1 Tracing Gestures The Art and Archaeology of Bodily Communication Conference Abstracts Session 1: The Earliest Gestures Reading the body language of mankind’s oldest figurines: an experimental approach Adeline Schebesch Department of Prehistory, Friedrich‐Alexander‐University Erlangen‐Nürnberg The attitude and posture of living bodies provide important clues about intended actions and emotional status. This universal ability to ‘read’ one another is crucial to any social exchange and communication. All known anthropomorphic figurines from the Upper Paleolithic display certain postures: they have body language. Being works of art, we respond to them in an emotional way much as if they were alive (Gell 1998). The present paper proposes a method of breaking down the figurines’ body language into discernible basic units by using the traditional practice of the performing arts. Professional actors ‘understand’ a character on multiple levels by consciously reproducing the basic physical attitude of that character. In 2010 and 2011 two groups of German actors and acting students from Vietnam participated in the experiment. In a first step the body language of each figurine was copied. The instant effect of the specific posture on the frame of mind was examined in a second step. Standard elements of body language were recognized in a surprisingly consistent way for each respective figurine. While results for the figurines from the Aurignacian showed many parallels with existing disciplinary interpretations, e.g., of the ‘Kraft und Aggression’ hypothesis of Hahn (1986), the Gravettian figurines, known as the ‘Venuses’, represented by the Venus of Willendorf, gave diametrically opposed results to academic consensus. Her body language was described as passive, hinting at low status and evoking negative feelings of dejectedness or grief.