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riotemmi18
January 9th, 2009, 01:42 PM
I can't find this posted anywhere else on the forum, and it's not insanely current news, but still really interesting....


(CNN) -- Archaeologists in Russia have discovered an "extraordinary" group of Stone Age artworks which appear to have been carefully buried in pits and covered with mammoth bones, researchers announced this week in a paper published in the academic journal, Antiquity...At least some of the 21,000-22,000-year-old objects appear to have been regarded as magical, the scientists surmise.
From here (http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/12/03/stoneage.art/)

The interesting part is that they include the "Venus" figures along with the items regarded as magical, due to their placement, the surrounding objects, the geometric shapes around the figures, and the differently colored sand sprinkled around them.

I thought it was a good piece of evidence that the Venus figures were used for ritualized purposes, rather than the porn theory I keep hearing about (which gets less and less credible).

Darth Wychipu
January 9th, 2009, 02:33 PM
very cool!

HetHert
January 9th, 2009, 02:34 PM
Why couldn't they, the statuary, have dual purpose. We have to realize that the taboo over "porn" is really a societal pressure and may not have been taboo to ancient people. They may have completely venerated the naked form and found nothing wrong in appreciating it's value on ALL levels. IMO we need to stop steering our own modern prejudices and projections onto the people of pre-history and ancient times in any form of expectation toward their preferences.

riotemmi18
January 9th, 2009, 07:02 PM
IMO we need to stop steering our own modern prejudices and projections onto the people of pre-history and ancient times in any form of expectation toward their preferences.

I don't disagree at all. I fully believe that some of the cave paintings they believe to be early porn WERE early "porn."

However, I just don't think the evidence is there for the Venus figures. You normally don't go through all that time and effort using precious resources, skills, and time to bury your porn in a giant pit with strategically placed mammoth bones and colored sand. I think the archaeologists are right and it points more to a hunting ritual.