#palaeolithic

Female figurines, Gravettian period (35-22ka)

Calanais Stone Circle, Isle of Lewis, Scotland

Prehistoric 'Swimming' Reindeer Mammoth Tusk Carving, 'Ice Age Art Now' Exhibition, Cliffe Castle, Keighley, Yorkshire

Posed with their chins up, antlers tipped back, and legs outstretched, the reindeer appear to be swimming as they do when crossing lakes and rivers on migration. This made the best use of the tapering tip of the mammoth tusk. The wavy lines on the male's face may represent water.

'Young Reindeer With Its Mother' Bone Carving, 'Ice Age Art Now' Exhibition, Cliffe Castle, Keighley, Yorkshire

Around 15,000 years ago, as winter turned to spring, feelings of hope perhaps inspired this superb, engraved drawing of a reindeer calf alongside its mother on bone.

but in reality it very much is not. we have no idea what they represent

could the goddess hypothesis interpretation of them all representing a singular mother goddess be correct? sure. i personally find it very unlikely due to it oversimplifying upper palaeolithic and mesolithic societies (which, after all, represent a complicated web of different communities with different customs and ideas and people spanning tens of thousands of years) to a simply unrealistic degree (with a heavy dose of wishful thinking), but it isn't impossible

but they could also be toys. or representative of ancestors. or self portraits for purely artistic reasons. or an evil spirit portrayed in order keep misfortune at bay. or a medical tool from a society where the line between medicine and magic was nonexistent. or porn. or what i find most most realistic; representing different things in different cultures