Page 78 and part of 79 from the delightful book 'The Cartoon History of the Universe Volumes 1-7' by Larry Gonick 1990.
Highly recommended for all bookshelves.
Dolni Vestonice artist's impression. This Paleolithic site was inhabited from ca. 27 000 to 23 000 B.C. To give some sense of scale, the rounded structure in the lower center, which perhaps was a wind screen, measured 27 by 45 feet. The settlement had perhaps 100 people who inhabited the site the year round. In this period, Europe was in the midst of the Ice Age so the average daily temperature was probably around freezing. The site was on the edge of a swamp, and was at a point where mammoths and other herd animals would be funnelled in to make hunting them more easy.
Photo: http://campus.northpark.edu/history/Classes/Sources/DolniVestonice.html
Dolni Vestonice artist's impression, obviously from the same primary source, which is Klima, B. 1963. Dolni Vestonice. Erforschung eine Lagenplatzes der Mammutjager an der Jahren 1947-52 (Monum. Archaeol., XI.)
Photo: K. Sklenar, 'Hunters of the Stone Age'
Dolni Vestonice artist's impression, again obviously from the same primary source.
Photo: V. Megaw and R. Jones 'The Dawn of Man'
From the excellent book 'Cro-Magnon Man' by T. Prideaux:
One of the best-known sites is Dolni Vestonice, in south central Czechoslovakia, and from the buried remains of this ancient community an intriguing picture of man's domestic life in Europe 27,000 years ago can be reconstructed:
On a grass-covered slope dotted with a few isolated trees, a settlement of five huts was partially surrounded by a simple wall of mammoth tusks and bones stuck into the ground and piled about with brush and turf. One hut was set 90 yards apart from the others. The four close together were supported by wooden posts leaning slightly towards the middle, like tent poles, and planted in the earth with rocks piled around their bases for support. The walls were animal skins, presumably dressed and sewn together, then drawn over the posts and anchored to the ground with stones and heavy bones.
A small stream meandered down the slope close by the houses, and the ground all around had been hard-packed by the feet of the generations of people who lived here. In an open place among the huts there was a large fire; very likely a fire-tender kept it going by throwing on chunks of bone. Apparently it burned all the time to keep prowling animals away.
Inside the largest hut, about 50 feet long by 20 feet wide, were five shallow hearths dug in the floor. One was equipped with two long mammoth bones stuck in the ground to support a roasting spit. In these relatively comfortable surroundings it is easy to imagine a man sitting on a boulder making tools-working with the purposeful, deceptively slow movements -of a master craftsman, using a bone hammer to strike delicate blades from a cylindrical chunk of flint, the core. Meanwhile, from a far end of the hut might have come a clear, high-pitched sound like a bird's call. Its source would have been a woman blowing into the end of a piece of hollow bone that had two or three holes pierced in its length-what humans some 25,000 years later would call a penny whistle has been found at Dolni Vestonice.
But the most startling discovery at this Czech site is the remains of the small hut up the slope that was set apart from the others. The hut had been cut into the hill, which formed its back wall; its sides consisted partly of a low wall of stones and clay, and the entrance faced downhill.
Inside a visitor would have seen a hearth quite different from those apparent in the other huts; this one had an earthen dome on top of fiercely glowing coals. It was an oven for baking clay, a kiln-one of the very first ever built. Even at this early date the raw material that was baked in the kiln was a specially prepared substance. No simple mud from a stream bank, it was earth mixed with powdered bone to make the heat spread evenly as the oven baked, or fired, the clay into a new, rock-hard material. This is the first example in technological history of what was to become a ubiquitous process-the combination and treatment of two or more dissimilar substances to make a useful product unlike either starting substance-eventually leading to glass, bronze, steel, nylon and most of the other materials of everyday life. It would be another 15,000 years or so before other men, living in what is now Japan, learned to turn clay into pots; yet, as the evidence from Dolni Vestonice attests, ceramics had already been invented.
When the kiln hut was first investigated in 1951, its sooty floor was littered with fragments of ceramic figurines. There were animal heads-bears, foxes, lions. In one particularly beautiful lion head there is a hole simulating a wound, perhaps intended to help some hunter inflict a similar wound on a real lion. The floor was also cluttered with hundreds of clay pellets bearing the fingerprints of the prehistoric artisan; he probably pinched them off his lump of unbaked clay when he first began to knead and shape it to his desire. And there were limbs broken from little animal and human figures. They may have cracked off in the baking, or when the ancient ceramist tossed aside a work that failed to please him.
