Venus of Donlni Vestonice

The Artifact

The artifact is known as Venus of Donlni Vestonice is a Venus sculpture made of ceramic, portraying a nude female body. This statuette is believed to belong to the Gravettian industry of 29,000 to 25,000 BCE. This industry was founded on a paleolitihic location to the South of Brno in Moravian Basin. The artifact is considered as one of the oldest statue in the ceramic world preluding the days when fireclay was used in pot-making. The height of the statue is 4.4 inches with a width of approximately 1.7 inches at the broadest part. The clay, with which it is made, is believed to be heated at a low temperature.

This peleolithic site of Donlni Vestonice has been under the surveillance of archaeologists, ever since the beginning of organized excavation, started by Karel Absolon, in 1924. In addition to the Venus statue, a number of other figures of animals including mammoth, bear, owl, lion, rhino, fox and horse have also been found, from the site of Donlni Vestonice, apart from the other 2000 balls of burnt clay (Formicola et al, pp. 273-274).

The figure was discovered, approximately 83 years back, during an excavation, buried under ash and broken into two pieces. The statue was once displayed in the National Museum of Brno; however, now, it is very rarely accessible for general public. In addition to this, the figure was also placed for exhibition in the National Museum in Prague for approximately 11 months in between 2006-2007. This was a part of the Lovci Mautu exhibition. It was also put in an expo titled, Prehistoric Art in Central Europe, held at the Moravian Museum in Brno. In June 2009, the figure has been returned to the depository. Scientists have carefully examined the figure. Upon a tomograph scan of the statue, a finger print has been found on it, which is believed to be of a child between the age group of 7-15. This finger print is fired on the surface of the artifact and scientists believed that the child had this figure in hand when it was fire. Moreover, the child is also believed to be an implausible candidate for the maker of this statue (Miroslav et al, pp. 107-113).

The site where this artefact was found is believed to be abundant in such pieces of arts dating back to 28,000 to 24,000 B.C. In addition to the above mentioned forms of statues, other carved figures of men, personal ornaments and enigmatic engravings have also been found from the site of Donlni Vestonice. However, the remains of houses remain unexcavated. These two included a round one which was 6m in diameter with one fireplace in the centre in which clay statues were heated and an oval one which was 15x9 meters with five fireplaces. The unique feature of this site, as discussed earlier that it is abundant in prehistoric pieces of art (www.ancientwisdom.co.uk).

The remains of two furnaces have been dug out from this place along with 700 figures ...