The Hohle Fels Female Figurine:
Not Pornography but a Representation of
the Upper Paleolithic Double Goddess

James B. Harrod (USA)

The earliest anthromorphic sculpture found in Europe was recently discovered in Hohle Fels cave in Germany dated to the Aurignacian Upper Paleolithic more than 35,000 years ago. This elaborately sculpted female figure carved of mammoth ivory, which had been worn as a pendant, was described by archaeologists as an “expression of fertility” and “bordering on the pornographic.” Drawing on the iconographic studies of Alexander Marshack, Andre Leroi-Gourhan and Marija Gimbutas, James Harrod rejects such interpretations as simplistic and misogynist. He proposes, instead, that the signs engraved on the figurine represent a protolanguage of geometric signs used during the Upper Paleolithic period in Europe that convey symbolic meanings.

A remarkable feature of the Hohle Fels figurine is its high degree of grapheme complexity at such an early date in the Aurignacian. Applying the structuralist semantic techniques of A-J. Greimas, Harrod proposes that it is possible to decipher the significance of the signs which appear to consist of ‘gesture-words’ or ‘motion-form verbs,’ which refer to elemental processes of nature, both the natural environment without and the psychic or spiritual realm within.