Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – In the heart of northern Poland, near the Baltic coastal city of Kolobrzeg, a remarkable discovery has emerged—a figurine that stands as one of the greatest prehistoric finds ever made in this region.
The Kołobrzeg Venus figurine can be observed from multiple perspectives, offering a comprehensive understanding of its design and craftsmanship. Image credit: Polish Arms Museum, Kołobrzeg, Poland
The artifact is a limestone figurine depicting a stylized female, sheds light on Western Pomerania’s prehistory and significantly contributes to the study of Neolithic fertility symbolism in Central and Eastern Europe.
A thorough analysis of the figurine took three years and experts determined that the artifact is about 6,000 years old and experts believe it may be the work of the first farmers who settled on the fertile lands of Western Pomerania, in this case near the Parsęta River.
Left: Fertility figurine (maybe a goddess?); 6000-5100 BC; painted clay; height: 8.2 cm; by Halaf culture; Louvre Louvre. Image credit: PHGCOM (photographed at the Louvre Museum); Right: Venus of Dolní Vestonice, the earliest discovered use of ceramics[16] (29,000 – 25,000 BC. Image credit: Petr Novák Wikipedia -CC BY-SA 2.5
Similar figurines are commonly found at Neolithic sites dating back to the 6th and 5th millennia BC in vast areas located south and southeast of the Carpathians, as well as in Anatolia and southern Europe.
However, the so-called ‘Venus of Kolobrzeg’ is a unique find from the Polish area, where researchers have not yet found similar ones.
The figurine, made of beige limestone, depicts a stylized woman with visible mussel shells, snails, and polychaete tubes. It is 12 cm high and emphasizes sexual characteristics in a simplified form. The silhouette is massive with distorted proportions. The upper limbs are outlined, and the lower ones are slightly spaced but lack detail. The face has no features, and the breasts are covered by arms bent at the elbows.
The head and upper body are disproportionately large compared to the short legs. The back shows traces of molding on the leg area, likely caused by hitting with a hard tool.
The figurine’s surface has indentations from the raw material, hinting at mussel shells. Slight smoothing on the breasts and hips suggests use, possibly stored in organic materials like leather. The flat back indicates it might have been placed vertically or attached to a surface.
The unique ‘Kołobrzeg Venus’, which will soon be featured in the new section of the Museum of Polish Arms’ permanent exhibition, generates great interest among researchers as well as the residents of Kolobrzeg.
Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer
