28 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022died in the first year of life. In addition to high
infant mortality, the fatalities of women who
died in childbirth or shortly after—also diffi-
cult to calculate exactly—are equally estimated
to have been quite high. Maintaining popula-
tions, given these demographic trends, would
be difficult.
Scholars studying the Venus figurines look to
these harsh realities when forming their hypoth-
eses about the motivations behind creating the
figures. They see the robust, rounded figures as a
representation of healthy mothers whose physi-
cal abundance provided the greatest possibilities
for perpetuation of the group. Stone Age peoples
may have believed that a well-nourished woman
was more likely to produce a well-nourished
newborn and to survive the rigors of pregnancy
and childbirth.
Some figures, however, do not fit neatly into
these assumptions. Figures found in Russia and
Siberia are markedly different. They were more
recently produced, dating to approximately
17,000 years ago. Although the figures are nude
and lack defined facial features like specimens
found in western Europe, the bodies of these
eastern works are slim with less prominent sex-
ual characteristics. Some scholars believe the
groups living in these regions might have been
more stable with fewer anxieties surrounding
maintaining the population.
The large number of female figurines and the
predominance of female representations over
male ones during the Paleolithic highlights the
social importance of women in the hunter-
gatherer societies of that time. It is remarkable
to consider that these female figures, sharing
many stylistic traits, were being carved across
a broad geographic range of Paleolithic com-
munities—from southern France all the way to
Siberia—for at least 20,000 years. The sym-
bolism transcended a particular time and place
and was kept alive across all kinds of natural
terrain and environments. The archaeologi-
cal evidence suggests a deep-rooted common
ideology in the Paleolithic period about the
value of women.Practical Considerations
The figures’ abundant curves, large breasts,
and swollen bellies have led many research-
ers analyzing this prehistoric art to link it to
reproduction. Studies into the birth rate and
demographics of today’s hunter-gatherer
societies suggest that a woman who reaches
40 years of age in optimal health is likely to
have had an average of six to seven children.
In the Paleolithic, however, infant and child
mortality rates were much higher. Exact fig-
ures are difficult to calculate, but some studies
estimate that roughly 28 percent of childrenWomen’s Hands
REACHING OUT
Stencils of human
hands were found
in a cave at Pech-
Merle in southern
France (above). New
research indicates
that women made
these by using a
blowpipe to spray
pigment around a
person’s hand to
create an outline.O
UTLINES OF HUMAN HANDS are one kind of Paleolithic
cave art that strongly connects modern viewers to
their Stone Age ancestors. Until very recently, many
scholars believed that men created these works, but
a recent study has determined that many were made by women.
Archaeologist Dean Snow of Pennsylvania State University
analyzed handprint art from eight caves in southern France and
northern Spain, compared the results to a reference population of
people with similar ancestry to the Stone Age artists, and found
that many of these ancient artists were female.Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind
Jill Cook, British Museum Press, 2013.
Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind
Randall White, Harry N. Abrams. 2003.Learn more
THESE FIGURES WERE BEING CARVED ACROSS
PALEOLITHIC COMMUNITIES—FROM SOUTHERN
FR ANCE TO SIBERIA—FOR AT LEA ST 20,000 YEARS.AKG/ALBUM