The statuette of Venus, almost 11 cm high, from Willendorf (Austria) is one of the most important examples of early European art. It is made from a rock called oolite, which is not found in and around Willendorf. A research team led by anthropologist Gerhard Weber of the University of Vienna and two geologists Alexander Lükeneder and Matthias Harzhauser, as well as historian Walpurga Antl-Weiser of the Museum of Natural History in Vienna, using a high-resolution tomograph, found images that the material from which Venus was carved was probably comes from northern Italy. This sheds new light on the mobility of the first modern humans south and north of the Alps.
Venus von Willendorf is distinguished not only by its design, but also by its material. While other figures of Venus are usually made of ivory or bone, and sometimes of various stones, an oolite was used for the Lower Austrian Venus, which is unique among similar cult objects. The figurine, found in the Wachau in 1908 and exhibited at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, has so far only been examined from the outside. Now, more than 100 years later, anthropologist Gerhard Weber of the University of Vienna has applied a new method to examine its interior: microcomputed tomography. In several passes, the scientists obtained images with a resolution of up to 11.5 micrometres, a quality otherwise only visible under a microscope. The first insight received is this: “Venus inside does not look uniform at all.
Together with two geologists Alexander Lukeneder and Matthias Harzhauser from the Natural History Museum in Vienna, who previously worked with oolites, the team purchased comparative samples from Austria and Europe and evaluated them. Complex project: Rock samples from France to the east of Ukraine, from Germany to Sicily are obtained, sawn and examined under a microscope. The team was supported by the state of Lower Austria, which provided funds for labor-intensive tests.
Tomographic data from Venus showed that the deposits were deposited in rocks of varying density and size. Between them there were also small remains of shells and six very dense, larger grains, the so-called limonites. The latter explains the previously mysterious hemispherical cavities on the surface of Venus with the same diameter: “The hard limonites probably burst out when the creator of Venus carved it,” Weber explains.
Another discovery: the Venusian oolite is porous because the cores of the millions of globules (ooids) it consists of have dissolved. This is an excellent explanation for why a resourceful sculptor chose this material 30,000 years ago: it is much easier to work with. The scientists also discovered a tiny shell remnant just 2.5 millimeters long and dated it to the Jurassic period. This ruled out all other potential rock deposits from the much later Miocene geologic epoch, such as those in the nearby Vienna Basin.