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The Venus of Willendorf is an 11.1-centimetre-tall (4.4 in) Venus figurine estimated to have been made c. 30,000 years ago. [1] [2] It was recovered on 7 August 1908 from an archaeological dig conducted by Josef Szombathy, Hugo Obermaier, and Josef Bayer at a Paleolithic site near Willendorf, a village in Lower Austria.
Upper Palaeolithic female figurines are collectively described as "Venus figurines" in reference to the Roman goddess of beauty Venus. The name was first used in the mid-nineteenth century by the Marquis de Vibraye , who discovered an ivory figurine and named it La Vénus impudique or Venus Impudica ("immodest Venus"). [ 10 ]
The Germanic goddess Eostre, whose themes are fertility and rebirth, is often surrounded by hares in art. In Christianity, white rabbits are considered to be symbols of rebirth and fertility and are seen on a wing of the high altar in Freiburg Minster , where they are playing at the feet of two pregnant women, Mary and Elizabeth .
The statuette, one of several iconographically similar ones found at the site, is similar to other corpulent prehistoric goddess figures, [4] of which the most famous is the Venus of Willendorf. It is a neolithic sculpture shaped by an unknown artist, and was completed in approximately 6000 BC.
The exact role in cult and the purpose of the votive figures is unclear. It has been suggested that the figures represent a mother/fertility goddess, sacred prostitutes, or were charms to protect women during pregnancy. [3] Dea Gravida figures have occasionally been found together with a statue of a bearded male wearing an Atef crown. [4]
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In a pair of statues from Paris depicting the couple, Rosmerta holds a cornucopia and a basket of fruits. Rosmerta is shown by herself on a bronze statue from Fins d'Annency ( Haute-Savoie ), where she sits on a rock holding a purse and, unusually, also bears the wings of Mercury on her head.
The Tennessee-Cumberland statues seem to represent venerated ancestors (possibly Lucky Hunter and Corn Woman), and a third variety represents Old Woman or Spider Grandmother, a creator and fertility goddess. Early European explorers describe stone statues as being kept in mortuary temples or shrines, frequently on top of platform mounds.