For International Women's Day

How did the “goddesses” of the Stone Age really live?

Current knowledge paired with the art of drawing: Ulli Lust lets us discover a new "womanhood" in prehistory.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Reprodukt Verlag, Barbara Dietl)

Just in time for International Women's Day, which will also be celebrated in Austria on Saturday, March 8: Cartoonist Ulli Lust rewrites history in her new non-fiction comic "Die Frau als Mensch". She goes sledging with alpha males and devotes herself to the universal skills of strong prehistoric women.

Our history books are full of statues of goddesses with broad hips and plump bosoms that are considered symbols of fertility. "However, we imagine everyday life in the Stone Age to be quite masculine. In illustrations, we see men hunting or painting cave drawings," says Ulli Lust from Vienna, who currently lives in Berlin.

But we know from footprints, for example, that women could also have made cave paintings. There were even female hunters. "I generally question the idea of an aggressive, winning alpha male. The alphas of our evolution were the ones who behaved socially." Women are undoubtedly one of them.

A journey through hunter-gatherer cultures
In the non-fiction comic "Die Frau als Mensch: Am Anfang der Geschichte" (Reprodukt Verlag, €30.50), Lust, who will be exhibiting at the Karikaturenmuseum Krems from July 12, presents the life of hunter-gatherer cultures from a new perspective in great pictures with short texts. She has incorporated the latest, gender-appropriate archaeological findings.

A look inside the book: "Woman as a human being. At the beginning of history", Reprodukt Verlag(Bild: Reprodukt/Ulli Lust)

Appropriate reading for International Women's Day
Conclusion: Everyday life between the mammoth and the cave could only be survived if women also worked on an equal footing. A great thought for International Women's Day, which is celebrated on Saturday, March 8.

Lust's new book will also be on the book table at the Nextcomic festival in Linz (March 21 to 28). One of the main themes here will also be breaking with role clichés.