Venus figurines of Gagarino

Venus figurines of Gagarino
Venus figurines of Gagarino
	Venus figurine No. 1 of Gagarino; height: 5.8 cm
Material	Mammoth ivory
Created	21,000 to 20,000 years
Discovered	Russia

The Venus figurines of Gagarino are eight Palaeolithic Venus figurines made from ivory. The statuettes belong to the Gravettian industry and are about 21,000–20,000 years old. They were discovered near to the village of Gagarino in Lipetsk Oblast, Russia, and are now held in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.^[1]^[2]

Another Venus figurine of Gagarino; height: 7.1 cm
The "Venus No. 4" of Gagarino; height 12.7 cm

The Figurine No. 1 (by Abramova 1962) is sculpted similar to the Venus of Willendorf: The depicted female body is naked and obese, which is not necessarily interpreted as pregnant.^[3] The small arms are at the side with no hands. The face is not depicted, but a headgear or a hairstyle is indicated. The breasts are heavy. The mons veneris is indicated.

References

^ See Delporte (1979), p. 175.
^ Christoph Baumer (11 December 2012). The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. I.B.Tauris. pp. 34–5. ISBN 978-1-78076-060-5. Archived from the original on 1 June 2024. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
^ Delporte, H. (1979). L’image de la femme dans l’art préhistorique, Paris: Ed. Picard, S. 175.