Observations

I'm realizing that flexibility is something an art historian MUST have. When I studied Prehistoric and Near Eastern art for the first time two years ago, many art pieces had different names. Two of such examples would be:
1. The Venus of Willendorf... which is now referred to as the Woman of Willendorf.


2. Face of Inanna, Goddess of Love and War... which is now referred to as the Face of a Woman, Known as the Warka Head



I cannot believe that I would be the only one that gets attached to particular labels. It's hard for me to think of that first little figurine as anything other than the Venus of Willendorf, but clearly, I have to re-format my thinking, as history is being rewritten constantly as new facts and artifacts are found, especially for these two periods! So, it is here that I discover how flexible to learning NEW things I must be in order to really get the most out of this subject. I can't be too attached to any one theory, name, etc... as it may later be proved false or too vague (or not vague enough in context to these two women...). It's actually one of the really neat things about the subject when I really think about it. Where else will you be confronted with new little details in reference to not only the addition of future pieces, but also information about past pieces! I love it!
Fact is, we know very little about the pieces above as well as any other piece from prehistoric times, but it's oh so fun to speculate. But we do need to be cautious of how connotative we label each piece, as we don't want to infer too much. Everyone should have a fair chance to speculate what they might think the piece might have been used or meant for, considering that we flat out have no clue as to what's it's true purpose was. Perhaps we'll never know, but it's always fun to take a guess!!