I had a college professor in the nineties who took the whole “goddess culture” thing very seriously, that those many (many) figurines like the Venus of Willendorf were indisputable proof of a matriarchal prehistoric society.

Modern archaeologists have noticed that these figures are usually found in the junk heaps of digs along with broken things and animal bones, while the “treasures” — tools and jewelry — are found elsewhere, and speculate that the figures are just cast-off toys. I would love to hear what my professor thinks of this...

>I had a college professor in the nineties who took the whole “goddess culture” thing very seriously, that those many (many) figurines like the Venus of Willendorf were indisputable proof of a matriarchal prehistoric society.

1000 years from now such a college professor would declare that we today were living in a “goddess culture” and matriarchal society based on the prevalence in the corresponding archaeological strata of the main cultural artifact of our time - Internet - of the depictions of women with the "Parts of the body associated with fertility and childbearing have been emphasized" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Willendorf#Interpreta...)

>Modern archaeologists have noticed that these figures are usually found in the junk heaps of digs along with broken things and animal bones

And the future archaeologists would probably also notice that the major collections of those supposedly "goddess culture" and the matriarchate related depictions were mostly kind of separate from the other artifacts of that ancient Internet.

It could be like what happened in Egypt where a new leader/religion comes in to power and tries to remove all traces of the previous.

These figurines are found all over Europe and were made of a period of hundreds or thousands of years. It was a culture, I'll give the professor that much.

I do have a hard time taking some of archaeology's sweeping pronouncements seriously. They are prone to making big statements about a culture from the contents of their trash.

In a thousand years, someone will marvel at and create grand ludicrous theories about the meaning of the millions of AOL CDs that they have dug up in a landfill.

"The AOL COMPACT DISC was both unit of currency and status signaling apparel, as only the wealthiest could hope to accumulate and maintain a collection of these easily damaged, gaudily refractive, oversized coins. Serving neither to hold information nor any other useful purpose, AOL COMPACT DISCs are the hallmark of the AOL Culture historical period, which came to a close with the Sack of New York, circa 2001 on the ancient calendar."

I'm always reminded of David Macaulay's Motel of Mysteries. The great white porcelain sarcophagus, heart of the sacred inner chamber.

Casual historians and armchair archaeologists always underestimate the amount of leisure time and free resources ancient people had.

Fret not, Shunkov is just reciting the magical incantation meaning to keep the funds flowing, for instance.

Especially because these are not even the same species as us.