Summary
The Venus of Waldstetten is an approximately 15,000 year old Venus figurine made of quartzite. The find was apparently brought to the site by people. The figure is unprocessed in its basic form, but has engravings that were clearly carried out by humans. Therefore, it is interpreted as a female figure. It is 5.8 cm long with a maximum width of 1.9 cm; 2.5 cm thick and weighs 25.3 g. The site is located at Waldstetten in the Ostalbkreis on a terrain level between the Rems Valley and the Swabian strata landscape.
The excavator was the amateur archaeologist Adolf Regen.[1] The Venus von Waldstetten is compared with the figurines of the Gönnersdorf design type, which were typical of the Magdalenian era. This type of female figure is named after the roughly the same old engraved depictions of female bodies on slate slabs from Gönnersdorf.[2] The circumferential engraving in the neck area means that in addition to the interpretation as a female figure, an interpretation as a phallus representation is possible, analogous to the interpretation of the double gender of the so-called Red one of Mauern.[3] The engraving on the "head" can also be seen as an aid when hanging the figure.
Literature edit
- Adolf Regen, Wolfgang Naak, Stefan Wettengl, Simon Fröhle, Harald Floss: Eine Frauenfigur vom Typ Gönnersdorf aus der Magdalénien-Freilandfundstelle Waldstetten-Schlatt, Ostalbkreis, Baden-Württemberg. In: Harald Floss (Hrsg.): Das Magdalénien im Südwesten Deutschlands, im Elsass und in der Schweiz (Tübingen Publications in Prehistory), 2019. ISBN 978-3935751292
References edit
- ^ "Pressemitteilungen der Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen vom 23.10.2019: Neue Kunst aus der Eiszeit: 15.000 Jahre alte Frauenfigur im Ostalbkreis geborgen ‒ Tübinger Archäologen präsentieren Fund aus Waldstetten". Archived from the original on 2019-10-24. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
- ^ Bosinski, G. 1982: Die Kunst der Eiszeit in Deutschland und in der Schweiz. Kataloge vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Altertümer 20. Bonn: Habelt.
- ^ Adolf Regen, Wolfgang Naak, Stefan Wettengl,Simon Fröhle, Harald Floss: Eine Frauenfigur vom Typ Gönnersdorf aus der Magdalénien-Freilandfundstelle Waldstetten-Schlatt, Ostalbkreis, Baden-Württemberg, S. 267–276. In: Harald Floss (Hrsg.): Das Magdalénien im Südwesten Deutschlands,im Elsass und in der Schweiz (Tübingen Publications in Prehistory), 2019. S. 275.
External links edit
- "Eine 15.000 Jahre alte Frauenfigur aus dem Ostalbkreis" [A 15,000 year old female figure from the Ostalb district]. Archæologie-online (in German).
- Fröhle, Simon; Wettengl, Stefan (January 2019). "Eine Frauenfigur vom Typ Gönnersdorf aus der Magdalénien-Freilandfundstelle Waldstetten-Schlatt, Ostalbkreis, Baden-Württemberg" [A female figure of the Gönnersdorf type from the Magdalenian open-air site in Waldstetten-Schlatt, Ostalbkreis, Baden-Württemberg]. Das Magdalénien Im Südwesten Deutschlands, Im Elsass und in der Schweiz (in German).