- Venus of Tan-Tan
, might be the earliest representations of the human form.
Made from
quartzite , it was painted withred ochre indicating a possible symbolic importance. It may be one of the earliest representations of pigmentation application found. It was discovered in 1999, during an archaeological survey byLutz Fiedler , state archaeologist ofHesse ,Germany , in a river terrace deposit on the north bank of theDraa River a few kilometers south of the Moroccan town ofTan-Tan .It is often categorised as one of the
Venus figurines , although there is some controversy amongst archaeologists as to its nature and origin. To its discoverer and others, e.g., Robert Bednarik [See for instance:
Robert G. Bednarik. 2003. A figurine from the African Acheulian. Current Anthropology 44(3): 405-13.
[http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/sciruslink?src=web&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmc2.vicnet.net.au%2Fhome%2Fcognit%2Fshared_files%2FBednarik_2003.pdf Robert G. Bednarik. 2003. The earliest evidence of paleoart. Rock Art Research 20 (2): 89-135.]
[http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHprehistoric.html Resources for the study of art history. Part 1 Prehistoric Art ] ] , the object probably had a general human-like shape that was accentuated by carving it with a stone-wedge; some artificial smudge stains are interpreted as remnants of pigments used by humans to further accentuate its human-like form. For others, for instance Professor Stanley Ambrose of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign [See [http://howcomyoucom.com/selfnews/viewnews.cgi?newsid1053716489,17812,.shtml details about controversy here] ] , it is a total fortuitous event that natural weathering and erosion have produced this human-like object.Notes
ee also
*
Pre-historic art
*Venus of Berekhat Ram External links
*http://donsmaps.com/tantanvenus.html
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