Art of Prehistory c. 50,000 BCE 2,000 BCE

Prehistory before writing systems.

The only historical records available

are in objects and images= ART

Prehistory

The challenge is in figuring out how to read this nonverbal

information

Archaeology

Is the scientific study of ancient people and cultures primarily revealed through excavation.

Prehistoric time periods

Paleolithic: Old Stone Age, c. 40,000-8,000

Neolithic: New Stone Age, c. 8000-2000 B.C.E

Prehistoric time periods

Paleolithic Neolithic These time periods roughly correspond

to methods of gathering food and the tools and weapons they

made of stone.

Paleolithic: Old Stone Age, c. 40,000-8,000

homo sapiens (meaning wise man) developed complex cultures.

Paleolithic Period Nomadic hunter-gatherers.

Primitive tools (stone, bone, plants).

Paleolithic Period

Lived communally, building shelters at cave entrances and under rocky overhangs.

Sophisticated art

verbal language

had been developed

(no written language)

Paleolithic Period

art had a functional value (served a purpose)

possibly had an aesthetic value (created just to be attractive)

Paleolithic Period

Earliest surviving works of art date around 30,000 B.C.E.

cave paintings & portable sculptures of

humans or animals

Paleolithic Sculpture

Small and portable (made to be hand held).

Stone, bone, ivory, and clay.

Sculpture in the Round- visible from all sides.

Relief Sculpture Attached to its material, visible from front only.

Woman of Willendorf

Carved sculpture in the round

4.5 (hand held)

Enlarged reproductive organs, suggesting importance of

fertility.

Limestone

25,000 B.C.E

Woman of Willendorf

De-emphasized arms

and legs, nonexistent face and feet suggest that the figure is

symbolic

She is not a portrait of a specific person

Limestone

25,000 B.C.E

Woman of Willendorf

She is CARVED, which is a subtractive technique. Sharp tools are used to gouge or chisel to remove material.

ovals

Woman of Laussel

c. 25,000 B.C.E.

relief sculpture

Face and arms are not nearly as important as the reproductive parts

Animals were often

subject matter

Some accurate images of animals that are now extinct. (ex. wooly mammoths)

Bison with turned head c. 10,000 B.C.E.

carved from a reindeer horn.

shows the artists attention to detail- keen observation as to how an animal moves in space.

Bison with turned head c. 10,000 B.C.E. About 4

INCISED

Tuc dAudaubert Bison

found inside a cave in France

c. 10,000 B.C.E. About 2 feet long

Tuc dAudaubert Bison MODELED in high relief from the clay floor

of the cave. Seems to emerge from the floor.

MODELING is an additive process

Clay that has been fired in a kiln becomes much more durable and waterproof.

Paleolithic sculpture

They also made musical instruments and objects of personal adornment- beads and pendants

Paleolithic Cave Painting

Most are in northern Spain or France

Paleolithic Cave Painting

Once there was exposure to modern atmosphere and visitor traffic, they began to deteriorate rapidly.

Many sites are now closed to the public.

Lascaux Caves, France c.14,000 B.C.E.

Paleolithic Painting

Realistic images of animals

most common animals: deer, cows,

bulls, horses

Chinese Horse 14,000 B.C.E. Lascaux, 56

Paleolithic Cave Painting illusion of movement

and to capture the essence of each species

In contrast, humans are depicted as stick figures with little anatomical detail.

animals more important than the humans

Hand prints are found in many sites. Sometimes there are missing digits (but never a thumb ritual?)

They used natural pigments like red and yellow ochre and other ground minerals

These pigments were mixed with animal fat, blood, sap Anything sticky they could find to use for a binder.

Pigments were applied with feathers, chewed sticks, moss, fur, or fingers onto damp limestone walls.

They sometimes spray painted with dried pigment blown through hollow bones or reeds

sometimes used the walls sculpturally by using bumps, indentations, and crevices to emphasize an animals contours

Animals were superimposed -indicates that ritual in these places needed to be performed over and over

Paleolithic Cave Painting

Animals seem to be scattered about the cave surface with no relationship to

one another. There are layers of paintings that may indicate that various groups wanted to establish a presence in a given location over centuries.

Paleolithic Painting

Paintings were found in areas that were difficult to get to and uninhabitable.

These areas seem to have

served as sanctuaries where fertility, initiation, and hunting rituals were preformed.

It seems like paintings were meant to be kept secret because they were tucked so deep in caves.

