Without knowing what this is before hand - please write down what do U think this might be. This has been in news for sometime and many of you already must be knowing. But, when I had a look, I recognised this as something different than what is being said. Am I the only one - just want to confirm.

PS : is carved out of wood I think

Nabi on May 15 2009, 07:19 AM said:

It's the same as this one here



(made of limestone). Ideal of beauty changes with time...

Nabi on May 15 2009, 01:19 AM said:

these are giant replicas of molars... a little bit deformed tho......the artist should've consulted a dentist or a tooth atlas........

hobglobin on May 15 2009, 03:40 AM said:

but does this really represent beauty? well, at least this one has a head (but still no face)...

casandra on May 15 2009, 09:24 PM said:

They are about 40000 years old, what do you expect? And they were dig out somewhere outsides, therefore they are "used" and not in perfect condition. Anyway everyone can speculate about their meaning, art, symbols of fertility, charms, whatever. Beauty ideals is of course a farfetched interpretation .

hobglobin on May 15 2009, 03:31 PM said:

This venus of Willendorf is not 40,000 years old...the oldest one ..this one BB posted I think, is the one from your caves, and I think it's only 30,000...and there's much debate over these upper paleolithic venus figurines since the late 1800s...the best theories are from the feminist perspective......the mother goddess before the usurper male god...

casandra on May 15 2009, 09:47 PM said:

40,000 years should be the oldest, but some thousands years in this relation, who cares? My favourite explanation are of course palaeolithic pin-ups...

hobglobin on May 15 2009, 03:54 PM said:

yup...the sexist theory of course- it's portable erotica/pornographic paraphernalia that the men bring with them while the're hunting the poor mammoth......so why do you think most of the figures have no heads, facial features, nor limbs..at least the lower parts...

casandra on May 15 2009, 10:00 PM said:

Don't know. Not enough skills to make them? Worn-out and/or broken off? Useless for their function? BTW the "venus" Nabi posted is of ivory and has a small thread eye.

hobglobin on May 15 2009, 04:07 PM said:

so you can put whatever head you want on it.......ooppss...I think that's roman (or greek) art....the small thread eye is actually an indication that it is used as a necklace...used as an amulet perhaps or asking protection from the mother goddess...
the headless/faceless feature of most of these figurines support the theory of these objects being symbols of fertility/fecundity...you don't need a face for that but just a body to produce an offspring...and most of them are pregnant anyways...and with a lot of adipose deposits....