Venus figure created about 25,000 years ago from the Kostenki-Borshevo region on the Don River, north of the Black Sea.
Kostenki / Kostienki is a very important Paleolithic site on the Don River in Russia. It was a settlement which contained goddess figures, dwellings made of mammoth bones, and many flint tools and bone implements. Actually it is not a single site but really an area on the right bank of the Don River in the region of the villages of Kostenki and Borshevo, consisting of more than twenty site locations, all dating to the Paleolithic.
Just think how someone spent hours creating this lovely figure.
And I look at the features of her body, and am aware that the artist was celebrating the woman/goddess who gave life and nurtured it. The model for the figure was well fed, quite capable, and yet her own facial features weren't considered important.
Would a person of that era find this a turn-on sexually? Or would the figure represent the highest respect for women and perhaps even goddesses! At least this type of body was considered beautiful. Since there are so many similar small figures found in the same area, it's likely that many people made these for an unknown reason...maybe by women as well as men who crafted them. That they were numerous suggests that they had importance in that culture. Early archaeologists thought they were fertility icons. Now they are open to interpreting them as goddesses in a matriarchal society.
The pyramid of patriarchy had not yet taken over society.
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Matriarchy isn’t women on top, it’s a circle with children and the vulnerable at the center.
It is not a mirror image of patriarchy, nor a reversal of domination. Matriarchy is rooted in care, responsibility, and collective survival. Power is not hoarded at the top—it flows outward, guided by the needs of those who require protection the most. Leadership is measured by nourishment, not control. Strength is shown through safeguarding life, honoring interdependence, and valuing empathy as intelligence. In this structure, women do not rule over others; they steward communities. It is not about supremacy, but balance—where dignity is preserved, harm is minimized, and humanity is sustained.
as posted by Claudia Frasca-Jones on Facebook in "She's of Love"
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And somehow our civilization discovered mechanical tool making, so craftsmanship moved more rapidly, and many people became specialized in their creativity. I'd guess that of all these men in the photo below, a few of them would be able to carve a venus to exemplify their own paragon of virtue and beauty.
Sharing with Sepia Saturday.
I don't know at this point what the 25,000 year old figure was made of, and am assuming a carved bone of some kind.
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At the grand opening of the new Town Hardware last weekend, I saw a wood carver who used a completely industrial age tool. The chain-saw.
“The greatest revolution of our time is in the way we see the world. The mechanistic paradigm underlying the Industrial Growth Society gives way to the realization that we belong to a living, self-organizing cosmos.” ~Joanna Macy
...what does it say? Gravity affects us with age.
ReplyDeleteAnd there is something worth celebrating, even becoming art, to honor someone who has aged.
DeleteThe chainsaw is such a brutal tool, it's interesting when it's used to make art. It doesn't work well for me, but I get the intent.
ReplyDeleteI think as a tool to start blocking out a sculpture it's ok, but would like to see wood working tools used to give a smoother, more defined finished work. At first I was going to say more realistic, but I just think wood itself is a fabulous medium with it's growth markings throughout, so it can be formed into any shape which offers that kind of finish. IMHO.
DeleteI like that quotation about matriarchy.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of hard for folks to understand matriarchy, because it's not like writing she/her over the words he/him in documents, which misses the point completely that the documents stress power over others, rather than the feminist way of power with others...a circular rather than pyramidal form of living.
DeleteI am surprised at the bodily shape 25K years ago. It was pre-agricultural society where I would have thought that most would be young and fit. Ah, preconceptions.
ReplyDeleteThat would also give extra credence to the honorific offered to those rare women who did live longer, thus showing how their years created a different kind of beauty. Our culture is the one that worships youth. Theirs wasn't. IMHO
DeleteI love the figure. I think it honors the life this woman has lead. In a time of high mortality rates in women childbirth and their children, this looks like the matriarch of a family. She has lived a long life in those times. She is a survivor!!!
ReplyDeleteChain saw carving is very popular here. Our county fair has a fenced booth like the one you show and "featured artists" daily. Personally I can't get past the noise.
We are in agreement once again. Yay for that Venus person who posed for the craftsman. Chain saws belong in the forest in my humble (?) opinion.
DeleteI have to say that the making of "art" with a chainsaw is an extremely manly form of "artistry."
ReplyDeleteQuotation marks used ironically, of course.
The question of how to turn our culture, society, everything, into a more matriarchal system is beyond my ability to answer. The basis of it all is so damn patriarchal now that I can't even begin to imagine how we would do it. And yet I believe it must be done.
My first thought is that women need to do this. But I don't know the how. And I'm not sure how things will look when this happens. I'll think about it some more!
DeleteThere are several chainsaw sculptures done by and donated by a local on the grounds at Hesed House. They are well done for what they are but that style just looks rough to me. Like you I would prefer finishing with traditional wood carving tools.
ReplyDeletePatriarchy fears matriarchy because they cannot imagine an inclusive social structure and therefore assumes that if women were on top they would treat men the way men treat women in patriarchy.
My third thought is about the size of the venus figure. 25,000 years ago the earth was in an ice age when they lived in a feast or famine environment and storing body fat was essential for survival so these figures maybe represented an ideal body type as well as honoring the source of life.
The wood sculptures are awesome! Take care, Happy Friday! Have a great Memorial Day weekend.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed them.
DeleteI agree I'm not fond of chainsaw sculptures. They are too crude for me, I prefer the finely turned and polished wood pieces. But I guess there's some skill involved in wielding a heavy and powerful tool to make art.
ReplyDeleteThat's probably true. I'd cut the head right off of my bear statue probably.
DeleteLove your header! What a difference between these fertility goddesses and the Mar a Lago look so popular with some today.
ReplyDeleteThere is a season for everything. We are here to promote the beauty of the elder women. If not us, who will do so?
DeleteInteresting theories abound about why ancient Venus figures, such as the one you're featuring in your post, were carved that way, but I have to admit they make me feel uneasy because at my age, I'm beginning to look like that! It reminds me of the recent TV ads showing women purposely flapping and giggling their loose wrinkled skin around followed by a shot of an achieved flat-stomached sleek silhouette figure after having major tightening done.
ReplyDeleteCool sculptures! I love thrifting and markets.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy your thoughtful explorations into art and history. As an amateur woodworker/artist I have carved in many different forms but I've learned that the types of tools and materials greatly influences the outcome. Carving with a chainsaw removes material quickly but usually sacrifices details. Same with dull tools, too. Tough and dense woods like oak make it very difficult to get fine lines, and stone, even if softish, is a really big challenge without good metal tools. That's why I'm amazed at the ancient artists who produced their sculpture using only a flint shard or a copper chisel.
ReplyDelete