But more intriguing than any waste fragments or even clay animal figures on the hut floor are the human statuettes found there-particularly the female figures. Unlike the animals, they are not naturalistic but almost surreal. They have bulging breasts and buttocks, ~distorted arms and legs that taper to points. Experts today still wonder about these so-called Venuses (pages 92, 98-100). Were they household goddesses whose pointed legs were stuck in the ground to hold them upright as they watched over hearth and home? Were they fertility symbols whose ample figures were supposed to enhance fecundity? Certainly they are beautiful objects in spite of their grotesque proportions. They have a grace and dignity, a stylized plasticity, that make them comparable to some modern sculpture.
Text below from:
The Prehistory of Europe by Patricia Phillips 1980
One of the most famous Moravian sites is Dolni Vestonice, situated on the hill of Pollau, commanding good views, and with nearby springs. It was excavated in the 1920s, when the famous 'Venus' figurine was found, and again in 1947-52 (Klima, B. 1963. Dolni Vestonice. Erforschung eine Lagenplatzes der Mammutjager an der Jahren 1947-52 (Monum. Archaeol., XI.)) There was a total of six levels of occupation.
A fairly cold climate is suggested by the molluscs, the charcoal and the pollen from the site. Spruce and pine were used to make fires, suggesting a forest tundra environment. Two possible structures (see Fig. 22) are described by Klima, the first roughly oval in shape, 15 m long x 9 m wide. This very large structure contained five hearths, most of them with large blocks of limestone nearby.
The hearths seemed to have been the focus for most activity, judging by the number of finds made near them. The excavators wonder if small ash-filled pits near the hearths represent storage places. More than 35 000 pieces of flint were found in the habitation area, and it appeared that flint working was carried out in the centre and north of the structure.
Chipped-stone tools were made on local chalk flint and hornstone and on Carpathian radiolarite. Mammothbone artifacts, shells and ochre were also found in the structure, particularly near the southern two hearths. The walls of the structure are presumed to have been of limestone blocks, perhaps surmounted in some way by shoulder-blades and pelves of mammoths; the excavators feel this may have been a summer structure, open to the sky.
Klima's plan of the hut excavation and surrounding trenches reveals that a relatively clear space existed to the south-east of the hut, followed by enormous piles of mammoth bones. These were excavated in 1952 and revealed the remains of approximately one hundred, mostly young, individuals, with rarer bones of horse, reindeer, hare, wolf and fox. A series of hearths lay below the bone accumulations. No projectile points were found, and the excavators suggest that the mammoths could have been hunted by using ivory projectile points or wooden lances (Klima, B. 1963. Dolni Vestonice. Erforschung eine Lagenplatzes der Mammutjager an der Jahren 1947-52 (Monum. Archaeol., XI.)).
The second hut was about 6 m in diameter, with a central hearth and five of the original post-holes remaining. The most important artifacts were some 2000 lumps of burnt clay found near the central hearth, some of them bearing fingerprints, others modelled in the shape of animal heads (bear, wolf and fox). The excavators wondered if this 'special activity' hut belonged to a shaman. A child buried at Dolni Vestonice III had a necklace of twenty-seven pierced fox teeth; the skull area was covered with red ochre, and the whole burial lay beneath mammoth shoulder blades. The elaborate treatment suggests that the child had some importance in the community.
Klima believes that Dolni Vestonice was occupied specifically for mammoth hunting, and that with as many as twenty to twenty-five people per hut, and a postulated five or six huts being occupied at a time on the site, the occupants may have been 100-120 strong. The length of stay each season, and the possible length of use of the site, have not been estimated.
Banesz has recently reviewed the evidence for habitation structures in central Europe, and remarked on the fact that one third of those known lie in Czechoslovakia. Extensive sites are known from Pavlov. Here eleven 'habitation units' are known, and the site is still being excavated. The structures are circular, oval and 'pinched in at the centre', all contain hearths, and there is evidence for the re-use of post-holes. This led the excavators to suggest long occupation at the site (Klima B. 1976. Le Pavlovien IXe Congr. UISPP, Nice, Coll. XV, pp. 128-41. Paris CNRS.).
Klima regards the Pavlovian as a specialized mammothhunting industrial complex, on the cold loess country of central and eastern Europe. Other authors have suggested that the mammoth bones could have been scavenged rather than hunted. The more remarkable aspects of the assemblage at Pavlovian sites are the mammoth-bone and ivory industries which include possible earth-working tools - shovels, hoes, pickaxes and spearpoints.
