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Global PreHistory

NEED TO KNOW DATES...
PALEOLITHIC: 25,000 BCE
NEOLITHIC: 5,000 BCE
 

Paleolithic Art: 40,000-8,000 BCE in the Near East
("Old Stone Age")        40,000-4,000 BCE in Europe
(Woman of Willendorf, Feline-headed statue, Lascaux Caves, Catal Hoyuk)

  • Hunter-Gatherers, Nomadic


Neolithic Art:   8,000- 3,000 BCE in the Near East
("New Stone Age")     4,000- 2,000 BCE in Europe
(Stonehenge)

  • Cultivated, raised livestock, organized settlements

KEY IDEAS

  • 75,000 BCE: Stick of ochre (a pigment of the earth, brown/yellow) are engraved in Blombos Cave, South Africa, 61,000 years before the Lascaux caves!

  • Earliest works are cave paintings and portable sculptures

  • Conjectures are made about the meaning of prehistoric works

  • No one single function and the purpose can only be guessed 

  • Monuments like Stonehenge show that people were able to build structures made of the post and lintel system.

  • The need to create is one of the strongest human impulses.

  • Focus on materials indigenous to the environment/geography

  • Since context is largely unknown, focus on original location and content

CHARACTERISTICS OF 
PAINTINGS

  • Animal figures dominate- usually with a dark outline

  • Humans represented as stick figures, negative handprints

  • Lascaux Caves, 15,000- 13,000 BCE, France

  • Altimira Caves, Spain

CHARACTERISTICS OF 
ARCHITECTURE

  • Shelters out of large animal bones

  • Post and lintel systems (most basic type of architecture)

  • Stonehenge, possibly

CHARACTERISTICS OF 
SCULPTURE

  • All in-the-round sculpture is portable

  • Some human representations have emphasis on certain body parts

  • Carvings on cave walls utilize natural formations in the rock 

ARTWORK LIST

1. APOLLO 11 STONES
2. GREAT HALL OF THE BULLS
3. CAMELID SACRUM IN THE SHAPE OF A CANINE
4. RUNNING HORNED WOMAN
5. BEAKER WITH IBEX MOTIFS
6. ANTHROPOMORPHIC STELE
7. JADE CONG
8. STONEHENGE
9. THE AMBUM STONE
10. TLATILCO FEMALE FIGURINE
11. TERRA COTTA FRAGMENT
ADDITIONS

VOCABULARY
1. PALEOLITHIC
2. NEOLITHIC
3. SCHEMATIC
4. SHAMAN
5. ABSTRACTION
6. HUNTER-GATHERER
7. RITUAL
8. COSMOS
9. CERAMICS
10. MONOLITHIC
13. ANTHROPOMORPHIC
14. MOTIFS
15. PROFILE
16. SILHOUETTE
17. CONTOUR LINES
18. BAS RELIEF
19. GEOMETRIC
20. STYLIZED
21. STELE
22. SONG
23. INCISE
24. SUBTRACTIVE
25. MEGALITH
26. TRILITHON
27. POST AND LINTEL
 

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