Friday was a calm but overcast day. I heard on the radio that that today was the last day that the Westray Wife was to be displayed in Kirkwall museum so I thought I had better go and have a look at her.
This is not some sort of island voyeurism. The Westray wife is a 4500 year old venus figure found on Westray earlier this year. She has been on display on Westray during the summer and in Kirkwall for the past couple of months.
Maybe she is not your idea of the ideal woman but 4500 years ago they didn't have Playboy or Penthouse and there were not very many women about anyway. She was probably the height of desireability to stone age man. As a bonus, she is very quiet.Fortunately we already knew that she was only about 2 inches tall but apparently some people have been disappointed because they had only seen photos with nothing to give a sense of scale and expected a large statue.
I must admit that I did not think that she was particularly well made but then if you are trying to carve one rock with another rock and a bit of bone then the amount of finesse that is possible is probably somewhat limited.
No comments:
Post a Comment