Pictorial Guide: Dolní Věstonice and Pavlov, Czech Republic
Venus of Věstonice and other Venus figurines from Dolní Věstonice and Pavlov
The Venus of Věstonice is the most famous prehistoric Venus figurine of the Czech Republic. It was discovered at a prehistoric settlement of hunters and gatherers, traditionally called Mammoth Hunters according to the largest hunted animal. The site where the Venus was excavated is called "Dolní Věstonice I" (one).
Although the site belongs to the cadastral area of Dolní Věstonice, it is apparently closer to the village of Pavlov than Dolní Věstonice, and is located in the northern part of the Pálava Protected Landscape Area.
From the locality Dolní Věstonice I come many other prehistoric findings including Venus figurines, often stylized (i.e. simplified, with highlighted characteristic features), and their fragments. This Palaeolithic settlement belongs to the Gravettian culture that was flourishing there about 30,000 years ago.
Findings from Dolní Věstonice and Pavlov are kept in the Moravské zemské muzeum (the Moravian Museum) in Brno and are not exhibited permanently, but only on certain occasions.
Strikingly, in the northern part of Pálava where the Venus figurines were created and found, distinctive landscape elements have female names. The highest point of Pálava is called Děvín (děva - girl). On another prominent hill that provides the best view of Dolní Věstonice I site, there stand the ruins of the Castle Děvičky (also called Dívčí hrad – the Girls' Castle or Dívčí hrady – the Girls' Castles). Nearby there is a rock formation named Tři panny - The Three Maids, and the largest rock in the area, 70 m high, is called Martinka.
The Venus of Věstonice: In the centre of the prehistoric settlement, there was a large hearth of irregular shape of 13 x 5 m, consisting from a layer of ash, with pieces of charcoal up to 80 cm thick. And it was the central hearth where the Venus was found on July 13th, 1925. One small part was broken off, and both parts lay about 10 cm apart. The ash and charcoal above the Venus were covered with red a layer of loess, burnt by the fire. In the hearth, a large number of high-quality, highly valued tools were found, which were intentionally thrown into the fire, apparently as a part of a ritual.
The Venus of Věstonice is a ceramic statuette, made of kneaded clay of local origin - loess with water, and modelled from one piece of kneaded material.
The Venus dimensions are: height 11.1 cm, width 4.4 cm, thickness 2.6 cm and volume 39.56 cm3.
On closer examination, an incomplete fingerprint was found on the back of the Venus.
By comparing papillary lines (epidermal ridge breadths and other factors), it was ascertained that the imprint does not belong to an adult male. If it had been a male person, it would have corresponded to the fingerprint of a child. But in the case of a woman or a girl, the fingerprint could have belonged to an adolescent or even adult person.
Considering the fact that sculpting of the Venus and subsequent burning required a certain level of skill, it is not very likely that it could have been the work of a child. Therefore, it is likely that the Venus was modelled by the hands of a girl or a woman. So it seems that the well-known pictures depicting an older man creating the Venus are probably incorrect.
Besides, many other fingerprints have been found on various parts of the ceramic figurines and their fragments from Dolní Věstonice and Pavlov. Their analyses once again showed that a great majority of them were fingerprints of females, in some cases also possibly fingerprints of children.
A very likely explanation is that it was a result of magical practices performed by women.
In addition to the fingerprints, imprints of textiles and ropes were found on these ceramic figurines, suggesting that weaving and rope making existed 30,000 years ago.
Just a few metres from the central hearth with the Venus, a ritual burial of a woman was discovered in 1949. She was given a formal name DV3, and is also commonly known as "the Shamaness of Dolní Věstonice". Her body was covered with two mammoth shoulder blades and a half of a mammoth pelvis, which may have been erected at that time to show the burial site. The burial contained (among other substances) red powder burnt by the fire (analogy with a red layer of burnt loess in the hearth with the Venus) as well as charcoal and burnt bones.
The age of the buried woman was estimated at 36 to 45 years. It was also ascertained that in her childhood, between the ages of 9 and 12, she had suffered a serious injury - a "dislocated fracture of the lower jaw", i.e. a complicated fracture of the head of the jaw joint. After this injury, it must have been very difficult for her to take food, but she survived and lived to her adulthood.
