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Women's Legacy Project > Blog > BE > Women's Legacy > A to Z > A to Z - 2018 - Feminine Icons > Iconic O: The Real OG

Iconic O: The Real OG

Written by: womenslegacy
Published: April 17, 2018 -- Last Modified: April 17, 2018
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OG in woman speak is not Original Gangster but rather Original Goddess.
We will never know who the first Goddess on the Earth was. We can infer much about behavior after humans started creating representational art, but it is still inference.
Abstract and intentional, the oldest art with a clear date is from Africa.

In Blombos Cave in South Africa at least 77,000 years ago someone incised this cross-hatch design on a piece of red ochre


 

Ostrich egg shells in Diepkloof Rock shelter on the Western Cape in South Africa etched with geometric designs date as far back as 60,000 years ago.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Australian art may date back as far as habitation of the continent around 50,000 years ago.  Dating is still being done and is mixed.  20,000 years is probable and 40,000 plus years ago is possible.
Indonesian cave art may date back to almost 30,000 years ago.
Cave paintings in Europe have been known for a century and to be 30,000 to 40,000 years old.
But none of these are three dimensional.

We really cannot say for sure that these figures had any religious or symbolic meaning, but it seems likely that the lion-man depicts some sort of shamanic beliefs.  And the female, well, she is very womanly.  Both of these Southern German representations are pushing 40.000 years old, being between 35 and 40 thousand years old.
The female figure is human and though such figures are often referred to as Venus figurines, the attribution of Venus to them suggests associations that we just cannot infer.  This particular female figure is 5,000 years older than any of the other similar carvings of women found all the way from Spain and France to the Russian Steppes.
There were certainly cultural activities akin to spiritual thought involved.  The world’s oldest flutes were also found here and were made from Griffon vulture and swan bones.
The female carving is the first fully human three dimensional representation found, thus far.  She could have been related to fertility or she could reference a  mystical or religious awe of women.  It is very unlikely that porn as such existed back then.
I personally have taken to referring to her and others similar carvings as OGs.  I think the first fully human statuary deserves the status.  And original she is.  Perhaps not Gangster, but probably similarly powerful and respected.  She is certainly an Original Girl.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Categories: A to Z - 2018 - Feminine Icons, Ancestors, Culture, Mothers & OthersTags: Aurignacean, carving, carvings, earliest representational art, fertility, goddesses, Hohle fels, three dimensional art, venus figurines

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