Rock Art Research

Other disciplines can sometimes bring more understanding to pre-Historic art studies by providing for different points of view. This paper attempts to re-examine the surviving representations of women from Palaeolithic Europe, using comparative examples from the more recent history of European art. There has been much discussion about them, and a popular, oft-repeated view is that the shape of these representations suggests that they were symbolic of fertility, pregnancy and procreation. However, art works from recent millennia show that a female shape seen to be connected with pregnancy and childbirth in one age may not necessarily be seen this way in another, and that artists frequently demonstrate their own individual styles and preferences for body shape when creating images of women. This paper proposes that the Palaeolithic female figures should be considered as part of the broader picture of the art of Europe. The possibility then emerges that their ‘meaning’ may often be something quite simple.