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The statuette of Monpazier was collected in 1970 on the surface of a freshly ploughed field. It has a well drawn vulva. The pronounced buttocks and the projecting belly gave it the name Punchinello, but some see in it a woman about to give birth. Punchinello is the short fat buffoon or clown in an Italian puppet show. Carved in green steatite. Steatite, or soapstone, is one of the easiest and most rewarding materials to use for carving. Many people would be familiar with the similar stone used by the Canadian Inuit. It is not only easy to carve, it takes a good polish. Photo from: http://www.ifrance.com/prehisto/polichinelle.jpg
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Monsieur Elisée Cérou, président du Groupe Archéologique de Monpazier
M. Cérou volunteers regularly for supervision in the Museum of Monpazier, and I was privileged to make his acquaintance. He is the discoverer, in 1970, of the Venus of Monpazier in a ploughed field.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
Finding this figurine can not have been easy, to see a tiny sculpture only 55 mm high, a dark object on red soil with clay and limestone. M. Cérou was kind enough to mark the location of the find on my map (as well as some other very important sites), and I was able to locate the site (seen in the photograph on the right), for which I was very grateful.
M. Cérou is a true gentleman, a pleasure to meet and talk to, and has discovered much about the archaeology of the Monpazier area, which he has been doing for most of his life, since he was a young boy.
I was also delighted to find that the field had been freshly ploughed yet again when I found it, but although I looked carefully, I could not find any venuses!
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2008
