In 2009 when this little Venus made her debut on the scene, Goddess Scholars were  abuzz with the reporting that ensued from the discovery of the 35,000—40,000 year old goddess figurine dubbed the Venus of Hohle Fels, which had been unearthed in 2008 in Germany.  Many female academics and goddess followers were incensed with reports from male journalists who likened the 6cm ivory carving to prehistoric porn.

The May 2009 issue of the Science Daily reports:

The 2008 excavations at Hohle Fels Cave in the Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany recovered a female figurine carved from mammoth ivory from the basal Aurignacian deposit. This figurine, which is the earliest depiction of a human, and one of the oldest known examples of figurative art worldwide, was made at least 35,000 years ago. This discovery radically changes our views of the context and meaning of the earliest Paleolithic art.

Many of the features, including the emphasis on sexual attributes and lack of emphasis on the head, face and arms and legs, call to mind aspects of the numerous Venus figurines well known from the European Gravettien, which typically date between 22 and 27 ka BP. The careful depiction of the hands is reminiscent of those of Venuses including that of archetypal Venus of Willendorf, which was discovered 100 years earlier in summer of 1908. Despite the far greater age of the Venus of Hohle Fels, many of its attributes occur in various forms throughout the rich tradition of Paleolithic female representations.

The Times of London reporter offered the following:

A piece of Prehistoric pornography carved from mammoth ivory at least 35,000 years ago may be the oldest known example of figurative art. The female figurine, which stands 6cm (2.4in) tall, has outsized breasts, huge buttocks, exaggerated genitals and open legs.

In this article he quotes Paul Mellars from the University of Cambridge, in the May 14 2009 issue of Nature:

“The figure is explicitly — and blatantly — that of a woman, with an exaggeration of sexual characteristics, large, projecting breasts, a greatly enlarged and explicit vulva, and bloated belly and thighs, that by 21st-century standards could be seen as bordering on the pornographic.”

Dale Allen of the Huffington Post (19 May 2009) wades into the fray, offering her comments on the various articles:

Today’s articles fail to mention that Paleolithic cultures, the era from which the Venus of Hohle Fels hails, were Goddess cultures. In Paleolithic and Neolithic cultures, the driving force behind all things was considered female. Dr. Elinor Gadon, Cultural Historian writes about these Goddess cultures: “…Goddess religion was earth-centered, not heaven-centered, of this world not otherworldly, body affirming not body-denying, holistic not dualistic. The Goddess was immanent, within every human being, not transcendent, and humanity was viewed as part of nature, death as part of life. Her worship was sensual, celebrating the erotic, embracing all that was alive.”

It is nearly impossible for us to see the Venus of Hohle Fels as sacred, even as — dare I say it — God the Mother. She is a messenger coming to us from a culture that honored all things female. Goddess cultures are our history, and in fact they persist, with characteristics worthy of our attention.

In a survey of 150 cultures today, anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday compared cultures structured around male dominance with those that embrace female power. She found a clear correlation between female power in society and Goddess veneration. Where the divine has a feminine face, there is a correlation with the society’s honoring of nature, women’s role as officiators sacred sacraments, connection to the land, and female power. In these societies, there is egalitarianism, rather than women holding power over men. These cultures value community, birthing, nurturing, empathy, intuitive intelligence, earth, nature, connection and interdependence. Also, the orientation of time is not linear, but is cyclical and aligned with the eternal cycles of birth, growth, death and renewal. The divine is understood to be embodied in every person and in nature, not somewhere else, abstract and disembodied. Sensuality and sexuality are honored as sacred.

It is certainly out of alignment to describe an artifact from this ancient era as “pornographic.” This is quite at odds with the sacred sexuality of egalitarian Goddess cultures.

Pioneering archaeologist Marija Gimbutas published The Language of the Goddess in 1989. Before she died in 1994, Gimbutas studied thousands of Paleolithic and Neolithic artifacts and uncovered a language of prehistoric peoples — the language of the Goddess. As a scholar, Gimbutas had to rise above the prevailing intellectual perspective that could not get past seeing through the lens of modern culture. Judging by today’s headlines, things haven’t changed much.