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