Galgenberg, Stratzing, Austria
The Galgenberg figure
About 36,000 years, from the fire (charcoal at 31,000 to 32,000 radiocarbon years)
A green figure 7.2 centimetres high, weighing 10 grams, was joined from eight pieces found on 23 September 1988. The age comes from charcoal in the same patch of ground, 31,000 to 32,000 radiocarbon years, about 36,000 in calendar years.
Why this is extraordinary
On 23 September 1988, during a dig on the Galgenberg between Stratzing and Krems, a green stone figure came out of an Aurignacian camp on the Danube. It is 7.2 centimetres high and weighs 10 grams. The stone is a thin plaque of amphibolite schist, about 7 millimetres thick, shiny and green, the sort of rock that occurs near the hill. Carving waste was in the same place, so the figure was shaped there. That is a different journey from the Willendorf limestone, which matches a stone south of the Alps. This one did not have to travel.
It was not found whole. Eight fragments make the outline, and the outline is complete except for a sliver missing at a break in one leg. A small nub left at that break looks, from the side, like male genitalia. The excavation report treats that look as the missing chip, not as a carved sex. The back of the plaque is mostly the natural face of the stone, with traces of an earlier sketch. The front is cut into relief. One edge, from a leg up through the chest to the raised arm, follows the edge of the raw plaque. The gesture and the shape of the blank are hard to pull apart.
Three pieces of charcoal from around the figure gave homogeneous radiocarbon ages between 31,000 and 32,000 years before present, measured in Zurich and Groningen. A calendar reading of a date in that range is about 36,000 years, which is the age the museum gives the figure. The figure lay at the edge of a find-scatter about 5 metres by 2, up to 30 centimetres thick, with a hearth about a metre across in the northwest half. The charcoal dates the fire. The link to the carving is that they were in the same patch of ground.
What the pose is for is not written on it. A woman in a dance, which is why the figure picked up a dancer’s nickname on the day it was found, is the reading the raised arm invites. A hunter with a club is also printed, because the body is not unambiguous. A turn of the head toward the raised arm has been read as a look toward another world. Nothing in the sources used here counts the cuts, names a star, or aims the figure at a sunrise. The sky sentence, if there is one, is that suggested look, and it is a reading of a face that has almost no face.
Why it matters
If the raised arm is a chosen pose, Aurignacian people on the Danube were showing a body in motion, thousands of years before the still, heavy figures of the Gravettian. If the arm is the edge of the plaque, the dance is the shape of the stone the carver started with.
The photograph is the joined figure. The hearth, the local stone, and the open pose are the rest.
Photo tour
1 photograph, unedited. On a phone, swipe the row. Choose one to look closely.
- The hearth and the carving waste are not in the photograph. The figure is.
What is still unexplained
These sit beside the consensus account, with the same visual weight. None of them is marked solved.
Location and dating
- Location
- The Galgenberg at Stratzing, near Krems, Lower Austria. The figure is in the Natural History Museum in Vienna. The pin is the findspot.
- Period label
- Current consensus — open to revision Aurignacian. The charcoal is 31,000 to 32,000 radiocarbon years before present. The calendar round used for the figure is about 36,000 years.
- How this dating was done
- Radiocarbon on three charcoals from around the figure, not on the stone. The stone source is the local schist, plus carving waste on the spot.
- What could change it
- A date on a material that is the figure, which stone will not give, or a join of the eight pieces that changes the raised arm, would move the age or the pose.
What is actually there
- The figure is 7.2 centimetres high and weighs 10 grams.
- It was joined from eight fragments. A missing sliver makes a nub look male.
- The stone is local amphibolite schist, and carving waste was on the spot.
- The raised outline follows the edge of the raw plaque.
- No star, sunrise, or tally is published for the cuts.
Open questions
| Question | Status |
|---|---|
| Is the raised arm a gesture? | Open. It can be a dance, a club, or the edge of the blank the carver did not remove. |
| How old is the carving itself? | Open. The charcoals agree. They date the fire in the same patch of ground. |
The current narrative
Where publication stands today. It is the best-supported reading, and it is open to revision. It is not a verdict.
The current narrative — open to revision
A woman shaped on the hill, in a moving pose
The figure is a human body, read as a woman, carved on the Galgenberg from local green schist in the Aurignacian, and the raised arm is part of that body.
What supports this
- Eight fragments give a complete outline, and the excavation report treats the male-looking nub as a missing chip.
- Carving waste and local schist put the work on the hill, not on a stone carried from far away.
- Three charcoals from the same patch agree between 31,000 and 32,000 radiocarbon years.
What pushes back
- The raised line follows the edge of the plaque, so the pose is not free of the blank.
- A hunter with a club is still printed, because the silhouette is not unambiguous.
- The date is the fire, not the schist.
What would settle it
It is the centre. A body, made there, in that cold stretch, is the strong part. Which sentence the pose is speaking stays open.
Emerging narratives
Other published readings. Each may be right. None is adopted here unless the evidence carries it.
An emerging narrative
A hunter, or a pose the stone already had
The figure is a hunter with a club, or a body whose “gesture” is mostly the edge of the raw plaque, and the dance is a reading added on the day it was found.
What supports this
- The depiction is not unambiguous, which is why the hunter reading is printed beside the dancer.
- One edge of the figure is the edge of the blank.
- The nickname came from the pose being read as a dance at the moment of discovery, not from a caption on the stone.
What pushes back
- The report reconstructs a woman, and explains the male nub as damage.
- The front is worked in relief, not left as a raw outline.
- Carving waste shows someone cut this plaque on purpose.
What would settle it
The blank explains the silhouette. It does not erase the carving. A hunter is a possible sentence. It is ahead of the joins.
Should the current view be reevaluated?
Open to revision
A local Aurignacian figure, joined from eight pieces and sitting with charcoal of 31,000 to 32,000 radiocarbon years, is firm. The pose, the sex at the broken leg, and any look toward another world are readings. No sunrise or star is published for it.
What drives this
- A height of 7.2 centimetres, a weight of 10 grams, and a find on 23 September 1988.
- Charcoal between 31,000 and 32,000 radiocarbon years, beside a hearth.
- A raised outline that follows the edge of the plaque.
This is the museum’s own weighing of the evidence. It is not a visitor vote, and it is separate from the slider.
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If the contested reading is right
What would follow if a reading that is not the consensus turned out to be true, and what could settle it. This explains the stakes. It does not adopt the reading.
The raised arm is a dance
A moving body would be part of Aurignacian image-making on the Danube, not only a side-effect of the stone.
Why it is still worth a test
A join, or a wear pattern, that shows the raised piece was cut free of the blank rather than left as its edge.
The upward turn is a sky gesture
The figure would be looking at something above the camp. No measurement says what.
Why it is still worth a test
A published count of the cuts, or a direction for the raised arm, tested against a star or a sunrise. The sources used here do not have one.
Sources
- La statuette du Galgenberg Les Chercheurs de la Wallonie
- Venus vom Galgenberg German Wikipedia
Image credits
- The Galgenberg figure, green stone, 7.2 centimetres high. One arm is raised and the other is bent. It was joined from pieces. The dark ground is the museum mount. . Aiwok, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT. Shown unedited.