Klima has suggested that the mammothhunters of Pavlov had complex and specialized hunting methods, including verbal signalling on bone pipes (found in the assemblage), and collective large-group organization. Emphasis on mammoth is overwhelming, but other animal remains are found on the sites. For instance, at Predmost, apart from a large quantity of mammoth, remains of reindeer, horse, wolf, fox, glutton and hare were identified.
Dolni Vestonice - round hut floor with mammoth tusks under a thick deposit of loess.
This is S'Armuna's hut. Note the curved retaining wall of limestone blocks. There were a number of post holes suggesting a sloping roof. In the centre there was a well constructed hearth which was flanked by mammoth tusks. In and around the hearth were more than 2300 fragments of fired clay, the earliest 'pottery' in the world.
Photo: G. Clark, 'The Stone Age Hunters'
S'Armuna's hut
Plan of round hut number II discovered by B. Klima in 1951 at Dolni Vestonice. 1 Depression in the ground: 2 Post holes; 3 Remains of the circular wall around the dwelling and the fireplace; 4 fireplace; 5 spring
This is the plan of S'Armuna's hut which stood at Dolni Vestonice 25 000 years ago. Its edge was strengthened with a wall of earth and stones, in which the posts supporting the roof were placed. The pole holes are marked on the plan by black holes. In the centre of the floor was found the remains of a kiln. Scattered around the kiln and the hut were fired lumps of clay, some in the shape of animals.
The hut was on slightly sloping ground and also near a spring, now underground at the time of discovery. A single, oval-shaped fireplace was found in the middle of the almost circular dwelling which was 6 metres in diameter. The fireplace had a blackened clay step around two thirds of it. Several rough pieces of clay were found in the ashes, and also parts of clay animals and human figurines. The living room and fireplace had been levelled by extending one side into the slope for about 0.8 metres, and building up the other with stones.
At the edge and within the surface area two types of post holes have been discovered. Four larger holes were vertical, lined with stones and placed in the remains of the stone wall. They were 200 mm deep, 100 to 150 mm wide, and carried the main posts of construction. (8 inches deep by 4 to 6 inches wide). No holes were found on the other side. The roof of the dwelling must have had a distinct slope. One side of the roof rested on the poles, the other on the ground. The post holes of the second type were at an angle, about 100 mm deep and 50 to 70 mm wide. These three holes were located in the inner part of the dwelling and obviously supported extra props for the roof.
It was not only a living room but also a work room. The hut stood apart from the others and could have housed a high ranking person such as a shaman or medicine man.
-J Jelinek, 'The Evolution of Man'
Photo: J Jelinek, 'The Evolution of Man'
S'Armuna's hut
1 occupation level 2 wall around the hut and fireplace; 3 fireplace; 4 limestone; 5 bones; 6 water
Cross section of the hut above showing the sloping roof. I had always thought that there was the outline of a skeleton lying on its back with legs up on the slope and head in the fireplace, but this is an illusion. There are mammoth bones at the back of the hut, and a stone in the fireplace where the head would be. Note also that the plan of the hut is round, although in this cross section it might appear to be a long narrow structure.
S. Mason has also found tap root material from the compositae family, which includes daisies and dandelions, at Dolni Vestonice. These roots are often quite edible. See
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/research/profiles/smason/smdolnv.htm
Photo: J Jelinek, 'The Evolution of Man'
An oven with high clay walls found at Dolni Vestonice.
Photo: K. Sklenar, 'Hunters of the Stone Age'
A reconstruction of S'Armuna's pottery oven at Dolni Vestonice.
The fire burnt in the 40 cm (15 inch) high space and would have reached very high temperatures. Scattered around the oven and the hut were fired lumps of clay, some in the shape of animals.
Photo: K. Sklenar, 'Hunters of the Stone Age'
Dolni Vestonice - deposit of discarded bones of reindeer, horse and mammoth under a thick deposit of loess.
These were found on the far side of the marsh.
Photo: G. Clark, 'The Stone Age Hunters'
Washington University in St Louis
Protective footwear started nearly 30,000 years ago, research finds
By Neil Schoenherr
Text and images below from:
http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/5584.html
Image by Erik Trinkaus / Czech Academy of Sciences
A 26,000 year-old early modern human, DolniVestonice 16 from the Czech Republic, showing the reduced strength of the bones of the lesser toes. It is one of three partial foot skeletons from Dolni Vestonice that shows the reduced lesser toe strength, all dating to about 26,000 years ago.
