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Prehistoric Art
• Paleolithic, “Old Stone Age”– Lower, 1,500,000 years ago
– Middle: 200,000 – 100,000 years ago
– Upper: 50,000 – 45,000 years ago to c. 10,000 years ago (8,000 BCE)
• Mesolithic, “Middle Stone Age”– c. 8,000 – 6,000 BCE in southeastern Europe
– c. 8,000 – 4,000 BCE in rest of Europe
• Neolithic, “New Stone Age”– 6,000/4,000 – 2,000 BCE
Prehistoric Art
• Upper Paleolithic, c. 30,000 BCE
• Period characterized by 2 categories of art: mural art and moveable objects
• People of Paleolithic Europe nomadic hunter gatherers who followed game seasonally, living in tents of animal skin and in sheltered cave openings
• Small tribal bands; perhaps 25 people including children; total pop. of France a few 10,000
• Population very stable; little strain on environment; food abundant and life rather secure
• Hunting may not have been a primary activity
Prehistoric Art, portable objects
• Human with Feline Head
– 30,000 BCE, mammoth ivory Germany, 11.5”
– Large cf. to most objects of period
– Intention unknown
– Does it represent a sorceror, shaman, or magician?
– Clearly of great importance to whoever produced it:• Removal of tusk; cutting to size; shaping
with sandstone; carving of features
• Probably several days of fairly skilled labor
• Skill involved suggests specialization, that such objects important enough to tribe to allow at least one member to devote time entirely to creation of images – but what purpose did they serve?
Prehistoric Art• Venus of Willendorf, c. 25,000 BCE,
limestone, 4.5” h., Austria
• Prehistoric art depicts animals or
humans; humans depicted almost always female, usually nude
• similar images found throughout
Europe
• Intentions/context again unknown;
variety of forms suggest they don’trepresent a specific deity
• Yet they are all of a similar type, a
convention for this type of figureexisted throughout Europe
Venus of Laussel, c. 25,000BCE, 1’6” h., France
Prehistoric Art, portable objects
Bison with turned head, c. 12,000 BCE, 4” h., France
Altamira Cave, 12,000 BCE, northern Spain, Don Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola
Lascaux Caves, France, 15,000 BCE
Spotted Horses, Peche-Merle, France, c. 22,000 BCE
Shaman, Trois Freres cave, Ariege, France, c. 13,000 BCE, 24” h.
The Neolithic Era, 6000/4000-2000 BCE
Jericho and Catal Huyuk
Jericho Skulls, 7,000 BCE
Anatolian Goddess Giving Birth, 6500-5700 BCE
The Neolithic in Western Europe
Neolithic period arrived in western Europe later than in Near East, c. 4000 BCE
Neolithic monuments more crude in purely artistic sense but have also remained
more intact Megaliths – “Big Rocks” found in Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, and northern
Europe Monoliths or menhirs – standing stones, found alone, in clusters, and sometimes
in rows or alignments, as at Carnac in Brittany, France
Dolmen – “Table” -- Capstones
West Kennet Long Barrow• 110 yrds• possibly single family
Passage Grave, Newgrange, Boyne Valley, Ireland, c. 3300 BCE
Passage graves or barrows, cairn
Cromlechs• Castlerigg Stone Circle, Cumbria
Ggantija, Gozo, Malta, c. 3000 BCE
Ggantija, Gozo, Malta, c. 3000 BCE
Ggantija, Gozo, Malta, c. 3000 BCE
Mother Goddess, c. 2500 BCE