Unit 1 (Global Prehistory)

1. Apollo 11 Stones

Location: Namibia

Artist: N/A

Date: 25,500 - 25,300 B.C.E

Culture: (probably) ancient South African

Period/Style: Prehistoric, Paleolithic

Material/Technique: Charcoal on stone

Theme(s): animal representation, records,

Form: An animal that looks like a bovine can be seen on the stone. The use of lines and shape are displayed in the entire figure. However, keep in mind that during this time period a limited amount of supplies were available to people.

Function: Probably to keep record of what was seen or killed.

Content: Figures of animals

Context: Found in the Apollo 11 Cave in the Huns Mountains of southwestern Namibia with unusual precision for ancient rock art. The stones are engraved with geometric line designs and representations of animals.

2. Great Hall of the Bulls

Location: Cave walls near Lascaux, France

Artist: N/A

Date: 15,000-13,000 B.C.E

Culture: (probably) ancient French

Period/Style: Prehistoric, Paleolithic

Material/Technique: Rock painting; contours to show volume of the animals

Theme(s): Hunting, survival, food

Form: Color is used to distinguish one animal from another. Lines and shapes are used to show figures of animals. Movement can also be seen in the running bulls. Scale was probably used to bring attention to more important/significant animals.

Function: Prehistoric hunters believed that they had control of the animals by painting them on the walls. They also believed the more lifelike the animal was, the more magical power the animal had. Maybe, the art was used to keep record of hunting events and kills.

Content: Bulls and other animals running.

Context: The painting took place in France, and has to do with hunter-gatherer society, concerns with food, survival, and procreation.

3. Camelid Sacrum in the shape of a canine

Location: Tequixquiac, Central Mexico

Artist: N/A

Date: 14,000-7,000 B.C.E

Culture: (probably) Mesoamerican

Period/Style: Prehistoric, Paleolithic

Medium/Material: Carved (animal) pelvic bones

Theme(s): importance of animals, spirituality

Form: Form utilized to show a shape of a canine; shadows.

Function: Housed spiritual essence of a hunted animal; ceremonial mask

Content: ...

Context: Used as a mask, traditionally thought to be simultaneously located in an Otherworld

4. Running Horned Woman

Location: Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria

Artist: N/A

Date: 6,000-4,000 B.C.E

Culture: (probably) ancient North African

Period/Style: Prehistoric, Neolithic

Medium/Material: Pigment on rock

Theme(s): supernatural beings, ceremony/ritual

Form: The use of color, shape, lines, scale, and space are utilized to form the Horned Women and her surrounding figures. Movement is evident as she is clearly planting her foot for another long stride.

Function: Some scholars have interpreted the woman as a horned deity instead of a human wearing ceremonial headgear.

Content: Either a horned deity or a human is running around, probably for a ceremonial or ritualistic purpose.

Context: It's made on rock walls and displays varied human and animal activities.

5. Bushel with Ibex motifs

Location: Susa, Iran

Artist: N/A

Date: 4,200-3,500 B.C.E

Culture: (probably) ancient Middle East

Period/Style: Prehistoric, Neolithic

Medium/Material: Painted terracotta

Theme(s): agriculture, probably growth

Form: Color and lines is/are used to create the shapes of animals, clan symbols, etc.

Function: It was among the funerary objects of the first inhabitants of Susa. On a secondary burial, the deceased received bushels and other items.

Content: Birds, dogs, land settlements, a goat, motif

Context: Given to the deceased during a secondary burial

6. Anthropomorphic Stele

Location: Arabian Peninsula

Artist: N/A

Date: Fourth Millennium B.C.E (c. 4,000 B.C.E)

Culture: (probably) ancient Arab

Period/Style: Prehistoric, Neolithic

Medium/Material: Sandstone

Theme(s): ???

Form: Form used to make the figure into a human-like shape with a robe and sword.

Function: unknown, but probably used for religious or burial practices

Content: Distinctive belted robe and double-bladed sword, held by a human-like figure

Context: Some are carved in surrounding sandstone cliffs by many Arabian tombs. Earliest known works of art from the Arabian Peninsula

7. Jade Cong

Location: Liangzhu, China

Artist: N/A

Date: 3,300-2,200 B.C.E

Culture: (probably) ancient Chinese

Period/Style: Prehistoric, Neolithic

Medium/Material: Carved jade

Theme(s): spirits, deities

Form: Pattern, form, color (choice)

Function: might have held spiritual or symbolic meanings to the early cultures of China, burial purposes

Content: rectangular prism with inscribed circle that has a hole in the center, face patterns

Context: The principal decoration on cong of the Liangzhu period was the face pattern, which may refer to spirits or deities

8. Stonehenge

Location: Wiltshire, UK

Artist: N/A

Date: 2,500-1,600 B.C.E

Culture: (probably) ancient European

Period/Style: Prehistoric, Neolithic

Medium/Material: Sandstone

Theme(s): mathematics, unknown

Form: Form, using "post and lintel" structures

Function: probably a marker of the midsummer solstice

Content: ???

Context: worked within the context of existing archaeological knowledge

9. