Catalhuyuk Women Analysis

Our world has been a male dominated society from the beginning of time. In most cultures, especially in ancient times, women were thought of as secondary to their male counterparts. Women were considered a possession just as a house or piece of property is considered a possession. The role of women in these early societies did not receive an education but was to take care of the household and have children. The women of the Minoan and Mycenaean ancient Greece cultures held much more roles than homemakers and mothers; they were allowed more freedoms and rights also oracles, priestesses, and political advisors yet they are also seen by men as nothing more than a mere possession.

The Venus of Willendorf is a sculpture that was sculpted out of limestone and stands to be 4 ½’’ tall. The figurine was most likely carved out of limestone because early pre-historic artists generally had to create art out of whatever materials they had available. The figurine is only 4 ½” tall is because it was common for pre-historic artists to carve small, hand held, portable figurines. The sculpture was found on the banks of the Danube River, an area where pre-historic hunter-gatherers were thought to have lived and traded goods with other civilians. The use of this piece of artwork is to portray the importance of women and fertility in pre-historic times because these features are ones that ensured the survival and future of mankind.

The statue is a Roman reproduction of a Greek work. It shows Venus, the goddess of love, standing bare-breasted and clutching a piece of cloth draped around her hips. At her feet, there is a dolphin that, practically, adds support to the piece and artistically makes an allusion to Venus's birth from the sea. As the notes from the Getty Museum explain, the statue is derived from a very popular Greek statue created by the sculptor Praxiteles around 350 B.C. The statue was so popular that it was copied by many artists.

It is important to first begin with the basics of each piece of artwork. The graywacke statue of Menkaure and a Queen was made between c. 2490-2472 BCE during the Old Kingdom period in Giza, Egypt. Although the artist is unknown, it is understood that the time during which this artwork was made was during the Old Kingdom period, which lasted from c. 2575-2150 BCE. This statue is smaller in height than the average human being, being 51 ½ inches tall, which is a little over four and a quarter feet tall (Stokstad and Cothren: 60). The stone that it is made from is a rocky, rough stone, that took a considerable amount of sanding to get the statue to look as smooth as it is. The second set of statues I will be comparing and contrasting to the Menkaure and Queen are the limestone statues, Anavysos Kouros and the Peplos Kore. Both were made in c. 530 BCE during the Archaic period in Athens, Greece. Similar to Menkaure and a Queen, the Anavysos Kouros and the Peplos Kore do not have a known artist, however it is known that the time period in which the statues were made was during the Archaic Period, which lasted from c. 600-480 BCE. These statues are more life-like in size. The Kouros statue is around the size of a tall male, six feet four inches tall. On the other hand, the Kore statue is smaller in stature, about four foot tall . Both statues were made from carved marble, although some of the other kouros and kore statues that were made were from terra cotta, wood, or limestone

The Venus of Willendorf was found in 1908 by a workman named “Johann Veran” (Selen). It was found by archeologists at a Paleolithic site. Here at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria, we have the only authentic Venus Figurine (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien). The artifact’s purpose is still being speculated by many. But from what I can infer, the figurine was used a a maternal figure, and it shows the richness of female fertility.

Her face is empty and has no meaning because it is what women was for at that time. The face of women was not important to keep the family line or the clan strong. Men wanted women who had more female features which they think can make their children healthy and strong. So then, the women’s body on the statue shows bigger breast and hips because that

As time progressed, the roles of men and women were more defined by what usefulness they had and what society found appropriate. Women were not allowed to obtain education, travel, or go out in public

Gender roles of diverse cultures have differed immensely throughout history. The evolution of gender roles first began in the Paleolithic Age and then began to transform with the transformation of the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age. Women in Mesopotamia, India, Greece, China, and Rome were not treated as equals and viewed as inferior to men. Cultures like Egypt and Persia had similar laws for women and treated them with more respect out of any of the other cultures.

The Venus of Willendorf is not the only sculpture from the Paleolithic era to survive the millennia. Other images have survived and many of them are similar to the Venus of Willendorf. The existence of these other sculptures of like design found from France to Siberia is very interesting. More figurines reflecting the female form have been found than of the male form leading experts to suggest that the Paleolithic societies may have been based on a matriarchal society (Witcombe, sec. 4).

Overtime, women slowly became respected and the equality of both genders were ever so slightly balancing out. After world war 2, and

Women now are equal to men, but there has always been a patriarchy. Women worked very hard to gain rights to vote. It still leaves me in awe how unequal they really were before reformation and the Progressive Era. Women went on strikes and boycotts to promote their rights and equality. The women back then only had work at home, factory working, farm working, and other small easy jobs.

During the Upper Paleolithic era artists created a wide range of small sculptures. These sculptures were made from various materials, including ivory, bone, clay, and even stone. They represented humans, as well as animals; they even combined them at times. Most of the sculptures from this time show a high level of skill. From this time, there were two very influential sculptures, The Venus of Willendorf and the Venus of Laussel. This paper will discuss both sculptures, in detail, as well as, compare and contrast them.

Women throughout time have experienced position changes more times than can be counted. Not just in modern times, gender roles began in the B.C.E era. In Egypt and India, gender roles were a huge part of society. In both locations, male’s word was law. What they said was the final answer and a woman could not change that. The gender distinctions were similar in ways that women had minimal power in familiar locations, like their homes. They had a small opinion about certain subjects, but they never ventured out of the comfort zone of subjects they were allowed to discuss. Men were treated better than women, yes, but the power women held was used for some of the most important topics.

For example, during one of our earliest cultures, the Paleolithic period, the Women of Willendorf sculpture portrays a grossly heavy female figure representing fertility and beauty of being

The authors’ interpretation of archaeological evidence is more easily compared since both reference female pillar figurines. Meyers highlights that these replicas are overwhelmingly found in domestic settings, abundant, and are only of pregnant women or those in lactation. Given this evidence, Meyers argues that these figurines were used as a vessel to bring a mother blessings during her pregnancy, birth, and lactation (Meyers 2002, 286-287). Sommer evaluates the terracottas from a different angle, using their existence as a way to challenge his idea that monotheism was prevalent in Ancient Israelite society. Like Meyers, Sommer believes that the figurines serve as a “tangible prayer” for soon-to-be or new mothers used overwhelmingly in homes. He goes on to refute that they were representations of goddesses by quoting Meyers’ evidence which claimed that goddess