THE WOMAN IN POST-PALEOLITHIC SCULPTURE

Museum of the Origins of Man

THE WOMAN IN THE POST-PALEOLITHIC SCULPTURE

Fig. 8A1) Anthropomorphic terracotta sculpture. It depicts a naked woman, sitting on her knees; she has no arms, and her head is missing because is missing because it broke, and was not found. Typologically it derives from the Paleolithic Venus, with which it still has in common nudity, and the absence of arms.
These venuses have various names: little idol, Mother Goddess, Fertility Goddess, and so on. This sculpture is similar in everything to the Egyptian Mother Goddess (Fig. 8A3).
Height: cm 7.
Origin: Cave of the Arene Candide, Finale Marina, Savona, Italy.
Material Culture: Neolithic.
Location: Archaeological Museum of Genoa Pegli, Italy

Fig. 8A2) Anthropomorphic terracotta sculpture representing a naked woman; it is a Venus, still without arms and feet like paleolithic Venus, made in an elegant style.
Size: small.
Origin: Strelice, Moravia, Czechoslovakia.
Dating: 5th millennium BC.
Material Culture: Neolithic.
Location: Moravian Museum

Fig. 8A3)Anthropomorphic terracotta sculpture depicting a naked woman, sitting on her knees and without arms. It's similar to the sculpture of the Arene Candide (Fig. 8A1). In Egypt it's called Mother Goddess. Her body was painted with images that seem tattoos: fishes on the chest and mammals on the back.
Size:small.
Origin: Egypt.
Material Culture: Naqada I, 3,500 years BC approx.

Fig. 8A4) Anthropomorphic stone sculpture representing the "Mediterranean Mother". She is a naked Venus, with a strong stylistic geometric deformation. The female attributes are only the breasts. In common with the previous venuses she has no arms or feet.
Size: small.
Origin: Sardinia.
Dating: III millennium BC.
Material culture: Protosarda .
Location: National Archaeological Museum, Cagliari, Italy.

Fig. 8A5) Zooanthropomorphic alabaster sculpture. It's the "Goddess of fertility"; sitting on a throne without backrest, is flanked by two sphinxes (which have a further meaning in worship). From the pierced breasts liquids flowed in the basin that she holds with her hands.
This deity is directly connected to the Neolithic Mothers Goddesses, and therefore to the Paleolithic Venuses.
Size: height cm 17.8; width cm 10.6; thickness cm 12.7.
Origin: Grave 20, Necropolis Tutugi, Jail, Granada, Spain.
Location: National Archaeological Museum, Madrid, Spain.

Fig. 8A6) Anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture representing a naked woman without hands and feet, with a beautiful hairstyle, like the paleolithic venuses, from which it derives, and from which differs by having the legs spread apart. These sculptures, that represent deities, have been found in great number, also bicephalic (Fig. 8A7, 8A8, 8A9).
Size: from cm 6 to cm 13, on average cm 10.
Origin: Tlatilco, Mexico.
Dating: from 1100 to 500 BC.
Location: National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City, Mexico.

Fig. 8A7) Bicephalic anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture (drawing) representing a naked woman with bicephalic head. By Mexican archaeologists these bicephalic Venuses are interpreted as "symbol of a double fruit or of the principle of duality, which represents one of the roots of Mesoamerican religious philosophy, to which a propitiatory character is attributed".
Size: from 6 to 13 cm, on average cm 10.
Origin: Tlatilco, Mexico.
Dating: from 1100 to 500 BC.
Location: National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City, Mexico.

Fig. 8A8) Bicephalic anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture. It represents a naked woman with bicephalic head (see caption Fig.8A7).

Fig.8A9) Bicephalic anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture representing a naked woman with two heads (see caption Fig. 8A7).

Fig. 8A10) Anthropomorphic stone sculpture (drawing) representing a woman. The stylistic deformation is geometric. It's an idol that can be compared to Paleolithic Venus and more recent Mother Goddesses. The breasts are the only feminine attribute of these sculptures: this is not at all about the style of art, but a religious philosophy. The Minoan Snake Goddesss of Knossos is completely dressed and has breasts on display.
These sculptures feminine have been found in Lunigiana, with other similar ones (same style) representing men equipped of "dagger axe" (see Fig. 4A7 and caption).
Size: mt 1 approx.
Origin: Moncigoli, Massa Carrara, Italy.
Material Culture: age of the metals, 3rd millennium.
Location: Archaeological Museum, Castle of Pontremoli, Italy.

Fig. 8A11) Anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture. The Minoan Snake Goddess is a feminine deity derived from the Paleolithic venuses and the Mother Goddesses, of which is also coeval. She is a variant of the Mother Goddess, in the new religions that are developing with the richness of the new civilizations. In common with the venuses and goddesses mothers has bare breasts, and always very beautiful headdresses. About the snakes she holds in her hands we are doing typological research.
Size: 34,3 cm.
Origin: Knossos, Crete Island, Greece.
Location: Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Greece.
Dating: 1,600 BC.