Aug. 17, 2005 - Those high-tech, air-filled, light-as-a-feather sneakers on your feet are a far cry from the leather slabs our ancestors wore for protection and support.
Those high-tech, air-filled, light-as-a-feather sneakers on your feet are a far cry from the leather slabs our ancestors wore for protection and support.
But believe it or not, our modern day Nikes and Reeboks are direct descendents of the first supportive footwear that new research suggests came into use in western Eurasia between 26,000 and 30,000 years ago.
Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Physical Anthropology, derived those dates by analyzing anatomical evidence of early modern humans, which suggests a reduction in the strength of the smaller toes in Upper Paleolithic humans while there was little change in leg strength.
His research was published in the July issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science .
Trinkaus argues that early humans living in far northern climates began to put insulation on their feet around 500,000 years ago. While archaeological evidence suggests that protective footwear was in use by at least the middle Upper Paleolithic in portions of Europe, the frequency of use and the actual mechanical protection provided by that footwear was unclear.
Use of protective footwear has been difficult to document because in most cases the footwear does not survive the test of time.
Lacking such physical evidence, Trinkaus analyzed the foot bones of western Eurasian Middle Paleolithic and middle Upper Paleolithic humans. In doing so, he found the anatomy of their feet began to change starting around 26,000 years ago.
"I discovered that the bones of the little toes of humans from that time frame were much less strongly built than those of their ancestors while their leg bones remained large and strong," Trinkaus said. "The most logical cause would be the introduction of supportive footwear."
During barefoot walking, the smaller toes flex for traction, keeping the toe bones strong. Supportive footwear lessens the roll of the little toes, thus weakening them.
Trinkaus' research paper is available from:
Journal of Archaeological Science
Volume 32, Issue 10, October 2005, Pages 1515-15
This wolf skull was lying among many other animal bones, obviously the remains of some of the food of the Paleolithic hunters. A flint flake was stuck in the nose of the animal. The wound did not seem to have healed, and the X-ray showed that the flake used was broad, flat and atypically shaped. Tools could sometimes be used for purposes for which they are not obviously suitable.
Photo: J Jelinek, 'The Evolution of Man'
Excavation of the woman buried beneath a mammoth shoulder blade, above which there was part of a mammoth pelvic bone. The skull is visible on the side below the shoulder blade, near the numbered disk '11'.
Photo: J Jelinek, 'The Evolution of Man'
Left: Woman's skull stained with red ochre from a Pavlovian burial at Dolni Vestonice.
Right: Lower jaw from a Pavlovian burial at Dolni Vestonice. The bone on the left has been deformed due to arthritis.
Photo: J Jelinek, 'The Evolution of Man'
This is a delightful first person account of someone who went to Dolni Vestonice.
From:
http://www.spiritproject.com/oracle/magic/travel/dolni.htm
It is not easy to find - too small for most maps, and only the larger neighbor village Horni Vestonice has a sign from the main road. There are no signs for tourists, no fast-foods offering "Venus burgers" - and this makes it so very special. In Dolni Vestonice, the traveler interested in archeomythology does not get it all ready to eat, you have to find it yourself and talk with the people who live there today. Dolni Vestonice is situated in the South of the Czech Republic close to the city of Mikulov. Dolni is a small village with approximately 500 inhabitants - the most important thing seems to be the main road with some restaurants and little stores and shops. It is Indian Summer, fishers are on their way to the near artificial lake and colorfully clothed bikers relax in the shade in front of a road inn. There are no signs that say "museum" or "archeological exhibition".
After driving through the village from all sides some time I finally found the museum of Dolni Vestonice, plain gray with a simple sign saying "Archeologicke Exposize". The cashier lady only speaks Czech, but she does not only offer entrance tickets, but also information leaflets in German and English and rough-made plastic casts of the Venus of Vestonice. I get myself a leaflet and enter the exhibition. There are lots of text in and around the showcases, but all in Czech language, and although some words look familiar, I soon give up. The leaflet explains that I find only remakes of the originals from Dolni Vestonice and the neighboring village Pavlov. The archeologist Karel Absolon made excavations from 1924 to 1938 and found, among many other interesting tools and items, the statuette of a woman made from burnt clay (today plastic...) - she became famous as the "Venus of Vestonice". Like her "sisters" from other archeological excavations worldwide, the "Willendorf Venus" from Austria, the "Venus of Laussel" and the "Venus of Lespugue" in France she is depicted as a voluptuous woman with heavy breasts and broad hips standing in an upright position. But unlike all the others who don't have face features, she has eyes - slit carvings that make her look like squinting in the sun.
