The Venus of Brassempouy (French: ''la Dame de Brassempouy'', , meaning "Lady of Brassempouy", or ''Dame à la Capuche'', "Lady with the Hood") is a fragmentary
ivory figurine from the
Upper Palaeolithic
The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...
, apparently broken from a larger figure at some time unknown. It was discovered in a cave at
Brassempouy
Brassempouy (; oc-gsc, Brassempoi) is a commune in the Landes department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France.
The settlement is on the route between Mont-de-Marsan and Orthez.
Population
Prehistoric caves
The village became famous ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
in 1892. About 25,000 years old, it is one of the earliest known realistic representations of a human face.
Discovery
Brassempouy
Brassempouy (; oc-gsc, Brassempoi) is a commune in the Landes department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France.
The settlement is on the route between Mont-de-Marsan and Orthez.
Population
Prehistoric caves
The village became famous ...
is a small village in the
''département'' of
Landes
''Landes'', or ''Lanas'' in Gascon, means moorland or heath.
''Landes'' and ''Lanas'' come from the Latin ''plānus'' meaning “‘flat, even, level, plain’”. They are therefore cognate with the English plain (and plane), the Spanish word ''l ...
in southwest France. Two caves near the village, 100 metres from each other, were among the first
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
sites to be explored in France. They are known as the ''Galerie des Hyènes'' (Gallery of the Hyenas) and the ''Grotte du Pape'' (the "Grotto of the Pope"). The Venus of Brassempouy was discovered in the Grotto of the Pope in 1894, accompanied by at least eight other human figures. These may be an example of unfinished work, as if the artist or artists carved several figurines at the same time.
P. E. Dubalen first explored the ''Grotte du Pape'' during 1881, followed by J. de Laporterie and Édouard Piette (1827–1906) from 1894 onwards. Since archaeological
excavation
Excavation may refer to:
* Excavation (archaeology)
* Excavation (medicine)
* ''Excavation'' (The Haxan Cloak album), 2013
* ''Excavation'' (Ben Monder album), 2000
* ''Excavation'' (novel), a 2000 novel by James Rollins
* '' Excavation: A Mem ...
techniques were then only starting to be developed, they paid little attention to the
stratigraphy
Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers ( strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks.
Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...
of the site containing the remains. In 1892 the site was pillaged and disturbed almost beyond reconstruction by a field visit of amateurs from the ''Association française pour l’avancement de la science''. Nevertheless, Piette described layers attributed to the late and middle
Solutrean period. He termed the bottom levels he reached as ''éburnéen'' (pale or white like ivory), in reference to the copious amounts of
ivory works which they contained. Modern reanalysis of the site has been performed under the direction of Henri Delporte during 1981–2000.
In 1894, one of those strata, recognized now as
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 2 ...
, yielded several fragments of statuettes, including the "Lady with the Hood". Piette considered the figures as closely related to the representations of animals of the
Magdalenian period. He developed a hypothetical
chronology
Chronology (from Latin ''chronologia'', from Ancient Greek , ''chrónos'', "time"; and , ''-logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of even ...
that was later refuted by
Henri Breuil.
Description
The Venus of Brassempouy was carved from
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 ...
ivory. According to archaeologist
Paul Bahn
Paul G. Bahn, (born 29 July 1953)['Bahn, Paul (1953-)'](_blank)
''Encyclopedia.com''. ...
the head is "unsexed, although it is usually called a 'Venus' or a 'lady'". The head is 3.65 cm high, 2.2 cm deep and 1.9 cm wide. While forehead, nose and brows are carved in relief, the mouth is absent. A vertical crack on the right side of the face is a consequence of the internal structure of the ivory. On the head is a checkerboard-like pattern formed by two series of shallow incisions at right angles to each other; it has been interpreted as a wig, a hood with geometric decoration, or simply a representation of hair styled in
cornrows
Cornrows are a traditional style of braids in which the hair is braided very close to the scalp, using an underhand, upward motion to make a continuous, raised row. Cornrows are often done in simple, straight lines, as the term implies, but they ...
.
Randall White observed in the ''Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory'' (December 2006), "The figurines emerged from the ground into a colonial intellectual and socio-political context nearly obsessed with matters of race."
[.] Although the style of representation is essentially realistic, the proportions of the head do not correspond exactly to any known human population of the present or past. White has claimed that, since the mid-twentieth century, concerns of interpretative questions have changed from race to womanhood and fertility.
Date
Although the head was discovered so early that its context could not be studied thoroughly, scholars agree that the Venus of Brassempouy belonged to an Upper Palaeolithic
material culture, 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 2 ...
(29,000–22,000
BP). More precisely, they date the figurine to the Middle Gravettian period, with
"Noailles" burins ''circa'' 26,000 to 24,000
BP. It is more or less contemporary with the other Palaeolithic
Venus figurines, such as those of
Lespugue
Lespugue (; oc, Era Espuga) is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France.
Population
See also
*Venus of Lespugue
*Communes of the Haute-Garonne department
The following is a list of the 586 communes of the French ...
,
Dolní Věstonice,
Willendorf Willendorf may refer to:
* Willendorf an der Schneebergbahn, Austria
* Willendorf in der Wachau, Austria
**Venus of Willendorf
The Venus of Willendorf is an Venus figurine estimated to have been made around 25,000-30,000 years ago. It was foun ...
, ''etc''. Nonetheless, it is distinguished among the group by the realistic character of the representation.
Display
The Venus of Brassempouy is preserved in the
Musée d'Archéologie Nationale at
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
[Inventory number 47 019.] Since ivory is very susceptible to damage from factors such as temperature change, moisture, and light, the figure is not part of the Palaeolithic department, but is exhibited in the
Salle Piette of the Museum, opened only by reservation.
At Brassempouy, a variety of objects excavated in the ''Grotte du Pape'' are on display at the ''Maison de la Dame''. This exhibition space, devoted primarily to regional archaeology, also displays a fine set of casts of palaeolithic sculptures. These include the nine existing specimens from Brassempouy, but also casts of the well-known figures from Lespugue, Willendorf and Dolní Věstonice, as well as the
Mal'ta Venuses, and the
Grimaldi Venuses.
Stamp
In 1976, the Venus of Brassempouy was depicted on a 2
franc stamp
Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to:
Official documents and related impressions
* Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail
* Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods
* Revenue stamp, used on documents ...
. It has also been the motif of a 15 franc (CFA) stamp of the Republic of
Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...
.
See also
*
Art of the Upper Paleolithic
*
List of Stone Age art
*
Venus figurines
Notes
Bibliography
* H. Delporte, ''Brassempouy – la grotte du Pape, station préhistorique'', Association culturelle de Contis, 1980
* H. Delporte, ''L'image de la femme dans l'art préhistorique'', éd. Picard, 1993 ()
* C. Cohen, ''La femme des origines - images de la femme dans la préhistoire occidentale'', Belin - Herscher, 2003 ()
* P. Perrève, ''La dame à la capuche'' - roman historique - Ed. Olivier Orban, 1984, ()
External links
Don Hitchcock: History and images of artefacts from the Grottes du Pape* .
Brassempouy Museum (French)Image of the stamp
{{Authority control
Brassempouy
Brassempouy (; oc-gsc, Brassempoi) is a commune in the Landes department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France.
The settlement is on the route between Mont-de-Marsan and Orthez.
Population
Prehistoric caves
The village became famous ...
Archaeological discoveries in France
Landes (department)
Ivory works of art
1892 in France
Gravettian
Prehistoric art in France
1892 archaeological discoveries