Important Works of Art

Contextualization and Localization

Art History 1 * Lecture 2.5

Philippine Women’s College of Davao

Wilfred Dexter G. Tañedo

MESOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC ANCIENT ART PERIOD

MESOLITHIC PERIOD C. 10,000 - 4,000 BCE - NORTHERN AND WESTERN EUROPEC. 10,000 - 7,000 BCE - SOUTHEAST EUROPEC. 10,000 - 8,000 BCE - MIDDLE EAST AND REST OF WORLD

• From Ice-Age to No Ice; Grassland appear and people started to create farm lands

• Artwork: Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the Hands) (c.9500 BCE)Type: Stencils of Hands; Pigments on RockLocal Period: Upper Paleolithic/NeolithicLocation: Rio de las Pinturas, Argentina

• Artwork: Wonderwerk Cave Engravings (c.8200 BCE)Type: Geometric Designs and Representations of AnimalsLocal Period: African NeolithicLocation: Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape Province, South Africa

MESOLITHIC PERIOD NOTABLE WORK OF ARTS• Artwork: Tassili-n-Ajjer Rock Art (c.8000 BCE)

Type: Paintings and EngravingsLocal Period: Archaic TraditionLocation: Tassili-n-Ajjer, Algeria, N Africa

• Artwork: The Shigirl Idol (7,500 BCE)Type: Wood carving of an anthropomorphic figure.Local Period: Late Mesolithic, Early NeolithicLocation: Peat bog near Sverdlovsk in Russia.

NEOLITHIC PERIODC. 4,000 - 2,000 BCE: NORTHERN AND WESTERN EUROPEC. 7,000 - 2,000 BCE: SOUTHEAST EUROPEC. 8,000 - 2,000 BCE: MIDDLE EAST & REST OF WORLD

• People started to settled in areas and communities are formed

• Crafts like weaving and pottery started

• Ceramics and Portable arts appeared; cave painting was abandoned

• Architecture is developed through the use of Megaliths (big stones).

NEOLITHIC PERIOD NOTABLE WORKS OF ART• Artwork: Coldstream Burial Stone (c.6,000 BCE)

Type: Pigments on Quartzite PebbleLocal Period: African NeolithicLocation: Lottering River, Western Cape Province, South Africa

• Artwork: The Seated Woman of Catal Huyuk (c.6000 BCE)Type: Terracotta SculptureLocal Period: NeolithicLocation: Catal Huyuk, Anatolia, Turkey

• Artwork: Egyptian Naquada I Female Figurines (c.5500-3000 BCE)Type: Small Carved Figures: Bone, Ivory, Stone (Ornamented w. Lapis Lazuli) Local Period: Egyptian Predynastic Period (Naquada I Period, 4000-3500 BCE)Location: Egypt

NEOLITHIC PERIOD NOTABLE WORK OF ARTS• Artwork: Thinker of Cernavoda (c.5,000 BCE)

Type: TerracottaLocal Period: Neolithic Hamangia CultureLocation: Romania

• Artwork: Fish God of Lepenski Vir (c.5000 BCE)Type: Sandstone CarvingLocal Period: NeolithicLocation: Danube Settlement of Lepenski Vir, Serbia

• Artwork: Dabous Giraffe Engravings (c.4000 BCE)Type: Saharan Rock EngravingsLocal Period: Taureg CultureLocation: Agadez, Niger, Africa

• Artwork: Artwork: Valdivia Figurines (c.4000–3500 BCE)Type: First representational images in the Americas, in limestone and marbleLocal Period: NeolithicLocation: Real Alto and Loma Alta sites, Ecuador

LOCALIZATION OF NEOLITHIC ART PERIOD IN THE PHILIPPINES

• Manunggul Jar is a burial jar excavated from a Neolithic burial site in Manunggul cave of Tabon Caves at Lipuun Point at Palawan dating from 890–710 B.C. The two prominent figures at the top handle of its cover represent the journey of the soul to the after life.

• Agono Pteroglyphs date back to circa late Neolithic. They are located in the rear recess of a cave, carved in a rock formation belonging to the Pleistocene Guadalupe Formation. There are 127 figures engraved into volcanic tuff that was soft enough to be worked on by a denser piece of stone. Unlike other examples of prehistoric art, there is no indication that colors were ever incorporated in the drawings.