Venus Figurines from Valdivia facts for kids
The Valdivia people made small statues of women, often called Valdivia Venus figurines. Over seventy broken pieces and one full statue have been found at Valdivia sites. These complete figurines are usually between 4.6 cm and 8.8 cm tall. That's about the size of your thumb to a small toy!
What Did They Look Like?
At first, the Valdivia statues were simple shapes of people. They didn't show if they were male or female, and they didn't have many details. But over time, the artists started to add more features. They learned to carve stone and make finer details on the figurines.
These small statues look simple and solid. They often have very few marks for faces. The most special thing about these figurines is their amazing hairstyles! Some of the hairstyles are so big and fancy that they cover parts of the woman's face, like her chin. It seems the hairstyles were very important to the artists.
How Were They Made?
Making these figurines was quite simple. The artists would first shape the body and head using two coils of clay. Then, they would add bigger details with more clay coils. While the clay was still wet, they would make small cuts to show eyebrows, eyes, and a mouth.
The last step was to add the fancy hairdo. But by this time, the clay was almost dry. This meant the hairpiece often broke off later.
Why Were They Made?
We don't know for sure why the Valdivia people made these Venus figurines. But many experts think they were used in special ceremonies. They might have been connected to fertility, which means helping people have children or making crops grow well.
Special Ceremonies
In the Valdivia culture, people believed that small human statues could become sacred. They thought these special objects might even help cure sickness. It's possible that the Valdivia people made these figurines for a spiritual reason. They might have used them for a specific ceremony or for the well-being of a family or community.
Some experts think these Venus figurines were used in household rituals. After the ceremony, they might have been thrown away. Finding them in old trash piles suggests they were used for a time and then discarded. This idea fits with some ancient practices in the Andes mountains. In these traditions, spirits were thought to live inside statues. If a ritual worked, like helping a woman get pregnant, the statue might have been destroyed afterward.
