Venus of Petřkovice

The Venus of Petřkovice (Czech: Petřkovická venuše or Landecká venuše) is a pre-historic Venus figurine, a mineral statuette of a nude female figure, dated to about 23,000 BCE (Gravettian industry) in what is today the Czech Republic.

Replica of Venus of Petřkovice
Copy of Venus of Petřkovice beside that of Venus of Dolní Věstonice at an exhibition in the National Museum, Prague

Discovery

It was found within the current city limits of Ostrava (Ostrava-Petřkovice), Silesia, in the Czech Republic, by archaeologist Bohuslav Klíma on 14 July 1953. It was beneath a mammoth molar at an ancient settlement of mammoth hunters. Many stone artifacts and skeletal fragments were also found nearby.

Features

The statue measures 4.5 x 1.5 x 1.4 cm and is a headless torso of a woman carved from iron ore (hematite). Uniquely, the absence of the head appears to be the author's intention. Also, unlike other prehistoric Venus figurines, it shows a slender young woman or girl with small breasts.[1]

Location

It is now in the Archeological Institute, Brno, but between 7 February - 26 May 2013 it was displayed in the exhibition Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind,[2] at the British Museum in London.

See also

References
  1. Leslie G. Freeman (ed.), Views of the Past: Essays in Old World Prehistory and Paleanthropology, Mounton Publishers, 1978, ISBN 90-279-7670-8.
  2. Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind
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