Venus II (?) from Heidesheim am Rhein: A Limestone Object with Anthropomorphic and Zoomorphic Features

This paper presents a curious object which was discovered twenty years ago at a surface site in the village of Heidesheim am Rhein near Mainz, Germany. The object consists of a piece of native limestone which in side view bears an uncanny resemblance to certain highly stylized Venus figurines from the Middle and Late Upper Paleolithic. With a change of orientation, however, the object takes on a zoomorphic appearance. Accompanying finds include a naturally perforated stone manuport and a white quartz pebble partially coated with reddish pigment.<div>In a previous paper (Anderson 2015), an indisputable anthropomorphic figurine from another surface site in Heidesheim am Rhein was described. The figurine consists of an elongate pebble adorned with painted markings representing the gentitals, the navel, the eyes, and a single ear. The eyes and the ear are of particular interest, as their identification is based primarily on their location, not their physical appearance. In fact, the eyes and the ear may double as anthropomorphic figures. In some respects, the painted ear of the figurine resembles the evocatively shaped limestone object.