It was documented that the people that had to pass hard tests of life became shamans, people with a high position in the spiritual sphere.
Originally, it was assumed that this shamaness had had a significantly deformed face due to the injury and was nicknamed "a woman with a crooked face". But new research (2018) and careful reconstruction showed that she had not had a significantly deformed face, as had been assumed earlier.
The results of this careful reconstruction are available at "https://www.researchgate.net/figure/the-facial-rection-of-a-pavlovian-woman-from-the-dv-3-burial-in-dolni-vestonice-I_fig7_327654790" and comes from the article "The Woman from the Dolní Věstonice 3 Burial: A New View of the Face Using Modern Technologies", authors Zdeňka Nerudová, Eva Vaníčková, Zdeněk Tvrdý, Jiří Ramba, Ondřej Bílek and Petr Kostrhun.
Since the Venus of Věstonice cannot be dated directly by the carbon method 14C, it was dated using the shamaness's grave. The result was 30,000 years, more precisely from 30 817 to 29 776 years before the present.
In 1948, a simple image of a human face was found near the ritual burial site. It was a flat head carved from a mammoth ivory flake, also called "a mask". It is possible that that it could have been associated with the shamaness, similarly to another head, carefully carved from mammoth ivory, which was discovered in 1936 about 130 m from the shamaness. The latter head, considered the oldest depiction of the human face, was nicknamed "Venus da Vinci".
Notes. Photos without a source list were taken by me. All of the Venus figurines were found in Dolní Věstonice I site, unless stated otherwise.
Dolní Věstonice, Pavlov LITERATURE
Books:
1.
Bohuslav Klíma: Dolní Věstonice tábořiště lovců mamutů. Academia Praha, 1983
2.
Jan Jelínek: Velký obrazový atlas pravěkého člověka. Artia Praha, 1977
3.
Karel Valoch, Martina Lázničková-Galetová (editoři): Nejstarší umění střední Evropy. The Oldest Art of Central Europe. Moravské zemské muzeum a Archeologický ústav Akademie věd ČR Brno, 2009.
4.
Martin Oliva: Dolní Věstonice I (1922-1942) Hans Freising-Karel Absolon-Assien Bohmers. Anthropos, Moravské zemské muzeum Brno, 2014.
5.
Martina Lázničková-Galetová: Nejstarší šperky a ozdoby těla Co nosily venuše? The Oldest Jewellery and Body Ornaments. What did the Venuses wear? Moravské zemské muzeum Brno, 2022.
Articles
1.
Miroslav Králík, Vladimír Novotný, Martin Oliva: Fingerprint on the Venus of Dolní Věstonice I. Anthropologie XL/2, str. 107–113, 2002.
https://puvodni.mzm.cz/Anthropologie/downloads/articles/2002/Kralik_2002_p107-113.pdf
2.
Miroslav Králík, Vladimír Novotný: Dermatoglyphics of ancient ceramics. Součást sborníku Dolnověstonické studie 14: Pavlov I Southeast. A window into the Gravettian Lifestyles, kapitola IV.5. Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Archaeology, Brno a Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of systematics and Evolution of Animals, Kraków, 2005
3.
Joanna Trąbska, Martin Oliva, Adam Gaweł & Barbara Trybalska: Dolní Věstonice I female grave (DV3). Red colourants and other components of the burial fill up and grave floor. Anthropologica et Præhistorica, 126/2015, str. 161-178, (2016) https://biblio.naturalsciences.be/associated_publications/anthropologica-prehistorica/anthropologica-et-praehistorica/ap-126/ap126_161-178.pdf
4.
Zdeňka Nerudová, Eva Vaníčková, Zdeněk Tvrdý, Jiří Ramba, Ondřej Bílek a Petr Kostrhun: The woman from the Dolní Věstonice 3 burial: a new view of the face using modern technologies. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11:2527–2538, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-018-0698-3. Published 14 September 2018
5.
Petr Neruda, Petr Hamrozi, Zuzana Patáková, Grzegorz Pyka, František Zelenka,Šárka Hladilová, Martin Oliva, Eva Orságová: Micro-computed tomography of the fired clay venus of Dolní Věstonice (Czech Republic). Journal of Archaeological Science 169 (2024) 106034.