The Venus of Willendorf is an The figure is associated with the Upper Paleolithic Gravettian industry , which dates to between 33, and 20, years ago. The figure itself is estimated to have been left in the ground around 25, years ago, based on radiocarbon dates from the layers surrounding it. Similar sculptures, first discovered in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, are traditionally referred to in archaeology as "Venus figurines", due to the widely held belief that depictions of nude women with exaggerated sexual features represented an early fertility deity, perhaps a mother goddess.
The reference to Venus is metaphorical, since the figurines predate the mythological figure of Venus by many thousands of years. Some scholars reject this terminology, instead referring to the statuette as the "Woman of" or "Woman from Willendorf".
Very little is known about the Venus ' origin, method of creation, or cultural significance; however, it is one of numerous " Venus figurines " surviving from Paleolithic Europe. Like other similar sculptures, it probably never had feet, and would not have stood on its own, although it might have been pegged into soft ground. Parts of the body associated with fertility and childbearing have been emphasized, leading some researchers to believe that the Venus of Willendorf and similar figurines may have been used as fertility goddesses.
They speculate that the complete lack of facial features could be accounted for by the fact that sculptors did not own mirrors. This reasoning has been criticized by University of California anthropologist Michael S. Bisson, who notes that water pools and puddles would have been readily available natural mirrors for Paleolithic humans.
Research published in indicates that the closest and most likely source of the oolite used is on the other side of the Alps in northern Italy, near Lake Garda. A lesser possibility is that it came from a site in eastern Ukraine some 1, km 1, mi away. While the former has the highest statistical probability, the latter is closer to sites in southern Russia where similarly styled figurines have been found.