They are all very old, those ladies - the village Pavlov gave its name to a complete time period, the Pavlovien as the older phase of the Gravettien, 30.000 - 25.000 years before our time. Along with the venus, zoomorphic statuettes have been found, made of clay, stone and bone, carved or modelled. And there is another Venus figurine who did not become as famous as her darker colored sister - she is very special, because her face is carved very carefully, and her body is nearly complete. Both Venuses are shown in the same showcase next to each other. The museum offers a lot of interesting and very special details of our ancestors - hints on how colors were made and used and the reconstruction of a burial site of three young people, a woman and two men - the woman was found with shamanic headbands made from teeth, claws and shells. Strange and rare circumstances gave us even the fingerprints of one of our forebears on a lump of clay.
So much for the historical details of the museum. I was interested to find out more about the experiences which the famous archeologist Marija Gimbutas called "archeomythology".I leave the exhibition, and in the souvenir shop on the other roadside I find a book in English on the archeological findings in the area, and I also get a plastic pendant of the black Venus. Then I take off to Pavlov. Nobody can tell me where the excavation site really was. After asking several people in the village I give up and go on according to one of the black-and-white photos I had seen in the exhibition - showing the successful professors on the excavation site of Pavlov right under the ruins of Pavlov castle.
The ruins still look the same today. I park my car and climb uphill past grapevine fields and orchards. Below I see the green shimmer of the large artificial lake, and I keep asking myself how many wonderful treasures it may hide from us forever. Rotting trees reach like hands out of the lake, on their silvery gray branches cormorants dry their feathers in the sunshine. I keep on climbing, still watching the angle from which the castle looks down on me. Now this looks like the right place. A farmer comes my way, pulling a little cart loaded with grapes. I smile at her, pointing at my Venus pendant. "Archeologicke Exposize?" I ask. She nods and smiles at me, pointing downhill towards the village behind us - Dolni Vestonice. "Yes, Dolni Vestonice, Muzeum!" I make the signs of digging in the ground. She laughs, shakes her head and offers me some grapes. I have to laugh, too, thank her and walk on.
Now here must be the place. In front of me a vast empty potato field stretches all the way downhill. Next to it is a little place with hard grass and some small bushes. I walk towards the bushes and sink in to my knees - Bingo! This is historical ground, here they have been digging, the professors. Mammoth bones lay around here, as big as my collie, wolf skulls have been found with the spear heads still sticking in their jaw bones. Here our ancestors fought against their enemies. And the venus and other goddess figurines, here they have been waiting in the lap of mother Earth. I sit down on the dry earth and try to imagine what this area looked like before the artificial lake covered the lower parts.
I compare the picture of the venus in the archeology book with the pendant I'm wearing. Thinking about what I learned from Dr. Felicitas Goodman about shamanic body postures and trance (she tried the postures of the old statues with her students and found out stunning experiences in and about trance), I get up and stand like the Venus of Vestonice. I take a deep breath, roots grow from my feet.
A deep calmness, security, trust spreads within me. Time is not important, 25.000 years more or less... time does not have to be cut and measured anymore. I feel the wind on my skin, the warm sun on my face, the stability of the earth who carries me, yesterday, today, tomorrow. Peace and harmony well up within me and a trust that has not been there before. Yes, I can imagine it - the maker of the figurine who wanted to give this feeling to others - the image of an earth mother spreading the feeling by touching her: I am here, I have always been with you, and I give you the power, calmness and stability you need in this very moment.
Walking back down to Pavlov I find the hidden hints to Venus still being here - as a pictograph she is looking at me from the windshield of a city bus, and the small inn next to my parking place is named "U Venuse", the Venus. Maybe people held these small, voluptuous goddesses in their hands when they faced critical situations - women giving birth, men hunting mammoth and aurochs, or simply when they wanted some calm moments after a hard day. I am here, I have always been here, and here shall I ever be - that's what they say to me and others, the Venus of Vestonice and her colleagues, yesterday and tomorrow, for all of us to feel and see.
A reconstruction of the Barca I building in Czechoslovakia. Investigations have shown that different activities were carried out in different parts of this structure.
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A reconstruction of the Barca I building in Czechoslovakia. Investigations have shown that different activities were carried out in different parts of this structure.