Question

1. What is the significance of the Venus of Willendorf and what might the Venus of Willendorf represent according to scholars?

2. According to scholars, why might Paleolithic humans engaged in the substantial effort that was required to create the Hall of Bulls, Lascaux? What is the significance of the Lascaux cave paintings?

Answer 1

1.The Venus of Willendorf is a 11.1 cm high satuette of a female figure. It was discovered at a paleolithic site, in Austria(at Willendort) in the year 1907. It has exaggerated breasts and torso, tiny arms and curls covering the head like a headdress and nor feet. It is covered by a pigment of red ochre.

Its significance is thought of, for the nomadic society which must have made it.

There are different views as to what it represents:

One of it is that it symbolizes a Goddess, and is a symbol of fertility. This is because of the enlarged breasts, and an enlarged stomach and the pubic area. The red ochre symbolizes menstrual blood probably. Others reject the Goddess, instead they see it as a woman of Willendorf. Yet another opinion is that view it as “Universal Mother.” There is a view that her obesity represents a high status in the hunter gatherer society. The obesity made her special because women probably not have been obese. In another opinion it probably served as a good luck charm for hunter-gatherers, mostly men, and reminded of people back home who are waiting for their return.

2.Significance of Luscaux paintings

There are different views about the significance of the Luscaux paintings. They are:

1. They could be a description of hunting succeses. Or it might represent a ritual to ensure future hunting success

2. Thérèse Guiot-Houdart tried to understand the symbolic function that the animals depicted served. He tried to see the underlying themes of each of the images and weave them together.

3. Julien d'Huy and Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, interpreted some signs as weapons or wounds.

The way the animals were shown, it probably reflected the actual environmental conditions in terms of the behavior of these animals.

4. Some scholars believed that this type of art is spiritual in nature, they probably are depictions of visions seen during trance dancing.

5. A professor of classical art and archeology at the University of Cambridge Nigel Spivey, saw the depictions as resembling hallucinations that happened due to sensory deprivations.

.....why might Paleolithic humans engaged in the substantial effort ........

1. French archaeologist Henri Breuil believed that the images were some sort of a good luck charm to ensure a successful hunting expedition. This way they felt the animals could be overpowered.

2. Some others believed that these images are stories.

3. There is a belief that these caves were used for rituals and rites that were related to hunting.