Goddesses of Pre-History

The Berekhat Ram Figurine (The Acheulian Goddess)
This figure is a 35mm high fragment of volcanic rock (basaltic tuff) that was found between two layers of volcanic flow in the Levantine area of southern Syria. It is thought to be between 233,000 and 800,000 years old, dating from the Acheulian paleolithic era, and has been attributed to either Archaic Homo Sapiens or to Homo Erectus. The artisan is believed to have taken a small stone with existing feminine features, and used a flint tool to incise grooves delineating the head and arms, thus creating the oldest known human image.

Goddess of Willendorf
An 11.1cm Paleolithic figurine of oolitic limestone tinted with red ochre was found in 1908 by archeologist Josef Szombathy in an Aurignacian loess deposit near Willendorf, Austria. It is believed to have been created between 24,000 and 22,000 BC. Her face is featureless, but her head is covered in seven concentric horizontal bands which have been notched, suggesting braided hair or a woven hat. Her thin arms have markings on the wrists, and rest on her exaggerated breasts. Her large stomach overhangs but does not hide her vulva , and her buttocks are large and flat. Her lack of feet seems to indicate she was not meant to stand, but rather to be held in the palm of the hand. The original figure is housed at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Laussel Goddess
This image is a detail from a low relief featuring several females and a male, found at the entrance of a limestone rock shelter at Laussel, in the Dordogne region of central France. Believed to have been created between 22,000 and 27,000 years ago, it was discovered in 1911 by Dr. J.G. Lalanne and is in the collection of the Musee d'Aquitaine, Bordeaux. Her featureless face is inclined towards the crescent-shaped bison horn in her right hand, and her left hand rests on her prominent belly, implying pregnancy or fertility. There are thirteen notches carved into the bison horn, possibly representing the number of lunar cycles in a year.

Lespugue Goddess
Carved from mammoth ivory during the Aurignacian Period around 30,000-20,000 BC, this figurine was found in 1922 by Saint Perrier in the cave of Les Rideaux at the foothills of the Pyrenees in France. She is 147mm in height, and currently resides in the Musee des Antiques Nationales, Paris. Her face is featureless; her buttocks, stomach and breasts exaggerated. It is said she represents fertility, earth and the continuation of life.

Goddess of Dolni Vestonice
Found at Dolni Vestonice, the oldest known baked clay figurine in the world was created in Paleolithic eastern Europe around 24,000BC. Dolni Vestonice is a site in the Czech Republic, near the town of Brno, and was an encampment for ice-age mammoth hunters. Her exaggerated female form is similar to to those of the preceding goddess figures, yet her eyes are prominent. Her creator scratched two slits which run from her eyes and down her breasts, possibly symbolizing the life giving tears of the nurturing mother.

Anatolian Goddess
The figurine was found at Çatalhöyük, a large neolithic mammoth hunting encampment near Konya, Turkey; and dates between 6800-5000 BC. Made of terracotta, she is squatting in the process of giving birth, and is flanked protectively by two leopards. Another figurine, also from Çatalhöyük, depicts her as seated, with her legs curled to the left, her large belly resting on heavy thighs.

The Tel Halaf Figurine
These goddess figures were found at a Neolithic site named Tel Halaf, near the village of Mosul, in Iraq. This ancient Syrian civilization created outstanding pottery, and also many seated or squatting terracotta figurines which are believed to represent fertility and the feminine creative. Each figurine is approximately 7cm and is believed to date from the 5th millenium BC.

Neolithic Snake Goddess
"The snake and its abstracted derivative, the spiral, are the dominant motifs of the art of Old Europe, and their imaginative use in spiraliform design throughout the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods remained unsurpassed by any subsequent decorative style until the Minoan civilization, the sole inheritor of Old European lavishness. The Chalcolithic Butmir, Cucuteni, and East Balkan peoples created large bulbous vessels, adopted the snake-spiral as the bases of the entire ornamental composition. This art reached its peak of unified symbolic and aesthetic expression c. 5000 BC." (Marija Gimbutas (1974) The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe. Univ. of California Press, Berkeley p. 93)

Nile Goddess
Funerary figurines like these, blending bird, woman and deity, appeared in Pre-Dynastic Egypt around 4000 BC. Similar painted terracotta figures under 12" in height were found in graves in Mohamerian, near Edfu. Her head is bird-like, and her arms are evocative of wings or of the crescent moon. It has been suggested that she represents regeneration, reincarnation, or the neo-pagan tradition of "drawing down the moon". Reproduction available from Talaria Enterprises

Cycladic Goddess
Figurines of this type were found in graves and ritual sites on the Cyclades Islands off the coast of Greece dating back to 4500 BC. This goddess is an anthromorphized image of transition or death, with her stiff, nude form and the suggestion of a meditative or trance-like state. The abstract style of these Cycladic figurines is associated with later Greek art. Cycladic idol, Syros, c. 2500-2000 BC

Links
Images of Women in Ancient Art: Issues of Interpretation and Identity
Art: Evolution or Revolution?
The Berekhat Ram Figurine
The Venus of Willendorf
The Ceramic Figures of Dolni Vestonice