Material: fired clay

Size: 4.4" high, 1/7" wide

​

This is the oldest fired clay sculpture ever found. How and why did humans start making art? This small statuette is part of the answer--if we look closely at it.

 

First, take a minute or two to look closely at the statuette in the images above. Write down your reaction to it--what did you think about when you first saw this? What parts of this artwork caught your eye? Why did you pick this statuette for your response paper? Make notes on things that you notice about it. Also, write down any questions you have about it--what kinds of things would you want to know about this figurine? Remember the questions we ask in class. You don't need to have answers for these questions yet, but keep them in your notes.

​

For an even higher-resolution photo, try this link: http://www.world-archaeology.com/more/ice-age-art-arrival-of-the-modern-mind.htm/attachment/01172519_001

​

 

Once you have some questions written down, try to answer them by reading the information I've provided below about the statuette and its context.

 

Context: Where Was It Found?

 

The statuette was found at the archaeological site of Dolni Vestonice, in the modern country of the Czech Republic. 30,000 years ago, however, nobody here would have called themselves "Czech". What do we know about these people and their land?

 

Based on information like plant seeds and animal bone remains, this was a cold tundra landscape with pine and spruce trees, and animals such as the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, mountain lion, arctic fox, and various deer species. 

 

The people who lived here survived by hunting and gathering their food, instead of farming. Everything they had, they made for themselves. Because they depended so heavily on hunted animals for food, they moved frequently to avoid overhunting and to follow the herds. The settlement at Dolni Vestonice was probably a temporary hunting camp rather than a permanent settlement.

 

Archaeologists digging up this site found lots of evidence to help us understand how these people lived. The archaeologists found five huts made of wood posts probably covered with animal skins; the huts were surrounded by a fence made of mammoth bones. Large numbers of mammoth bones were also found inside the settlement, and it is possible that the people who lived at Dolni Vestonice came to this spot at a particular time every year specifically to hunt mammoth. Although they did not live here year-round, these people came back to this settlement year after year to hunt. The total population of the settlement is estimated at 100-120 people, with 20-25 people living in each hut.

 

In the huts, archaeologists found evidence that the people who lived here were carving stone tools, making music on small bone flutes, 

 

The people who lived at Dolni Vestonice also carefully buried their dead. Their skeletons show evidence of the kind of wear and tear that comes with walking long distances, carrying heavy loads, and occasional periods of food shortage--the difficult and precarious life of a hunter-gatherer. The dead often wore necklaces made of animal teeth or shells, and their bodies were covered with a red powder called ochre. Think about this for a second. Why do we bury our dead? What does it say about us, that we perform this ritual every time someone we love dies?

 

For example, archaeologists found this burial of an adult woman, perhaps about 40 years old:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She would have stood only about 4 feet 10 inches tall. She was buried with the bones of an arctic fox, and she was holding ten more arctic fox teeth in her hand. There was a flint blade near her head. Her body had been covered with red ochre, and with two huge mammoth shoulder bones, like a sort of coffin. Because of the odd items buried with her, archaeologists have suggested that the woman might have been a shaman--someone with special spiritual knowledge who used this knowledge to help her community survive. This burials shows us that women could hold special positions of authority in this culture.

​

In one of the five huts, archaeologists found the world's oldest kiln for firing pottery. On the floor around the kiln were thousands of fragments of figurines, most depicting animals like mountain lions, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer, and bears. What's unusual is that almost none of these figurines were complete; they are all cracked or broken into pieces. This happened because the clay sculptures were still wet when they were fired. The usual practice for pottery is to let the clay dry before firing, to prevent breaking. Did the sculptors of Dolni Vestonice not know this? Or were they deliberately trying to get the figurines to crack, perhaps as part of a ritual?

 

It's interesting to consider that humans first used this new technology of firing clay to make art. Humans would not make clay pottery for another 15,000 years.

 

The "Venus" of Vestonice: What Do We Know?

• When the figurine was found by archaeologists, it was broken into two pieces. You can still see the break if you look carefully.

•  A computer scan of the figurine found the fingerprint of a child, estimated 7-15 years old. This child handled the figurine just before it was fired, but may not have been the one to sculpt it.

• The clay was mixed with powdered bone, which is part of what gives it that glazed shine. The bone may have been included to help the figurine heat and fire evenly

• A couple of other female figurines have been found at this site, including this female head carved from mammoth ivory. Compare this to the figurine above.

​

Some things to consider in your response paper:​

• What was your response to this piece of art? What drew your eye? You are encouraged to use first person (I/me) in your response paper. I want to know what you think.

• Consider the actual sculpture very carefully. Try to imagine the artist creating it, molding it from clay. What parts of the female body did the artist put a lot of detail into? What parts did the artist ignore, or use only minimal detail on?

• Try to put yourself in the mind of the artist--who might have been someone like the female shaman whose burial I described above. Imagine the kind of life they and their tribe led. Why do you think the artist created this sculpture? What ideas or emotions might they have been trying to express? What does this figurine suggest about this culture's concept of beauty?

• How do you think this figurine might have been used in their culture? Or do you think it was "art for art's sake"?

• The last image shows the top of her head--what are those four indentations for, do you think?

​

​