The Venus figurines from Zaraysk are two paleolithic sculptures of the female body. Both are made of

mammoth ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...

. The age of these

Venus figurines A Venus figurine is any Upper Palaeolithic statuette portraying a woman, usually carved in the round.Fagan, Brian M., Beck, Charlotte, "Venus Figurines", ''The Oxford Companion to Archaeology'', 1996, Oxford University Press, pp. 740–741 Most ...

is about 20.000 to 14 000 years BC; they stem from the

Gravettian The Gravettian was an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years BP. It is archaeologically the last European culture many consider unified, and had mostly disappeared by ...

. Zaraysk is a Russian town located between

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

and

Ryazan Ryazan ( rus, Рязань, p=rʲɪˈzanʲ, a=ru-Ryazan.ogg) is the largest city and administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the banks of the Oka River in Central Russia, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Cens ...

. The statuettes were found in 2005 by Hizri Amirkhanov and Sergey Lev. Finds from Zaraysk show features of both the Avdeevo culture and the Kostenki culture. The location of the excavation is under the wall of the

Zaraysk Kremlin The Zaraysk Kremlin is a rectangular fortified citadel, built at the behest of Vasili III of Moscow between 1528 and 1531. The town of Zaraysk is located between Moscow and Ryazan. History Novogorodok-upon-the-Osyotr (later renamed Zaraysk) be ...

. The sculptures are kept at the local museum. The so-called figurine No. 1 is 16,6 cm high, shows a female body without a face. Presumably, the woman is depicted pregnant. Figurine No. 2 is not finished and 7,4 cm high. Both figurines were found near each other and were covered with the

scapula The scapula (plural scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connected bones, the scapulae are paired, with each scapula on eith ...

of a

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...

. Both were bedded in fine sand, near the head was placed

red ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

.Amirkhanov H., Lev S., 2008: New finds of art objects from the Upper Palaeolithic site of Zaraysk, Russia, Antiquity 82 (318), p. 865. File:Палеолитическая Венера Зарайская стоянка верхний палеолит (2).jpg, Venus figurine No. 1 from Zaraysk File:Палеолитическая Венера Зарайская стоянка верхний палеолит (3).jpg, Venus figurine No. 2 from Zaraysk File:X. А. Амирханов и С. Ю. Лев извлекают статуэтку «венеры». 2005 г.jpg, Extraction of a figurine by archaeologists

Literature

* Amirkhanov H., Lev S., 2008: New finds of art objects from the Upper Palaeolithic site of Zaraysk, Russia, ''Antiquity'' 82 (318), p. 862–870 * Cook, Jill 2013: ''Ice Age Art: the Arrival of the Modern Mind'', London: British Museum Press. (p. 85 f., picture)

References

External links

Venus of Zaraysk / Зарайск Венера, part of the Kostenki-Willendorf culture
at donsmaps.com
Ica Age art: arrival of the modern mind – List of objects proposed for protection under Part 6 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (protection of cultural objects on loan)
(PDF-Datei) {{Venus figurines __NOTOC__ Prehistoric sites in Russia Ivory works of art Archaeological discoveries in Russia Gravettian Venus figurines

See also

Literature

References

External links