Venus figurines of Gönnersdorf

Venus figurines of Gönnersdorf
Venus figurines from Gönnersdorf, replica from the Landesmuseum Bonn: No 10: Figurine of bone No 11: Figurine of antler No 12: Figurine of ivory No 13: unfinished figurine of antler
Created	15,000 to 11,500 years
Discovered	Neuwied, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

The Venus figurines from Gönnersdorf, at Neuwied, are paleolithic sculptures depicting the female body.

Discovery

Gerhard Bosinski led the excavations between 1968 and 1976 at Neuwied, a town on the Rhine in Germany.

Engraving on slate

Features

The figures consist of carved bone, antler or Mammoth tusk ivory. They are between 15,000 and 11,500 years old and stem from the Magdalenian period. These figurines are between 5.4 and 8.7 cm long.

At the same place of many engravings of animals, human beings and abstract signs on slate were found. The depictions of human beings were much stylized. Most often women were depicted, always in profile without a head. The Montastruc decorated stone (Palart 518) in the British Museum has similar stylization.

See also

• Art of the Upper Paleolithic
• List of Stone Age art
• Venus figurines
• Venus of Willendorf
• Venus of Dolní Věstonice

Literature

• Bosinski, G. (1979). Die Ausgrabungen in Gönnersdorf 1968–1976 und die Siedlungsbefunde der Grabung 1968. Mit Beiträgen von David Batchelor. Wiesbaden: Steiner. ISBN 3-515-02509-X.
• Delporte H. (1979). L’image de la femme dans l’art préhistorique. Paris: Ed. Picard.
• Müller-Beck, H. & Albrecht, G. (ed.), (1987). Die Anfänge der Kunst vor 30000 Jahren. Stuttgart: Theiss.

External links

• Don Hitchcock (Don's Maps): "Gönnersdorf and Andernach-Martinsberg"
• http://www.donsmaps.com/couze.html