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ART OF THE PALEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC ERASART HISTORY SURVEY I

The polychrome painting above, of a "cow and a horse,"is a paleolithic cave painting from the caves at Lascaux,in the Dordogne region of France. The painting is dated

at approximately 15,000 bce.The animal figures are both naturalistic and stylized, often showing fine details thatsuggest keen familiarity with the animal painted or drawn. There does not appear tobe a "ground line" in the cave paintings or a sense of depth, although people todaytend to understand overlapping figures as suggesting an illusion of three-dimensionalspace. The overlapping of figures may be due to the oil lamp or candle lighting which

would illuminate small areas at a time; such lights have been found inside the caves.

While the Paleolithic era refers to the "old stone age," the entire time period duringwhich human beings were making tools of stone, art begins at approximately 35,000bce a time at which human beings seem to have circled the globe. The time frame

for "paleolithic art" can be described from 35,000 bce to aproximately 12,000 bcewhen people lived in hunter-gatherer nomadic tribes and prior to the development ofagriculture. The time frame has been pushed back in recent years to reflect currentdiscoveries that show earlier use of stone tools. "Neolithic" refers to the "new stoneage," generally reflecting the use of stone tools with some use of metals and withpeople settling into permanent communities, the development of agriculture, andanimal husbandry.In art, the Paleolithic era is marked by cave paintings and drawings of animals. It isthought that the animals were either those needed for food and that the paintingswere some type of ritual related to the hunt, or that the animals were sacred andwere given god-like qualities. It has also been suggested that the paintings representprimitive calendars or almanacs, "coming of age" ceremonies, records of tribal

migrations, and mystic paintings during a shamanistic trance. While the purpose ofpaleolithic works of art is far from being certain, the art can be categorized as being"invitational," that is, created and viewed on purpose by selected or invited individualsfor specific purposes; "public," that is, created to be viewed by anyone in the area orpassing by the area, such as a public monument, territorial marker, or gravestone;and "personal," that is, small private objects carried by individuals as ritual items orcharms.

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Left: "Big Cats" from theChauvet cave in Ardeche,France. The caves containmany images of rhinos and bigcats. Dated at 30,000bce...these cave paintings may

be the oldest found in Europe todate.Right: Horse outlined withcharcoal from the Lascauxcaves.

This cave painting from Lascauxincludes additional markingswhich may be representations ofarrows, indications of counting ortribal signatures. The blending ofcolors seen here, such as in thehorse's mane blending into thehorse's neck, may suggest thepaint was blown or 'spit' onto thewall.

Paleolithic artists also created several types of sculpture. Small portable pieces likethe "Bison with Head Turned" below suggest imagination in looking at an object (likelooking at clouds in the sky and seeing elephants!). The center relief sculpture belowshows a nude female holding an animal horn. The horn is incised with lines that arethought to represent a lunar calendar or a woman's menstrual cycle. The sculpture atthe right is a high relief in stone with clay added to enhance the image of the bison.

Bison with head turned, from theDordogne region of France. 4 l/2"length.

Carved female("Venus") figure

holding horn withmarkings, fromLaussel in

France,c.20,000bce.

Relief bison, clay and stone. FromLe Tuc d'Audobert in SouthernFrance. c.15,000 bce.

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Discovered in 1986 in Dolni Vestoniciin the Czech Republic, this figure was

carved from mammoth ivory and isdated at 26,640 bce.

Rock art at a cliff face at Huashan, SouthwestChina, is probably Neolithic, considering the

presence of many, active human figures.Rock painting and engraving seem to be world-wide phenomena in the Paleolithicand Neolithic eras, although it has been observed that the subject matter in Africa(center below) and Australia (left and right images below) is more likely to be human

beings in addition to animals. A major difference between Paleolithic and Neolithicimages is the depiction of the human person. In the Paleolithic era, the mostcommon human representation is the highly abstract female figure, usually carved orincised; in the Neolithci era, the figures show up everywhere, including out in the"public's view" in rock paintings and engravings. There the human figures appear ingroups actively pursuing animals or at least are depicted with a potential formovement.

Ancestral spirit figure, fromArnhem Land, Australia.

Presently dated to approximately7-9,000 years ago.

Human figure imagesfrom Tanzania.

Male and female figuresfrom Ubirr Rock, Arnhem

Land, Australia.

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NEOLITHIC ART Copyright M. Hoover and San Antonio College, July,2001. All rights reserved.

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