Fig. 8A12) Anthropomorphic bronze sculpture. Woman sitting with a young man in her arms. She is a Mother Goddess, which in Sardinia is called "Nuragica Madonna".
Size: cm 10.
Origin: Urzulei (Nuoro), Sardinia, Italy.
Dating: about 1,000 BC.

Fig. 8A13) Anthropomorphic Melilli limestone sculpture. Mother Goddess sitting on a throne, wrapped in a mantle, and feeding two children. This is another interesting and rare variant of the Mother Goddess (remember Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, suckled by a she-wolf, and about which there is a big amount of sculptures).
Size: cm 78.
Origin: Western necropolis, Megara Hyblaea.
Dating: first half of 6th century BC.
Location: Regional Museum "Paolo Orsi", Syracuse, Italy.

Fig. 8A15) Group of finds of ceramic sculptures, partly broken, from the middle Jomon period, in Japan dated between 5,000 and 4,000 years ago. From these fragments and the sculptures (Fig. 8A16, 8A17, 8A19)there appear four different types of sculptures, which are the following: - Human head with or without neck;
- Animal head with or without neck;
- Head of artistic hybrid man-animal;
- Naked women (Venuses).
No bicephalic anthropomorphic sculptures.

Fig. 8A16) Anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture representing a human head, we don't know if it's a man or a woman. The style is extremely simple, and the expression has been provided (for us deliberately) by making the eyes slightly different from each other; moving the mouth a little on the right, and keeping it at a great distance from the nose. In other words, it's a reinvented head.
We don't know if it is a mask, or a small representation of deity.
Origin: Hata-machi, Nagano, Japan.
Dating: middle Jomon, 5,000-4,000 years ago.
Location: National Museum, Tokyo.

Fig. 8A17) Anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture representing a naked Venus with an interesting and beautiful headdress. The style is elegant and ironic, with an enormous difference in proportions between the breasts and the other sexual attributes. The most beautiful Venuses always have a headdress.
Size: small.
Origin: Japan.
Dating: middle Jomon, 5,000- 4,000 years ago.

Fig. 8A18) Anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture. It represents a woman, and this is deduced only from the breasts; it is legless and seems dressed, and with a sort of belt, in the center of which there is an oval and vertical hole, which can be interpreted as a vulva.
Interesting the great lips in how much, before and after this epoch, also in Europe were represented in sculpture deities with great lips. The position of the arms can be thought to wings of bird, that is an artistic hybrid man-animal. It's a sculpture that is worth to be studied more deeply.

Size: small.
Origin: Japan.
Dating: Middle Jomon, 5,000-4,000 years ago.

Fig. 8A19) Anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture. It represents a naked woman with a headdress or with a hairdressing. The style for the representation of the face is different from that of the body, that is more realistic (notice: two different styles in the same sculpture have two different origins.) It's the most ancient Venus in which hands and feet are represented.
Size: small.
Origin: Japan.
Dating: final Jomon, 4,000-3,000 years ago.

Fig. 8A20) Anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture representing a woman (for the breasts and the vulva), but it has, also, characteristics of an artistic man-animal hybrid, having arms that look like wings, without hands, while instead the legs have feet. It' worthy to be studied further, looking for similar sculptures.
Size: small.
Origin: Japan.
Dating: recent Jomon, 4,000-3,000 years ago.

Fig. 8A21) Anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture. It represents a woman with two smallest breasts. This sculpture is already present in this site (Fig. 4A8) and having uncertainty about its gender, which is a right doubt, when the typology of the art of a people or civilization is not known. In the European books by us consulted about this sculpture, we have more often found the generic caption "stylized figure, period Jomon I", without a specification about the gender or the kind of deity. From a Japanese publication we have known that she is considered a Venus, and therefore she is a woman and a deity.
The opened arms, as in this sculpture, almost representing a dance, are present in many Venuses of Japan.
Dimensions: small.
Origin: Japan.
Dating: recent Jomon, 4,000-3,000 years ago.

8A22) Anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture. It represents a woman with long dress and opened wide mouth, and looking upward. She is certainly a feminine deity deriving from the venuses.
Size: small.
Origin: Japan.
Dating: recent Jomon, 4,000-3,000 years ago.

Fig. 8A23) Anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture representing a venus with headdress or a very elaborated hairdo. The stylistic language is extremely rich of particulars, and extremely rich in details, and reinvents completely the human figure.
Size: small.
Origin: Japan.
Dating: recent Jomon, 4,000-3,000 years ago.

Fig. 8A24) Anthropomorphic ceramic sculpture. It represents a woman. The style is very elaborated, so much so that it's not known whether the body has decorations, or a dress. For the head, it can be considered an artistic man-animal hybrid, and in this case the animal part seems to us the enlarged eyes of an insect.
In more recent periods this dress could have been a theater costume; but certainly this sculpture, with this clothing, had to represent an important deity.
Size: small.
Origin: Japan.
Dating: generically Jomon.

Fig. 8A25) Anthropomorphic limestonesculpture. It represents the Goddess Mother Astarte nursing her child. The sculpture was found headless.
Height: perhaps cm 40.
Dating: Phoenician art.
Origin: unknown.

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