Pre-historic art(Bryan's report)

8/9/2019 Pre-historic art(Bryan's report)

1/30


2/30

Prehistoric art

In the history of art,prehistoric art is all

art produced in

preliterate,

prehistorical culturesbeginning somewhere

in very late geological

history, and generally

continuing until that

culture either developswriting or other

methods


3/30

The very earliest human artifacts showing evidence

of workmanship with an artistic purpose are a subjectof some debate; it is clear that such workmanship

existed by 40,000 years ago in the Upper Paleolithic

era.


4/30

Prehistoric Culture

The basic timeline of Prehistory is dominated by the

so-called Old Stone Age orPaleolithic era, which

lasted (roughly) from 1,600,000 until 10,000 BCE. Itspans three periods:

(1) Lower Paleolithic (2,500,000-200,000 BCE)

(2) Middle Paleolithic (200,000-30,000 BCE)

(3) Upper Paleolithic (40,000-10,000 BCE).

After this comes a transitional phase called theMesolithic period (sometimes known as

epipaleolithic), ending with the spread of agriculture,

followed by the Neolithic period (the New Stone Age)

which witnessed the establishment of permanentsettlements.

The Stone Age ends as stone tools become

superseded by the new products of bronze and iron

metallurgy, and is followed by the Bronze and Iron

ages.


5/30

Lower Paleolithic or Early Stone Age

The Lower Paleolithic period, roughlybetween 1.5 million and 250,000 years ago,

is when our hominine ancestors Homo

erectus and Australopithecus lived on the

earth.

The Lower Paleolithic period (2.7 million

to 200,000 years ago) is the first

archaeology, that is to say, that period

when the first evidence of what scientistsconsider human behaviors occurred.


6/30


7/30


8/30


9/30


10/30

The Middle Paleolithic period (ca 200,000 to 45,000

years ago or so) is the period during which Archaichumans including Homo sapiens neanderthalensis

appeared and flourished all over the world. Hand axes

continued in use, but a new kind of stone tool kit was

created--called the Mousterian, it included purposefullyprepared cores and specialized flake tools.

The living method in the Middle Paleolithic for both

Homo sapiens and our Neanderthal cousins included

scavenging, but there is also clear evidence of hunting

and gathering activities.


11/30

The Upper Paleolithic Revolution

Anatomically modern humans first emerged around

100,000 years ago. However, thereafter there

seems to have followed a period of around 60,000

years when the lifestyle of the modern humans

changed little from that of their predecessors. It was

not till around 40,000 years ago that thearchaeological record reveals the emergence of

technical and social advances which a modern

human can understand as fundamentally like our

own. This dramatic change is known as the Upper

Paleolithic Revolution. The revolution comprisednew technologies, hunting techniques, human

burials and an artistic tradition of astonishing

competency.


12/30

The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric

period during which humans widely used

stone for tool making. Stone tools were

made from a variety of different sorts of

stone. For example, flint and The Stone

Age is a broad prehistoric period duringwhich humans widely used stone for tool

making. Stone tools were made from a

variety of different sorts of stone. For

example, flint and chert were shaped (or

chipped) for use as cutting tools andweapons, while basalt and sandstone were

used for ground stone tools, such as

quern-stones.

The Stone Age


13/30


14/30


15/30

The megalithic ruin known as Stonehenge stands on

the open down land of Salisbury Plain two miles

(three kilometers) west of the town of Amesbury,

Wiltshire, in southern England. It consists of a seriesof earth, timber, and stone structures that were built,

revised and re-modeled over a period of more than

1400 years.


16/30

The Venus of Willendorf, also known

as the Woman of Willendorf, is an 11.1

cm (4 3/8 inches) high statuette of a

female figure. It was discovered in 1908

by archaeologist Josef Szombathely at aPaleolithic site near Willendorf, a village

in Lower Austria near the city of Krems.

It is carved from an oolitic limestone that

is not local to the area, and tinted with

red ochre.


17/30

Cave Paintings

The largest part of the cave

paintings was found in Europe(from Spain up to the Ural).

