Why were venus figurines made

The researchers took waist-hip and waist-shoulder measurements of all known Venus figurines, which were found over hundreds of years across Europe and western Russia. After comparing the measurements to the geographical locations of where each sculpture was found, the team discovered that the more obese figurines were found further north near the glaciers. The further the figurines were from the glaciers, Johnson said, the less pronounced their body proportions were.

Through this data, the researchers concluded that the Venus figurines could represent more than fertility art. This theory is a new one, said William Haviland, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Vermont, who was not involved in the study. Although he hadn't heard of the idea before, he believes that this new concept should be pursued. The figurines could also have spiritual purposes, Johnson said, similar to a good luck amulet.

These iconic, stylised depictions of women from the Upper Palaeolithic — often called Venus figurines , in a loose reference to the Roman goddess of beauty — have been found scattered across Europe and Eurasia.

Over of these mysterious figurines have been uncovered, dated between 38, to 14, years ago, with most of those recovered from about 26,, years ago. While there is much academic debate about what the Venus figurines represented in the eyes of their ancient carvers, many researchers have interpreted the statues' voluptuous characteristics as symbols of fertility, sexuality, beauty, and motherhood. Others have also noted, however, that the enlarged bodies offer a very realistic depiction of what human obesity looks like.

Obesity is a grave problem for people in the 21st century, although why it would have been on the minds of our ancient ancestors 30, years ago isn't entirely clear. The authors are grateful to Dr. Gina Grimshaw for assistance with the eye-tracking experiments and to all the participants who volunteered to take part in the studies. They are also grateful to the Editor Dr. Benjamin Campbell and the two anonymous reviewers for providing us with very useful and critical comments, particularly those pertaining to the debates surrounding the Brassempouy figurines.

These comments were very helpful in improving our paper. Dixson and Barnaby J. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article of the Year Award: Outstanding research contributions of , as selected by our Chief Editors. Read the winning articles. Dixson 1 and Barnaby J. Academic Editor: Benjamin Campbell. Received 08 Jul Accepted 04 Nov Published 03 Jan Figure 1. Images of figurines and their geographic origins. Images are shown in the same random order and numbered, as they were for the questionnaire study.

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