Abstract
Metrical traits of male and female skeletons from 10 various Homo sapiens populations were analysed - from the most archaic forms like Homo heidelbergensis till late neolithic populations. A special attention was given to the reconstruction of body size and shape biological characters like body height, body mass, BMI and Rohrer index.
Study of sexual differences in body size and body shape has been one of the main goals of our study. For gravettian population we have also analysed differences among individuals, both in males and in females.
We have shown that gravettian females are significantly smaller and much more robust in comparison to the males. This character of sexual dimorphism is the same for both Central European and Mediterranean gravettian populations.
A more detailed analysis has revealed that majority of gravettian females are very robust and small, however, some of the females are small but slim. We have found some relations among body size and shape and character of female gures from Gravettian period.
We do not claim that the female figures reflex body built and body size only but we cannot deny that many of females have not only robust body built but also a visible subcutaneous fat layer while some of them we quite slim. This confirms not only character of skeletons but also typical features of the corpulent gravettian venuses.
We can speculat that the gravettian Venuses were not only product of pure art or shamanism but that they also reflex basic biological characters of gravettian females including possible gender relations. Slim venuses could be also an indicator of good economy of gravettian societies.