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THE MYSTICAL FIGURINES
DISCOVERED IN CROATIA
Recent discoveries on peninsula Pelješac, Croatia, might change the way we see Venus figurines
and we may potentially re-examine the other figurines found across the Europe. Continue reading and meet the figurines.
They are quite well preserved, on the same site they span from 18 000 B.C. to 7 000 B.C., some have sculpted fabric, there are two male figurines which are changing everything, some are in graves and some in fire pit, some are hollow, not only displaying incredible skills of the people who inhabited the cave, but sense of musicality - the incredible discovery reveals that the figurines might have been INSTRUMENTS!
The number of surprise factors on this site is great - and has given archaeologists a lot to think about. The work on the site began in November, 2023 and ended in April, 2025, so far revealing 23 figurines, the eldest being about 20 000 years old, and the most recent
9 600 years old.
EXAMINE THE FIGURINES - click on each to learn more
They have been found in a cave, which was known as just a pit, prior to the beginning of the excavations. the entrance, which was known of, but just as a very shallow cavern, was just three meters deep, sloping towards the first room of the cave, but completely filled in with earth.
The entrance is hidden in a small oasis, in the middle of the hill. From the air, there is not much to see; except from the huge, yawning pit that opens towards the sky. Who knew it was once someone's living room? However, the pit hides just beyond a tiny basin that lays in the vast karst. There are no paths on the hill; just big rocks, and in the middle of that, a yard below the level of the hill's surface. Trees that grow from down there make a lovely shade, and the people who might have lived there enjoyed the moderate temperatures and the camouflaged refuge their home was.
The opening of the pit (the main room)
Neither raised no suspicion; the shallow, dead end entrance, or the gaping pit - the cave has never been explored. The archeologists approached through the main room, the pit, going down with a team of speleologists.
The path towards the first room and first tomb was open from there - and they discovered that the entrance has been filled in, possibly for the last people who lived there to be protected from the wildlife or possibly a humans. It raises question - who could have been their enemy and who might have lived... nearby?
What made this site so special?
The figurines of men from the paleolithic period had no name - until now. Kouros comes from Greek, and now also represents figurines of men found on this site.
​The age of the second Kouros (left) is estimated at 10,200 years, that is, it is consideredthat it was made less than 8,200 years agoyears before Christ, and that the first found Kouros (right) was made more than 8,100 years ago.
​This opens up a discussion about their relationship. Could their owners have been related? Did the figurine belong to him or his wife? Were the characters of Kouros after all the incarnations of deities? Were they hunters or warriors? On the older figurine, a belt can be seen, and perhaps a bow over the shoulder - and on the young Kouros, only body hair is indicated. Why does an older figurine have a better defined face?
One of the more famous statues of men is the "Lion Man", a zoomorphic figurine of a man or woman with a lion's head carved with a flint knife from mammoth ivory that was found in 1939 in the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in Germany. Some think that it is not a depiction of a mythical creature at all, but a depiction of a shaman wearing a lion's skin with his head as a hat. Why then does the elder Kouros have two horns and do they represent some religious significance?
CONTINUITY OF THEIR MAKING
The fact that was baffling from the beginning was their age - youngest are about 10 000 years old, and the eldest, last to be discovered - 20 000 years old!
This indicates that there might have been a tradition of making them, suggesting that many have been lost as they were apparently used for something - as the figurines in the fire pit had to be.
Two figurines found in remote graves help us to understand how much this community was involved in the making of figurines and their preservation.
Is it too much to say; preserving the tradition of "producing" figurines? Their similarity is inexplicable; they were certainly not shaped by the same hands, but their similarity is very interesting. They are incredibly close in size, in body shape and emphasis on the breasts resting on a belly that starts high, in the pelvic bones or rather transitions, hips and small legs. Their proportions make for a strange match.
WAS 11 800 B.C. AN END OF AN ERA?
The figurine on the upper left belongs to tomb I and the one on the right to tomb II - which is, in reality, the oldest tomb, but was second to be discovered, hence the name.
The initial number Venus surprised, especially since it is not the final result. At the beginning of 2025, the works are continued and quickly discovered the tombs which were buried - and not act of nature, but a human hand.
Not only that - the entrance of the tomb III was also filled in, just as the very entrance into the cave - which ultimately meant the fall of the community that inhabited the cave and cave's overall use.
CONSERVATION
Conservation and restoration were an expensive process for which funds had to be found first.
Figurines were sent to institute in Austria, and both Kouros I and II were given to Croatian conservators.
Conservation costs were extremely high, however the project was financed with donations from all over of the world. They followed the project Croatian and international media, the biggest contributions came from collectors from Europe and America.
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