Dolni Vestonice Ancient Goddess Statue

Ancient Goddess image found din the Czech Republic by artist Oberon & Morning Glory Zell.

Our prehistoric roots are veiled in mystery. Bare bones and artifacts are the clues we use to uncover their secrets. This investigation starts right after World War II, with the initial excavation near the present town of Brno in the land that is now known as the Czech Republic.

The three pieces in this set once belonged to a woman we call “Crooked Fox,” a Shaman of the Ice Age—and the earliest individual we have been able to identify from prehistoric times. (In the novel, Plains of Passage, author Jean Auel calls her “S’Armuna.”) She lived 27,000 years ago, in a little village of about 100-120 mammoth-hunters. The archaeological site is called Dolni Vestonice. The houses in her village were all made of mammoth bones, covered with the hides of the great beasts. A wall of such bones surrounded the village, and a little stream ran through it. 

When Crooked Fox died, her people buried her ceremoniously in the center of the village, curled into a fetal position, as was the custom. In her hands they placed her totem animal—an arctic fox. An arrowhead was positioned between the fox and her forehead. Finally, the shoulder blades of a mammoth were laid over her grave. And then the people abandoned their village, never to return. No one dared go back into her hut to claim her tools, musical instruments, jewelry—or the last firing of figurines still in her cooling kiln. All was still in place when the site was discovered in 1949—including her fingerprints in the little dabs of clay she used to hold the figurines in place for the firing!

And so this ancient Shaman attained an immortality that could be envied by anyone, since she left us her body, her personal effects, her art, her fingerprints, her portrait—and in fact, her identity. Will as much of us be known to our descendants 27,000 years hence? 

This piece was precisely sculpted by Oberon and Morning Glory Zell from the originals in a museum exhibit. Made of cast resin and hand finished, it is 5 1/2 inches tall. It is actually 3 separate and removable pieces with the base the all fit in.