braided hair or again possibly some sort of knitted hat or net covering. Again it is theorized that this figures is probably a fertility symbols or some form of religious icons. However, no clear consensus exists among scholars as to their cultural significance. A fair conclusion is that the precise meaning of these extraordinary Venus sculptures is unlikely to be known, at least until the "religion", or at least the iconic role of females in the belief system of Stone Age man is more fully understood. It is on display at times at the Musée d 'Archéologie Nationale at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris. All conjecture, and your guess is as good as anyone else