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Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Mystery solved about the origin of the 30,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf

Posted On Wednesday, March 02, 2022 by Cruiselife & Co | 0 comments


 New research method shows that the material likely comes from northern Italy

The almost 11 cm high figurine from Willendorf is one of the most important examples of early art in Europe. It is made of a rock called "oolite" which is not found in or around Willendorf. A research team led by the anthropologist Gerhard Weber from the University of Vienna and the two geologists Alexander Lukeneder and Mathias Harzhauser as well as the prehistorian Walpurga Antl-Weiser from the Natural History Museum Vienna have now found out with the help of high-resolution tomographic images that the material from which the Venus was carved likely comes from northern Italy. This sheds new light on the remarkable mobility of the first modern humans south and north of the Alps. The results currently appear in Scientific Reports.

The Venus von Willendorf is not only special in terms of its design, but also in terms of its material. While other Venus figures are usually made of ivory or bone, sometimes also of different stones, oolite was used for the Lower Austrian Venus, which is unique for such cult objects. The figurine found in the Wachau in 1908 and on display in the Natural History Museum in Vienna has so far only been examined from the outside. Now, more than a 100 years later, anthropologist Gerhard Weber from the University of Vienna has used a new method to examine its interior: micro-computed tomography. During several passes, the scientists obtained images with a resolution of up to 11.5 micrometres - a quality that is otherwise only seen under a microscope. The first insight gained is: "Venus does not look uniform at all on the inside. A special property that could be used to determine its origin," says the anthropologist.

Along with the two geologists Alexander Lukeneder and Mathias Harzhauser from the Natural History Museum in Vienna, who had previously worked with oolites, the team procured comparative samples from Austria and Europe and evaluated them. A complex project: Rock samples from France to eastern Ukraine, from Germany to Sicily were obtained, sawn up and examined under a microscope. The team was supported by the state of Lower Austria, which provided funds for the time-consuming analyses.

The inside also gives information about the outside

The tomographic data from the Venus showed that the sediments were deposited in the rocks in different densities and sizes. In between there were also small remnants of shells and six very dense, larger grains, so-called limonites. The latter explains the previously mysterious hemispherical cavities on the surface of Venus with the same diameter: "The hard limonites probably broke out when the creator of the Venus was carving it," explains Weber: "In the case of the Venus navel, he then apparently made it a virtue out of necessity."

Another finding: The Venus oolite is porous because the cores of the millions of globules (ooides) of which it is comprised had dissolved. This is a great explanation for why the resourceful sculptor chose this material 30,000 years ago: It is much easier to work with. The scientists also identified a tiny shell remnant, just 2.5 millimetres long, and dated it to the Jurassic period. This ruled out all other potential deposits of the rock from the much later Miocene geological era, such as those in the nearby Vienna Basin.

A long way for that time

The research team also analysed the grain sizes of the other samples. Hundreds, sometimes even thousands of grains were marked and measured with image processing programs or even manually. None of the samples within a 200-kilometer radius of Willendorf even remotely matched. The analysis finally showed that the samples from the Venus were statistically indistinguishable from samples from a location in northern Italy near Lake Garda. This is remarkable because it means that the Venus (or at least its material) started a journey from south of the Alps to the Danube north of the Alps.

"People in the Gravettian – the tool culture of the time – looked for and inhabited favourable locations. When the climate or the prey situation changed, they moved on, preferably along rivers," explains Gerhard Weber. Such a journey could have taken generations.

One of the two possible routes from the south to the north would lead around the Alps and into the Pannonian Plain and was described in simulations by other researchers a few years ago. The other way to get from Lake Garda to the Wachau would be via the Alps. Whether this was possible more than 30,000 years ago is unclear due to the climate deterioration that began at that time. This would be a rather improbable variant if there had already been continuous glaciers at that time. However, the 730 km long path along the Etsch, the Inn and the Danube had always been below 1,000 meters above sea level, with the exception of 35 kilometres at Lake Reschen.

Possible, but less likely, connection to eastern Ukraine

The statistics clearly point to northern Italy as the origin of the Venus oolite. Nevertheless, there is another interesting place for the origin of the rock. It is in eastern Ukraine, more than 1,600 kilometres linear distance from Willendorf. The samples there do not fit as clearly as those from Italy, but better than all the rest of the sample. An interesting connection here: Venus figures were found in nearby southern Russia, which are somewhat younger, but look very similar to the Venus found in Austria. Genetic results also show that people in Central and Eastern Europe were connected to one another at this time.

The exciting story of the Lower Austrian Venus could be continued. Only a few systematic studies have so far dealt with the existence of early humans in this time frame in the Alpine region, and with their mobility. The famous "Ötzi", for example, only comes into play much later, namely 5,300 years ago. "We want to use these Venus results and our new Vienna research network "Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences", in cooperation with anthropology, archaeology and other disciplines, to further clarify early history in the Alpine region," concludes Weber.

Publication in Scientific Reports:


Picture 1: The original Venus from Willendorf. Left: lateral view. Right-top: hemispherical cavities on the right haunch and leg. Right bottom: existing hole enlarged to form the navel. (© Kern, A. & Antl-Weiser, W. Venus. Editon-Lammerhuber, 2008))

Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gerhard Weber

Department für Anthropologie
Universität Wien

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS: 1/28/2019

Posted On Tuesday, January 28, 2020 by Cruiselife & Co | 0 comments


ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS – Ancient Digger brings you the latest archaeology news and headlines everyday of the week!

Underwater archaeologists have discovered a huge, centuries-old shipwreck and a destroyed World War II bridge in a river in Poland.

