The Venus of Laussel is an Upper Paleolithic venus figurine holding a bison horn. Or maybe a crescent moon. Scholars think she might be drinking some potion from it, she might have just finished playing on it, or she might have been keeping track of the moon. Or her menstrual cycles. Or the numbers of bison killed recently.
Whatever she was doing, between 22,000 and 29,000 years ago when she was carved on the walls of the Laussel Cave in the Dordogne valley of France, the Laussel Venus was associated with sex and shamanism and if that isn't an unbeatable connection for a fascinating art object, I don't know what is.
- Venus of Laussel, in which I detail the various scholarly interpretations
- Venus Figurines, describing the variety of such objects and where and when else they've been found
- Shamanism, an introduction to the concept
Comments
That is not a bison horn which would be smooth like a cow’s horn. It is a horn from a ram which would be ridged. (It’s not a crescent moon, unless the moon is broken.)
PERHAPS IT’S A CORNUCOPIA
I’m going w the ram horn.