The rotten twin of the Venus of Willendorf

Fruit and veges can sometimes be found in the gutter. By squishing something that seems to be thoroughly rotten, we can determine whether it has any remaining food value. The pictured orange had very little.

The squished form of this orange reminded me of that carved stone doll, the Venus of Willendorf, which is about 25,000 years old and sits in a museum in Vienna.

That figurine is about 11cm tall; this orange would be about the same. The Venus of Willendorf has its head on a slight tilt to the right; so does our rotten-orange doll here. The Venus of Willendorf is coloured with red ochre, which gives it an orangey tinge; the rotten orange is also orange-coloured. These are ways in which the paleolithic figurine and the squished fruit from a 21st-century gutter are similar.

A way in which they are different is the Venus of Willendorf, thought by many to be a fertility symbol, is buxom and detailed of external organ; the rotten-orange doll is distinctly visceral, its internal organs spilling forth, a goddess with her guts out. This is macabre, symbolic of death rather than the makings of life.

That's quite an important distinction.