Vesuvius victims died slower than believed

3,000-year-old teeth solve Pacific banana mystery

Archaeology news: Archaeologists recreate the voice of 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy

By 3D printing an electronic larynx which is an exact replica of the mummified priest, experts have been able to recreate the voice of a person who has been dead for 3,000 years. A team from Royal Holloway, University of London, Leeds Museum and the University of York placed the mummified remains of Nesyamun inside a Computed Tomography (CT) scanning machine to analyse whether the structure of the larynx had remained intact.

Witch’s bottle found in US Civil War fort.
A glass bottle filled with rusty nails discovered in Virginia could be a rare ‘witch’ bottle used by soldiers in the US civil war to fend off evil spirits. The bottle stands at a height of five inches (13 centimetres) tall and three inches (eight cm) wide and was discovered near a civil war fort known as Redoubt 9.


Wednesday, May 30, 2018

ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS-May 30, 2018

Posted On Wednesday, May 30, 2018 by Cruiselife & Co | 0 comments


ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS – Ancient Digger brings you the latest archaeology news and headlines everyday of the week!

How Jesus died: Extremely rare evidence of Roman crucifixion uncovered in Italy

A lesion on the foot of a 2,000-year-old skeleton discovered in a Roman burial site in northern Italy appears to constitute rare tangible evidence of execution by crucifixion, according to an interdisciplinary team of Italian researchers.

Archaeologists find remains of man crushed as he fled Pompeii

© Kiiitv



The Roman dead: new techniques are revealing just how diverse Roman Britain was

New research has rubbished our perception of it as a region inhabited solely by white Europeans. Roman Britain was actually a highly multicultural society which included newcomers and locals with black African ancestry and dual heritage, as well as people from the Middle East.

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Corinthian helmet discovered in southwest Russia

A grave in southwest Russia dating to the fifth century B.C. has yielded an ancient Corinthian helmet, according to The Greek Reporter. Roman Mimohod of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences said this is the first Greek helmet of its kind to be found north of the Black Sea, in the Greek Kingdom of the Bosporus. The bronze helmet, of a type worn by foot soldiers, has slits for the eyes, and a padded interior that would have covered the entire head and neck. When a warrior died, his helmet was buried next to him. To read about another recent discovery in Russia, go to “Nomadic Chic.”

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T US 380 yields new information about prosthetics

A male skeleton unearthed in 1996 and dating from some time in the 6th to 8th century AD showed evidence of a man who not only survived his right hand being chopped off, he attached a large knife in its place. The remarkable specimen, known as T US 380, is described in new research published in the Journal of Anthropological Sciences. T US 380 was recovered from one of 164 tombs excavated from the Longobard necropolis near Verona in northern Italy in the 1980s and 1990s.

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Wild Orangutans at Gunung Palung National Park in Indonesia

Over her two decades of observation, Knott says, orangutan numbers have declined, but the population she studies in Gunung Palung National Park in Indonesia remains a stronghold for the species. Knott’s research project is one of the longest running studies of wild orangutans. She also works to protect them through her organization, the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Program.

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Large Sunken Island Existed off Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast

Large Sunken Island Existed off Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast till Middle Ages, According to Roman Era Maps, Geomorphology Research. A sizable but now destroyed and/or sunken island – likely the size of Greece’s Aegean island of Thasos – existed in the Black Sea off the southern Black Sea coast of today’s Bulgaria but disappeared as a result of natural calamity sometime in the Middle Ages, a report points out.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Archaeology News: May 23, 2017

Posted On Tuesday, May 23, 2017 by Cruiselife & Co | 0 comments


ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS – Ancient Digger brings you the latest archaeology news and headlines everyday of the week!

Washington's birth site more mysterious than thought

On Popes Creek in Westmoreland County, park rangers tell visitors that “George Washington slept here first.” It’s a riff on that old line encountered at innumerable Mid-Atlantic historic sites, but if any place has bragging rights, it’s here—George Washington Birthplace National Monument in Virginia’s Northern Neck. Here on this acreage, the first U.S. president came into the world.

Stone Age 'cult' henge site and human remains discovered near Stratford

A STONE Age ‘cult’ henge site and human remains – which could belong to some of south Warwickshire’s earliest residents – have been discovered close to Stratford. Archaeologists have found the 4,000 year-old remains at a new housing development in Newbold-on-Stour, on fields at Mansell Farm. Experts say it is an ‘important discovery’.

Medieval brewery used by monks discovered by archaeologists on the outskirts of Lincoln

A medieval brewery has been discovered by archaeologists along the route of Lincoln Eastern Bypass.

Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Carving Found in Looting Hole

Egyptian authorities say they caught looters digging up an ancient stone block carved with an image of a pharaoh. In the city of Abydos, antiquities authorities say they were inspecting an old two-story, mud-brick house when they found that the owner had excavated a hole in the floor.

Space Archaeology 

Archaeologists often spend years digging and hoping they'll find the remnants of ancient civilizations. There's a lot of ground yet to be uncovered. Archaeologist Sarah Parcak says less than 10 percent of the Earth's surface has been explored, so she's leading the way to speed up the search. Parcak uses satellite photos to locate ancient sites and she's finding them -- thousands. It's called space archaeology and it's transforming the field. Sarah Parcak is a professor at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. We met her in Egypt doing what she loves most: digging in the dirt.

Noah’s Ark discovered? Researchers '99.9 per cent certain' of astonishing Biblical find

A team of evangelical Christian explorers found what they claim is “99.9 per cent” certainly evidence of Noah’s Ark beneath snow and volcanic debris on Mount Ararat in Turkey. Noah's Ark Ministries International, a Hong Kong-based documentary team, claim to have found wooden pieces from a structure which carbon dates back 4,800 years and was found around 13,000 feet above sea level.

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