Ice Age icon in the limelight: Researchers report clues as to the origin of the approximately 30,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf. The rock material of the statuette found in Lower Austria came from beyond the Alps, the analysis results suggest. This sheds new light on the mobility of Europe’s first modern humans, say the scientists.
A female figure with voluptuous body shapes and an artistic hairstyle: the Venus von Willendorf discovered in 1908 in the Wachau is considered one of the most important testimonies of early art in Europe. The statuette, which is only eleven centimeters tall, has an aura that still affects many people today. Accordingly, there was much speculation about its meaning and former use: did it represent a goddess, was it a symbol of fertility or simply the expression of a Stone Age sense of beauty? The origin of Venus’ material has been just as puzzling up to now: it is made of oolite, a special type of limestone that was formed millions of years ago in the shallow waters of tropical seas and often also contains remains of mussel shells.
However, oolite does not occur in the vicinity of Willendorf. So far it has remained unclear where the statuette or its raw material came from.
Venus lets you look deep
In order to literally gain insight into this question, the scientists working with Gerhard Weber from the University of Vienna have now examined the statuette for the first time using high-resolution micro-computer tomography. With this method it was possible to explore the inner structure of the rock material non-destructively down to 11.5 micrometres. It was initially shown that Venus has very complex structures inside: The rock has layers with different densities and sizes. In between there are remains of mussels and the researchers also found six grains of iron oxide – so-called limonite. These lumps now also explain the previously mysterious hemispherical indentations on the surface of Venus: “The hard limonites probably broke out when the creator of Venus was carving,” explains Weber.
Most importantly, however, the structural features of the rock allowed the team to research the origin of the raw material. To do this, the scientists procured comparative samples of oolite from different areas of Europe and recorded their structural properties: the material was sawed up and analyzed under a microscope. The comparisons that followed revealed that the statuette or its material had apparently traveled far around 30,000 years ago. Because the oolite signature didn’t even come close to matching any of the samples within 200 kilometers of Willendorf. However, the researchers then found agreement in material that came from a deposit near Lake Garda in northern Italy. It was statistically indistinguishable from that of Venus, the team reports.
traveled far
The results thus indicate that Venus – or at least its material – began a journey from south of the Alps to the Danube north of the Alps. “People in the Gravettian – the tool culture of the time – looked for and inhabited favorable locations. When the climate or the prey situation changed, they moved on, preferably along rivers,” says Weber. Such a journey could have taken generations, says the scientist. Either the people or the material wandered around the Alps or the mountains were crossed. This sheds new light on the remarkable mobility of the first modern humans south and north of the Alps, the scientists conclude. The scientists emphasize that only a few studies have so far dealt with the inhabitants of the Alpine region and their mobility 30,000 years ago. The famous “Ötzi” comes into play much later – namely 5300 years ago, they point out.
The results clearly point to northern Italy as the origin of the Venus oolite. Nevertheless, the team also mentions another possible origin of the rock: In addition to Italy, an occurrence in the Donets Basin in Ukraine seems at least conceivable. The composition of the Ukrainian oolites does not match that of Venus as closely as the Italian samples. However, there are finds in Ukraine of female figures resembling the Venus of Willendorf. But even if this rather improbable origin were correct, the core message remains: There were apparently complex networks in early modern humans shortly before the peak of the last ice age.
Finally, the team emphasizes another special aspect of their findings: They found the discovery of the tiny mussel shells in the Venus figure to be particularly interesting. A comparison with specimens from fossil collections made it possible to identify these shells and thus narrow down the age of the oolite. The Venus Stone was therefore formed about 150 million years ago – in the era of the dinosaurs. “It was amazing that the Ice Age icon could be linked to the tropical seas of the Mesozoic,” says co-author Mathias Harzhauser from the Natural History Museum in Vienna.
Source: University of Vienna, Natural History Museum Vienna, specialist article: Scientific Reports, doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-06799-z