They were never near the entrance.

These paintings were NOT painted to decorate caves. There was no such thing as leisure time.

If time and energy were used- there must have been very important purposes for these works.

At first glance, researchers believed that cave art was connected to hunting, but it is more likely that the paintings had some sort of

sympathetic magic?

(like voodoo), image magic- paint images to gain magical powers to ensure a successful hunt.

Altamira, Spain cave paintings are

older, but similar to the Lascaux paintings because they are

remarkable

pictures

of animals

the caves of Altamira, Spain

12,000 B.C.E.

Found in late 1800s, thought to be a hoax because of their complexity

Shamanism

Shamans are intermediaries between the human and spirit worlds.

Considered healers and problem solvers.

They fore tell the future, cure the sick, and assist in such rites of passage as birth and death.

Neolithic Period revolutionary shift from

hunting and gathering to farming and herding-

led to a more settled existence.

Neolithic Period

The agricultural revolution

gave civilization its greatest push forward

Neolithic Period

new art form:

Monumental stone sculpture

built not for habitation, but more likely for some sort of

worship

MENHIRS are solitary upright stone slabs

Celtic terms were used for these Neolithic structures because a large number of them are located in regions later inhabited by Celtic peoples

MENHIRS are solitary upright slabs.

Alignments are cemetery like rows of menhirs

Alignments appear to have been astronomical observatories and sites for sun worshipers.

Carnac Brittany- 3,000 menhirs 2 mile long rows. The menhirs appear to grow -3 feet to as high as 13 feet. Theycorrespond to the rising and setting sun.

a Cromlech is a circular patterns of menhirs.

They mark sacred places.

Stonehenge is an example of a cromlech

Menhirs used in the construction of a prehistoric complex are called

MEGALITHS

MEGALITHS

Most megaliths from the Neolithic period are found in Malta, France, and Britain

The post and lintel system is one of mans first architectural advancements.

Mortise-and-tenon

The most basic post and

lintel form is the trilithon

DOLMANS Are chambers or enclosures that look similar to post& lintel- more like a table. Early dolmans were built as tombs.

DOLMANS Later additions turned them into passageways. These were built for permanence as opposed to the houses built in he Neolithic period (mud, plants, wood)

-links between present time and eternity.

Built between c. 2800 B.C.E. and 1500 B.C.E.

Stonehenge is a megalith (as well as a cromlech)

Stonehenge located on Salisbury Plane in England.

an example of Post and lintel

about 97 feet in diameter 13 1/2 feet high religious site or a scientific siteboth?

The sun rises over the Heel Stone on the summer solstice

Stonehenge

solstices and eclipses -important info for people dependant on the growing season Astrological observatories? To keep track of time?

Stonehenge

The Beaker People (named for

their beaker shaped pottery) were the last group to work on Stonehenge. They brought with them knowledge

of working with metal

Stonehenge

Some stones are over 50 tons.

Hundreds of stones of unknown purpose are placed around the monument.

Some stones were imported

from over 200 miles away.

How/Why?...

We dont know how or why,

but these engineering feats require large-scale social organization and an enormous commitment of resources over a very long time.

Around 2,000 B.C.E., as the use of metal increased, the construction of large stone monuments declined.

Rock Paintings of Australia

Aboriginal societies of hunters and gatherers in the Australian outback appear to have some things in common with the Paleolithic cultures of western Europe

Studying these modern stone age people gives us a unique peek into history.

Archeologists have found tools and objects that suggest that Australia was inhabited as long ago as

175,000 B.C.E.

Some rock paintings are roughly 75,000 years old- far older than believed possible.

Similarities : hand prints

Naturalistic animals

Hunting scenes

Another similarity is that animals are painted naturalistically and people

are depicted schematically

Dreaming Is a mythological plane of

existence- the order of the universe.

It is accessible through ritual such as rock painting

Wandjinas of Dreamtime Or Cloud Spirits they combine human

with cloud forms

They made the human

race and the sea and earth.

Images have special

powers for good and bad

Approach carefully

Lightening man/ Namarrkon Is part of

dreamtime.

He lived in the sky and carried a lightening spear

Lightening man/ Namarrkon

The site where he

settled is taboo, which means it is

sacred and forbidden

It is avoided by Aborigines

Mimi Style Is the oldest style of

rock painting

They are spirits that live in rocks and caves

They can trick humans to turn into a Mimi

X-ray Style

Looks like we can see under the skin