One of the many displays in the Natural History Museum in Vienna is this tiny Venus figurine estimated to have been sculpted about 30,000 years ago. One interesting feature of this ancient artifact is it is made of a rock called "oolite," which is a material not native to Willendorf. Where did this figurine originate?
With the help of high-resolution tomographic images, a team of an anthropologist and two geologists have found out a possible place of origin of the Venus of Willendorf — northern Italy. For the past century, the figurine was only examined from the outside. This was the first examination of its interior.
So how did the researchers determine where the figurine possibly originated? The answer is through rock samples, which were collected from different countries. The said samples were sawn up and examined under the microscope. After a time-consuming analysis, the statistics pointed out northern Italy as the likeliest place of origin of the ancient Venus sculpture.
(Image Credit: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/ Wikimedia Commons)
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