A very early form of art found worldwide includes explicit representations of male and female forms, including genitalia. The best known of these kinds of artifacts are known as "venus figurines", two or three dimensional representations of women's lush bodies (although venus figurines also include men and animals). Far more common in the archaeological record are images like this one from Abri Castanet: the circle with a hashmark, which most scholars believe is a stylized representation of a vulvae. Phallic images too are present, although not as common: you can see one on the next page. Such images have been known from Aurignacian caves such as La Ferrassie and Abri Cellier for over a century.
These types of art objects and murals have been the center of a fairly wide debate concerning how much significance can be invested in them. They have even been interpreted as evidence of a "goddess" cult, that Upper Paleolithic people took part in a matriarchal-based society that worshiped female fertility. That interpretation is not widely credited today.
One might be tempted to suggest that the artist was female, or that the artist was male, because the images are of female genitalia. Modern ethnographic research indicates that representations of sexual organs (as well as cupules, little indentations, also seen at Abri Castanet) were pecked during puberty initiation rites, fertility rites, and post-childbirth rites, by women, men, girls and boys, and couples and groups. Clearly, it's best, given that these images were pecked deeply into the walls of the rockshelter some 35,000 years ago, that we not attempt to overlay more than a general "ritual significance" label onto such drawings.
- Read more about venus figurines
Soffer O, Adovasio JM, and Hyland DC. 2000. The "Venus" Figurines: Textiles, basketry, gender, and status in the Upper Paleolithic. Current Anthropology 41(4):511-537.
White R, Mensan R, Bourrillon R, Cretin C, Higham TFG, Clark AE, Sisk ML, Tartar E, Gardère P, Goldberg P et al. 2012. Contexts and dating of Aurignacian vulvar representations from Abri Castanet, France. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early edition.
Whitley DS. 2011. Rock art, religion and ritual. In: Insoll T, editor. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p 307-326.
