Identify the 'Venus of Willendorf'. What does it suggest that the beginnings of art and the domestication of animals happen during the same period in human history?
The Venus of Willendorf is a small statue of a woman. This statue was made somewhere around the time of 21,000 b.c.e. It was found in 1908 in Austria where it was carved out of a kind of limestone which is not local to this area. The statue has been interpreted as a fertility symbol, or for good luck to be fertile.
This statue suggests that back in the time this was made that there was sculpting for art and not just tools and such. It also suggests that they made objects like these for good luck or prayer. I believe that the people of this community had at one time or another made this piece and pray to it during a time of infertility. The infertility could range from not having children to field crops not producing.
During the time when the creating of this statue early man was also starting to domesticate animals such as the dog. Dogs originally came to early man’s settlements because dogs and wolves are pack animals, and humans make sufficient pack substitutes. Also lone wolves likely followed their noses into human settlements for food; some waited along the outskirts of the town and feasted on the human’s scraps. This was noticed by the humans and they wanted to use the dogs, or wolves to their advantage on hunts and such.
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