Stone Age Venus figurines on show
Ancona Archaeological Museum spotlights mysterious works
31 December, 20:23
(ANSA) - Ancona, December 31 - A selection of the mysterious Stone Age Venus figurines that have bewildered and delighted archaeologists for 150 years are spotlighted in a new exhibition in this eastern Italian city. Around a dozen carvings with exaggerated female characteristics are on show at the National Archaeological Museum in Ancona.
All were uncovered in the Marche region but date from different cultures and times, with the oldest figure created some 25,000 years ago and the most recent around the fifth millennium BC.
The poster image for the exhibition is the so-called Venus of Frasassi, discovered not long ago in the spectacular Frasassi cave system.
Carved from a stalactite taken from the same grottos, the figurine has a faceless head, large breasts, a clearly marked vagina, legs and a swollen belly supporting her folded arms. The Frasassi statuette will be displayed alongside the so-called ''Venus of Tolentino'', a beautiful engraving on a stone, which may have been used as a tool or hammer. The carving, which dates back to the late Palaeolithic period, shows a woman with no head or feet, arms crossed across her belly, and a deeply engraved vaginal area and breasts.
Small terracotta idols and another Venus figurine from Fano show the extent to which these depictions varied over different ages. Nearly all the Italian Venuses were discovered in caves but a religious or spiritual link emerges more clearly with the later statuettes, which were found at graves and temple sites.
Over 100 Venus figurines have been unearthed in different parts of Europe since the first recognized discovery in France in 1864. Like the carvings on display in Ancona, the figurines usually taper away entirely at the top and bottom, with a minimal head and no feet. The focus is instead on the swollen, middle section of the body, with stylized representations of the vagina and breasts. The figures were named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, as early archaeologists thought they represented ancient ideals of beauty.
The generally accepted view today is that they celebrate fertility but it is not clear whether they honour ancient deities or pay tribute to womanhood in general. The exhibition, which runs until March 30, alludes to this uncertainty with the title ''Donne o Dee? Le figure femminili preistoriche nelle Marche'' (Women Or Goddesses? Prehistoric Female Figures in the Marche).
photo: Venus of Frasassi
