Cave Art
Prehistoric Art - Paleolithic
(2 million years ago-13,000 BC.)
Paleolithic or "Old Stone Age" is a term used to define the oldest period in
the human history. It began about 2 million years ago, from the use of first
stone tools and ended of the Pleistocene epoch, with the close of the last ice
age about 13,000 BC.
Stone tool manufacturing developed a more sophisticated tool making technique
which permitted the creation of more controlled and consistent flakes.
Artistic expression emerged for the first time with ochre used as body paint and
some early rock art appearing. There is also some evidence of purposeful burial
of the dead which may indicate religious and ritual behaviors.
Paleolithic Art, produced from about 32,000 to 11,000 years ago, falls into
two main categories: Portable Pieces of small figurines or decorated objects
carved out of bone, stone, or modeled in clay, and Cave Art.
Prehistoric Art - Mesolithic / Archaic
(10,000 - 5,000 BC)
The Mesolithic is the period of middle Stone Age, from about 10,000 - 5,000
BC years ago. It corresponds to period of primarily nomadic hunting and
gathering which preceded the adoption of domesticated plants and animals. 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. A full
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.
Prehistoric Art - Neolithic
(10,000 - 5,000 BC)
The Neolithic period, also called New Stone Age, began when men first developed
agriculture and settled in permanent villages. It ended with the discovery of
bronze. The prime medium of Neolithic art was pottery. Other important artistic
expressions were statuary of the universally worshiped Mother Goddess and
megalithic stone monuments.
Free standing sculpture had already begun by the Neolithic, the earliest being
the anthropomorphic figurines, often embellished by animals from the very
beginning of the Neolithic discovered in Nevali Cori and Göbekli Tepe near Urfa
in eastern Turkey, dating to ca. 10th millennium BC. The mesolithic statues of
Lepenski Vir at the Iron Gorge, Serbia and Montenegro date to the 7th millennium
BC and represent either humans or mixtures of humans and fish.
In Central Europe, many Neolithic cultures, like Linearbandkeramic, Lengyel and
Vinca, produced female (rarely male) and animal statues that can be called art.
Whether the elaborate pottery decoration of, for example, the eliesovce and
painted Lengyel style are to be classified as art is a matter of definition.
Megalithic monuments are found in the Neolithic from Spain to the British Isles
and Poland. They start in the 5th Millennium BC, though some authors speculate
on Mesolithic roots. Because of frequent reuse, this is difficult to prove.
While the most well-known of these is Stonehenge, were the main structures date
from the early Bronze age, such monuments have been found throughout most of
Western and Northern Europe, notably at Carnac, France, at Skara Brae in the
Orkney Islands, in Portugal, and in Wiltshire, England, the area of Stonehenge,
the Avebury circle, the tombs at West Kennet, and Woodhenge. One tomb found in
New Grange, Ireland, has its entrance marked with a massive stone carved with a
complex design of spirals. The tomb of Knowth has rock-cut ornaments as well.
Many of these monuments were megalithic tombs, and archaeologists speculate that
most have religious significance.
NEXT