Illustration
The Venus of Willendorf is a limestone statuette likely carved between 24,000 and 22,000 years ago, in the Upper Paleolithic, making it one of the oldest pieces of art in the world. The faceless, voluptuous, female figure is considered typical of this type of prehistoric art, though surviving examples are rare. The 11.1 cm figurine would easily fit in the palm of the hand, allowing for easy transport by the nomadic peoples of Ice Age Europe and a possible indication that it may have been used in some sort of fertility ritual. It was found in Willendorf, Austria, in 1908 and can be viewed at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna.
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Original image by Oke. Uploaded by Jessica Liew, published on 07 July 2017. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
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Cite This Work
APA Style
Oke. (2017, July 07). The Venus of Willendorf. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/6865/the-venus-of-willendorf/
Chicago Style
Oke. "The Venus of Willendorf." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified July 07, 2017. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/6865/the-venus-of-willendorf/.
MLA Style
Oke. "The Venus of Willendorf." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 07 Jul 2017. Web. 13 Feb 2025.
