Discovered in December 2022 in Podczele, a district of the coastal city of Kolobrzeg, Poland, a Neolithic statuette of around 6,000 years has just been officially authenticated by a press release from the city museum. A phase of verification and analysis, carried out for almost three years, made it possible to trace the circumstances of the discovery and to confirm the dating of the object.
The artifact had been given by a farmer to a local group of history enthusiasts. The 12 cm figurine is cut into a beige limestone containing visible fragments of fossil shells, including mussels and snails. Its flat back and compact shape suggest that it was intended to be placed vertically or on a base. Convex places – such as breasts or hips – have traces of polishing.
Alerted by the group, archaeologist Marcin Krzepkowski, warned the conservation authorities as well as the museum director. The latter described the exceptional discovery, speaking of the artifact as being “Unique in Poland, where we have yet found anything analogous”. According to the first interpretations, the statuette was shaped at the time of the arrival of the first agricultural communities in the region, around the Parseta river. This would bear witness to possible cultural connections with the southern and southeast carpatian regions where similar figurines are found.
Other statuettes of the Neolithic type have also been discovered in Poland. A clay statuette representing a woman, the coming of Ocice, dating from 6,000 years ago, had been uncovered in 1909 in German Haute-Siesie-today Polish-and represents a woman with wide hips. Although the original was lost during the Second World War, a plaster copy is preserved at the Racibórz museum. Further south, in the Czech Republic, the coming of Dolní Vestonice, in clay, dated between 29,000 and 25,000 BC. J. C., is to date one of the oldest known human representations. Discovered in 1925, it was kept at the Morave Museum in Brno. With a size of 11 cm, she represents a woman realistically while accentuating her forms. Another major reference, the Venus of Willendorf, discovered in 1908 in Austria, is a limestone statuette of non -local origin (probably from Italy or Ukraine), dated approximately 30,000 years. It represents a corpulent female body of a size of 11.1 cm. It is preserved at the Vienna Natural History Museum.
The Venus of Kolobrzeg will soon join the permanent exhibition of the city museum of the city, with the development of a Neolithic wing. At the same time, an interdisciplinary group of researchers and teachers made up of Marcin Krzepkowski is preparing a detailed study of the statuette.
