Venus of Buret' may refer to any of the five
Venus figurine
A Venus figurine is any Upper Palaeolithic statue portraying a woman, usually carved in the round.Fagan, Brian M., Beck, Charlotte, "Venus Figurines", beliefs '' The Oxford Companion to Archaeology'', 1996, Oxford University Press, pp. 740–7 ...
s found from archeological site of Buret' in
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
near
Irkutsk
Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...
and the
Angara
The Angara (; ) or Angar ( мүрэн) is a major river in Siberia, which traces a course through Russia's Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai. It drains out of Lake Baikal and is the headwater tributary of the Yenisey. It is long, and has ...
river valley.
Four of them are made of
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 ...
and one of them is made of
serpentine.
One of the figurines (pictured) made of ivory depicts a shrouded person. A similar shrouded figurine has been found from Mal'ta. Carvings on the figurine might represent decorated clothes. The figurine is partially sexually ambiguous due to lack of breasts, but it has an emphasized pubic triangle and vaginal area.
Venus figurines by
Mal'ta-Buret' culture of the area are considered to be geographically isolated. They have features that differ from other Venuses of the
Paleolithic era
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...
, as they have clothes, instead of being nude, and they also have elaborately carved faces.
List of artifacts
See also
*
Art of the Upper Paleolithic
The art of the Upper Paleolithic represents the oldest form of prehistoric art. Figurative art is present in prehistoric Europe, Europe and Prehistoric Indonesia, Southeast Asia, beginning around 50,000 years ago. Non-figurative cave paintings, c ...
*
Gravettian
The Gravettian is 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 ...
*
Mikhail M. Gerasimov
*
Venus figurines of Mal'ta
The Venus figurines of Mal’ta (also: Malta) are several palaeolithic female figurines of the Mal'ta–Buret' culture, found in Siberia, Russia.
They consist most often of ivory. Delporte writes of 29 figurines altogether. They are about 23,000 ...
References
Further reading
*
*Gerasimov, Michail M. (1964). The Paleolithic site of Malta: excavations of 1956–1958. In E.N. Michael (ed.): The Archaeology and Geomorphology of Northern Asia. No. 5, S. 3–32, Arctic Institute of North America, University of Toronto.
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External links
The Mal'ta - Buret' venuses and culture in Siberia
(including a reconstruction of clothing from a similar figurine)
Buret'
Archaeology of Siberia
Ivory works of art
Irkutsk Oblast
Archaeological discoveries in Russia
Gravettian
{{Russia-sculpture-stub