Naturally, on the walls of

neglected caves with the

entrances firmly blocked up

thousands years ago, the paintings

are in a good condition. Duringcenturies the same temperature

and humidity have been kept up in

them. That is why, together with

the cave paintings, other

numerous evidences of the human

activity are perfectly preserved,among them - distinct footprints of

adults and, what is more

impressive, of children on the wet

floor of some caves.


18/30

Mesolithic Art

Otherwise known as "Middle Stone Age",the Mesolithic period covered a brief

span of around 2,000 years. While it

served as an important bridge between

the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic ages,

the art of this period was, From this

distance, it's not nearly as fascinating asthe discovery of (and innovations in) the

art of the preceding era. And the art of

the subsequent Neolithic era is

exponentially diverse, besides being

more well-preserved and offering us

thousands of examples of itself, insteadof a "handful". Still, let's briefly cover the

artistic events of the Mesolithic because,

after all, it's a distinct era from any other.


19/30


20/30

This was a period when humans developed new

techniques of stone working. At that time, people stayed

longer in one place and gave increased attention to the

domestication. There is a gap in the artistic activity of

people of that epoch. Most of what has survived from the

Mesolithic era is small statuette size works and paintings

in shallow shelter caves.

The rich art of the Paleolithic is replaced by a Mesolithic

art that is quite different. There are many changes in style

as well as meaning. Upper Paleolithic cave art depicts

colored drawings and expressive features of animals. Afull range of color is used. Mesolithic art in contrast is

schematic; no realistic figures are present and only the

color red is used. This form is also found in North Africa

and the northern Mediterranean.


21/30

Neolithic Art

After the rather ho-hum art of the

Mesolithic era, art in the Neolithic

(literally: "new stone") age represents a

spree of hellzapoppin' innovation.

Humans were settling themselves downinto agrarian societies, which left them

enough spare time to explore some key

concepts of civilization - namely,

religion, measurement, the rudiments of

architecture and writing and, yes, art.


22/30

The "new" arts to emerge from this era were weaving,

architecture, the construction ofmegaliths and

increasingly stylized pictographs that were well ontheir way to becoming writing.

The earlier arts ofstatuary, painting and pottery

stuck with (and still remain with) us. The Neolithic era

saw many refinements to each.Statuary (primarily statuettes), made a big comeback

after having been largely absent during the Mesolithic

age. Its Neolithic theme dwelt primarily on the

female/fertility, or "Mother Goddess" imagery (quite in

keeping with agriculture, this). There were still animalstatuettes, however these weren't lavished with the

detail the goddesses enjoyed. They are often found

broken into bits - perhaps indicating that they were

used symbolically in hunting rituals.


23/30

The Neolithic art created 5,000 years ago bears a series

of mysterious shapes, including concentric circles,

interlocking rings and hollowed cups.

The finds, around Northumberland and Durham, are

particularly exciting as many of the nation's prehistoriccarvings have been lost to natural erosion and human

activities such as quarrying and field clearance.

Although they are not in caves, many of the sites are

barely accessible, accounting for their having lain

undiscovered for thousands of years.


24/30


25/30

Iron Age

In archaeology, the Iron Age is theprehistoric period in any area

during which cutting tools and

weapons were mainly made of iron

or steel. The adoption of this

material coincided with other

changes in society, including

differing agricultural practices,

religious beliefs and artistic styles.


26/30

The Iron Age is the last principal period in thethree-age system for classifying prehistoric

societies, preceded by the Bronze Age and the

Stone Age. Its dates and context vary depending

on the geographical region.T

he Iron Age in eacharea ends with the beginning of the historical

period, i.e. the local production of ample written

sources. Thus, for instance, the British Iron Age

ends with the Roman Conquest.


27/30

The term "Iron Age" was originally derivedfrom the "Ages of Man", i.e. the ages of

human existence on the Earth according

to Classical mythology. While the earlier

ages in this scheme are entirely mythical("The Golden Age" and the "Silver Age"),

the later Bronze Age and Iron Age of

classical mythology preserve the memory

of actual periods when the metalsmentioned dominated human life.


28/30


29/30


30/30

Documents

Pre-historic art(Bryan's report)