Conny Waters – MessageToEagle.com – Archaeologists from the Göcseji Museum, Hungary discovered a fragment of a 6,500-year-old statuette at the site of a large settlement that belonged to the Lengyel culture that dates to ca. 5000 – 3400 BC.
“Venus of Egerszeg”. Image credit: Göcseji Múzeum, Hungary
The Lengyel culture developed in southern Europe and was initially linked to the site of Lengyel in Tolna county, in the southwestern part of Hungary.
- Read our article – Lengyel Culture Of Neolithic Europe Was Amazingly Sophisticated
The statuette dubbed the “Venus of Egerszeg,” depicts an artistically detailed woman’s torso. According to researchers, figurine, or rather its fragments, are the most beautiful artifact unearthed during the last three years.
“The special feature of the figurine is the meticulous elaboration; so far only very few such excellently shaped clay statues have been found from the period of the Lengyel culture, writes Hungary Today.
Image credit: György Varga/MTI
Until today, a large number of objects related to ancient cult activities have been uncovered in the area of excavations. Many of these objects symbolize the spirituality of the people who lived thousands of years ago. The objects include stone tools, a large variety of ceramic fragments painted in the Lengyel culture’s typical colors like red, yellow, and white.
It is believed that the figurines of this kind were most probably deliberately broken into small pieces. The idols “almost always appear in a fragmentary form, the people who once lived presumably crushed and cut them up in the framework of a ceremony.
Image credit: György Varga/MTI
Together with the small statues, the goal could be to destroy the power and authority attributed to them,” wrote archaeologist Livia Simmer on the Museum’s website.
“The clay statues unearthed in the excavations may have played an important role in the everyday life of the prehistoric man and in his closely related world of faith, which could have been the tools of the symbolic activities and rites of the community.
“Communities dependent on natural powers considered it most important to maintain a constant relationship with the gods and superhuman forces and spirits.”
Written by Conny Waters – MessageToEagle.com – AncientPages.com Staff Writer