A sculpture carved 30,000 years ago is proof that our ancestors were restless and traveled far and wide.
Scientists peered closely at the famous Venus of Willendorf and determined that the stone from which it is carved probably came from Northern Italy, hundreds of kilometers away from where it was discovered in Austria in 1908.
The Venus of Willendorf is instantly recognizable. The figurine is just 11 centimeters long. It has no feet or face, but has exaggerated breasts, genitalia, and legs. The figurine has an elaborate headdress.
The artist may have just really liked big butt, but that is not the only mystery.
Similar sculptures of Venus from the Gravettian culture are usually carved from ivory or bone. Oolite is a type of limestone made up of spherical grains. It is also stained red.
This sculpture was only studied from the outside. Scientists from the University of Vienna in Austria used micro-CT scanning to see what was inside the sculpture.
The first thing they found was that the stone has different densities and grain sizes, but its internal structure is not uniform.
There are images from micro-CT scanning. Gerhard Weber is from the University of Vienna.
There are small pieces of shell and larger iron grains called limonites. The researchers could try to match the rock with samples from the surrounding regions to see where it came from.
They were able to rule out younger deposits because of a tiny shell remnant. The next step was to conduct comparisons.
The researchers compared the grain sizes of rock samples from a swath of Europe stretching from France to Ukraine. They found that there was nothing like it within a 200 kilometer area of Willendorf.
The rock is almost indistinguishable from Lake Garda, which is in northern Italy. Venus of Willendorf had to travel from south to north of the Alps in order to get there.
The tool culture of the time looked for and inhabited favorable locations.
The researchers think it's less likely than before that the rock is from Ukraine. It can be completely ruled out.
There are dents in the Venus of Willendorf. A. and W. Venus. There is an article about Editon-Lammerhuber.
Studying the internal structure of the sculpture yielded new information, even though the exact provenance of the oolite cannot be determined.
The researchers found that Venus stone is porous because the ooids have dissolved. They discovered that the limonites are the source of the mysterious, hemispherical cavities found in the sculpture, one of which constitutes the figure's belly button.
Weber says that the hard limonites probably broke out when the creator of the Venus was carving it.
The finding shows how precious the sculpture was to whoever carried it.
The exact time when the Venus was created or its material collected and transported is unknown, according to the researchers.
We can state with certainty that the individual owners kept and protected it.
The research has been published.
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