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| Submitted by | Thorgrim |
| Added | May 28 2005 |
| Hits | 4786 |
| Votes | 1 |
Description
Highly stylised female figure engraved on a mammoth tusk. Predmosti is an open-air Palaeolithic site on the Becva river in Moravia, Czech Republic. The site includes the remains of 1,000 individual mammoths dated by radio-carbon to 26,870 bp. There is a mass grave of 20 people and a number of female figurines. The most remarkable is this engraving on mammoth ivory. Highly stylised - it clearly shows an understanding of abstract art and throws all of the cosy theories about "primitive art" out of the window. We cannot begin to understand the meaning of this figure to the people that made it. Any ideas?
Engraved on wood by Peter Herring. One of an ongoing series of copies of ancient art.
Engraved on wood by Peter Herring. One of an ongoing series of copies of ancient art.
Posted Comments:
nicoladidsbury (2005-05-28)
This is probably a bit of a radical idea, but the different zones make me think of the chakras, or energy lines running through the body.
Thorgrim (2005-05-28)
Maybe the chakras are just later names for something that people knew about long ago. Seems to me that the lines are pointing to the navel (umbilical cord?) and emphasising the breasts and particularly the womb.
Hana (2005-07-08)
Why are there so many femal (and not male) figurins found in paleolithic sites? I don't want to think it's just another goddes. Indeed, it's beautifully made, yet I believe it's simply a femal figurine made by a man that loves women. Maybe the best answer would give us somebody that doesn't know what internet is, like a member of a tribe deep in the rainforest...
spindrift (2005-09-11)
I agree Peter. Art, is to me, the true measure of the sophistication of any society. It is clear that most "primitive art" is indeed highly sophisticated as well as simply beautiful to behold. It could be argued that the creative bankruptcy we often see in contempory art is due to the dumbing down of our own society.
Marta (CZ) (2005-09-13)
it's a body, but a women? Arms are correctly located "growing" from the shoulders, but no ones breast starts above shoulders. But ok. And how about the head/mask? Who was the model? A human beeing? Maybe.
nicoladidsbury (2005-09-16)
It still says energy lines to me........
marta (2005-09-20)
could be:-)
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