The statuettes of “Venus Figurines” personify the ideas of ancient people about the ideal female figure.
Scientists from the United States and the United Arab Emirates stated that the famous “Venus of the Paleolithic” or Stone Age ‘Venus Figurines’ are not just symbols of fertility and procreation, but reflect the ideas of ancient people about the ideal female figure.
The research results were published in the journal Obesity.
It is noted that many figurines depicting full women are found all over Eurasia. The so-called “Venus Figurines” are ancient sculptures made by human hands. Some of them are 38,000 years old.
Experts noted that the “Venus Figurines” depict women too realistically to be just symbols.
“Some of the earliest art in the world are these mysterious figurines of overweight women from the time of hunter gatherers in Ice Age Europe, where you would not expect to see obesity at all”
explains the study leader Professor Richard Johnson.
By comparing the anthropometric data of the figurines – the ratio of the waist to the hips and shoulders – scientists found that those found closest to the glaciers were the most obese compared to those found to the south.
According to the researchers, obesity in the nordic peoples became a desirable condition, as obese women during a period of food shortage better bear a child during pregnancy.
Thus, the figures could have a spiritual meaning, be a kind of fetish or talisman that protected a woman during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.
