in 2021 a publication in a scientific journal claims that “obesity in [prehistoric] female figurines correlates with climate change” (see references).
time to present a photographic-prehistoric find from a flea market*.
whether there might be some plausibility to the hypothesis above? as concerns prehistorc climate there is some consensus: glacials, interglacials, glacials; sea levels rise and fall; forests grow and disappear; wolly giants follow the cold … until things and humans settle down: grain, beer, bread. standing stones and cities, strife and scrolls.
.
selected items from the treasure trove bought on a flea market: rolls of film, glass plates, female figurines, archeologists’ tools, a photo album (see below) and further paraphernalia.
.
.
multiple exposures of female figurines (resembling moving shadows or overlapping cave paintings or petroglyphs?). recent prints (2022) from medium format negatives (around 6×9 cm).
.
but already from nomadic times there remain abundant traces of inventions (sewing needle, spear-thrower, rope …) and collections of works of art: cave paintings, jewelry, and those female figurines (animals as well, but almost no-one seems to have wanted to make men).
and what about the «venus» figurines? among the interpretations proposed with some resolve: mother goddesses, amulets, modern art before its time (louise bourgeois, niki de saint phalle), self-portraits, anamorphoses, matriarch icons, teaching aids for midwifery, dames de voyage, early objectifications, synecdoches, actresses for shadow plays … or rather «not the goddess but the prayer» (chris marker)?
in contrast, that the times of comfortable climate might soon be over, is again an area of consensus. whether homo sapiens will disappear shortly after the declamation of the anthropocene (jonas lüscher)? whether humans learned a few things since lascaux (picasso)?
.
photographs and postcards from the album: menhirs, caves, seashell necklace (?), figurines, an archeological excavation (?), and sculptures.
.
.
photographs and illustration (clipped from a book?) in the album: menhirs and dolmen.
.
* now i regret not having bought all of it. was it in yverdon, lyon or further south? french was spoken and as far as i remember, the two women on the flea market told me, the items had belonged to their grandmother and a friend of hers, both amateur archeologists. it was mainly the photographs that made me curious (prints, negatives, postcards) – and the figurines, carefully bedded on straw and sand in tin boxes. but i only half-believed the stories the two sellers were relating.
.
films and podcasts
the female gaze in ice age art (film)
a guided tour through the exhibition ice age art: arrival of the modern mind (british museum, 2013). and here another one.
la dame à la capuche / die frau mit der kapuze (film)
arte series faire l’histoire (with patrick boucheron, 2022).
available in german and French.
10 histoires de vénus paléolithiques (film)
by jennifer kerner.
humans were not centre stage: how ancient cave art puts us in our place
a long read podcast from the guardian (2019, text version here).
die venus von hohle fels wird vorgestellt
postcast zeitzeichen (wdr, 2009).
ötzi: der mann aus dem eis als weckruf
a podcast by srf (2022).
que savons-nous des femmes de la préhistoire?
podcast with claudine cohen (france culture, 2017).
.
suggested soundtrack
cromagnon. 1969. cave rock.
walter maioli, patricia meyer, luce maioli. 1987. art of primitive sound – musical instruments from prehistory.
frank zappa and the mothers of invention. 1973. camarillo brillo.
björk. 1993. venus as a boy.
heilung. 2017. lifa.
queens of the stone age. 2003. no one knows.
igor stravinsky. 1913. le sacre du printemps.
alain bashung. 2008. venus.
.
sister projects: veneralia / chaleur obscure and 8 minutes 19 seconds / ces nouveaux adorateurs du soleil.
.
some references
james m. adovasio, olga soffer, jake page. 2007. the invisible sex.
jean auel. 1980-2011. earth’s children.
paul bahn. 2005. a lot of bull? pablo picasso and ice age cave art.
michael balter. 2013. seeking meaning in the earliest female nudes.
louise bourgeois. 1969. harmless woman. sculpture.
raphaëlle bourrillon, carole fritz, georges sauvet. 2012. la thématique féminine au cours du paléolithique supérieur européen: permanences et variations formelles
mirjam brusius. 2015. fotografie und museales wissen.
centre d’art pasquart. 2011. arkhaiologia. exhibition catalogue.
centre pompidou. 2019. préhistoire, une énigme moderne.
claudine cohen. 2019. femmes de la préhistoire.
nicholas j. conard. 2009. a female figurine from the basal aurignacian of hohle fels cave in southwestern germany.
robert crumb. 1988. cave wimp. comic.
paul j. crutzen. 2002. geology of mankind.
étienne davodeau, david prudhomme, marc-antoine mathieu, troub’s, emmanuel Guibert, pascal rabaté. 2011. rupestres! comic.
étienne davodeau. 2021. le droit du sol – journal d’un vertige. comic.
werner herzog. 2010. la grotte des rêves perdus. film.
don hitchcock. 2022. venus figures from the stone age. website.
ipcc (intergovernmental panel on climate change). various years. various reports.
richard j. johnson, miguel a. lanaspa, john w. fox. 2021. upper paleolithic figurines showing women with obesity may represent survival symbols of climatic change.
laurent klaric. 2021. female figurines, climate sensationalism, and archaeological shortcomings.
laténium. 2002. objectif passé – archéologie et photographie.
laténium. 2013. femmes déesses.
éric le brun. 2012-2018. l’art préhistorique en bande dessinée.
jonas lüscher. 2022. dankesrede für den max-frisch-preis. republik
maylis de kerangal. 2018. un monde à portée de main.
harald meller, kai michel. 2022. das rätsel der schamanin – eine archäologische reise zu unseren anfängen.
leroy mcdermott. 1996. self-representation in upper paleolithic female figurines.
gillian morriss-kay. 2012. a new hypothesis on the creation of the hohle fels ‘venus’ figurine.
john oliver. 2014. a statistically representative climate change debate. satire.
ceylan öztrük. 2016. call me venus. sculpture.
alain resnais, chris marker, ghislain cloquet. 1953. les statues meurent aussi. film.
nathalie rouquerol, fañch moal. 2018. la vénus de lespugue révélée.
science. 2009. the earliest pornography?
strauhof. 2022-2023. climate fiction. exhibition.