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Venus of Petřkovice

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Venus of Petřkovice
Replica of Venus of Petřkovice
MaterialHematite
SizeHeight: 4.5 cm
Created25,000 years
Discovered14 July 1953
Ostrava, Czechoslovakia
Discovered byBohuslav Klíma
Present locationBrno, Czech Republic
Copy of Venus of Petřkovice beside that of Venus of Dolní Věstonice at an exhibition in the National Museum, Prague

The Venus of Petřkovice (Czech: Petřkovická venuše or Landecká venuše) is a pre-historic Venus figurine, a mineral statuette of a nude female figure, dated to about 23,000 BCE (Gravettian industry) in what is today the Czech Republic.

Discovery

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It was found within the current city limits of Ostrava (Ostrava-Petřkovice) in the Czech Republic, by archaeologist Bohuslav Klíma on 14 July 1953. It was beneath a mammoth molar at an ancient settlement of mammoth hunters. Many stone artifacts and skeletal fragments were also found nearby.

Features

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The statue measures 4.5 x 1.5 x 1.4 cm and is a headless torso of a woman carved from iron ore (hematite). Uniquely, the absence of the head appears to be the author's intention. Also, unlike other prehistoric Venus figurines, it shows a slender young woman or girl with small breasts.[1]

Location

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It is now in the Archeological Institute, Brno, but between 7 February - 26 May 2013 it was displayed in the exhibition Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind,[2] at the British Museum in London.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Leslie G. Freeman (ed.), Views of the Past: Essays in Old World Prehistory and Paleanthropology, Mounton Publishers, 1978, ISBN 90-279-7670-8.
  2. ^ "Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind". Archived from the original on 2019-04-10. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
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