Compare and Contrast - Essay Example

In this light, we will find out the background, culture and beliefs of the artists who created the following two specimens of artifacts: The Venus of Willendorf, created during the Paleolithic era, and The Neolithic Plastered Skull of the Neolithic era. The Venus of Willendorf was discovered in 1908 in an Aurignician loess deposit above the Danube River near Willendorf, Austria.by the archaeologist Josef Szombathy. Currently in Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, this tiny statue (only 11.1 cm in length) is sculpted from a fine porous oolitic limestone unavailable in the region.

It is assumed that this is done with flint tools done in a foreign land (Witcombe, 2003). In the case of the Neolithic Plastered Skulls, the artifacts were discovered during the Amman-Zarqua highway construction in the 1970's in Ain Ghazai near Amman, Jordan. Gary Roliefson excavated the site to prevent its potential destruction from the urbanization of the site. Plaster used in covering walls and floors of structures in Ain Ghazal are the materials utilized in creating the relics. Also, in this place, plaster is also intended for the treatment of the skulls of the dead (Feldman, 2006).

When it comes to the location of the relics' discovery, the Venus of Willendorf is located in a place where the materials, fine porous oolitic limestone, of the image are . In this period, nurturing arable lands for agricultural purposes has already been the common practice. The tendency of people at those times is to commune with each other and to grow plants and livestock for food. Both the artifacts' materials are from minerals coming from the ground (limestone and plaster). However the difference in the manner in creating them shows the diversity of the level of technology in these two periods in human prehistoric eras.

The sculptor in the Paleolithic carved the Venus of Willendorf out of limestone with flint tools in its natural and processed state. The creator of the Neolithic Plastered Skulls, on the other hand, had already acquired sufficient knowledge to produce a mixture of mud plaster and lime plaster (Rollefson, 1998). In terms of the features of the two artifacts it is interesting to note that the Venus of Willendorf exaggerates the features of the figure while the Neolithic Plastered Skulls displays human features realistically.

Perhaps the most notable distinction between the plastered skulls in Jordan from the Venus of Willendorf is the latter's absence of genitalia. By this distinction alone, we can see the intention of the artists in creating these prehistoric artistic opuses. The distinction of the features of these relics presents the interesting contrast of the reason of their creation of these priceless antique art forms. Though the real intention of creating them are still to be known, archaeologists have developed certain logical and possible theories based on the features of the artworks.

With regards to the Venus of Willendorf some archaeologists advocates the theory that it has religious significance. For them it is a relic that the Paleolithic tribe who created it considers a