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‘Venus’ found in Poland
The Museum of Polish Arms has conducted new research into a small limestone statuette, which was first discovered in Kołobrzeg in 2022. The team found that the object, which they have dubbed the ‘Venus of Kołobrzeg’, depicts a female figure with exaggerated proportions and probably dates to the Neolithic period, over 6,000 years ago.
The figurine is similar to other Neolithic ‘Venus’ statues but, until now, the majority had been discovered in areas to the south and south-east of the Carpathian Mountains, and in Anatolia and southern Europe. This is the first to be discovered in Poland and is also one of the first such discoveries made of stone, instead of the more commonly used clay.
Tiwanaku temple discovered
A ceremonial complex made by the Tiwanaku civilisation (c.AD 500-1000) has been unearthed in the Bolivian Andes. The Tiwanaku were a pre-Inca culture centred around the southern shores of Lake Titicaca. This recent discovery, however, was found 215km (134 miles) from the lake, near the Cayuhasi River.
Previous excavations at the site, known locally as Palaspata, had found evidence of Tiwanaku occupation, including pottery, lithics, animal bones, residential middens, and burials, dating to c.AD 630-950, but no substantial structures. More recently, a team from Penn State University and the Bolivian Ministry of Cultures used a combination of satellite imagery, aerial photography, photogrammetry, and field survey to identify the large complex, which measured an impressive 125m by 145m (410ft by 476ft) and was made of up of 15 quadrangular enclosures that were arranged around a rectangular plaza. It appears to resemble other terraced platform temples found in the ceremonial core of Tiwanaku, but this new example adds to only a handful that have been found outside the Lake Titicaca basin. The research on the site to-date was recently published in Antiquity (https://doi.org/10.15183/aqy.2025.59).
Observations on Mexica obsidian
A new research project, recently published in PNAS (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2500095122), has examined over 700 obsidian objects that have been recovered during several decades of excavations at Templo Mayor – the centre of Tenochtitlan, the Mexica (Aztec) capital – in modern-day Mexico City.
Using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) to determine the objects’ composition, the team found that almost 90% of the obsidian came from Sierra de Pachuca, an outcrop c.94km (58 miles) north-east of Tenochtitlan. The remaining 10% came from at least seven other distinct sources, some of which were located outside the lands of the Mexica people. In particular, they found that the vast majority of ceremonial objects, especially those made after c.AD 1420 – the date at which the Mexica consolidated their power in the region – were made from obsidian that came from Sierra de Pachuca, suggesting that that location held some religious significance. In contrast, more everyday objects were made from obsidian that came from various locations.
Text: Kathryn Krakowka / Image: Muzeum Oręża Polskiego w Kołobrzegu
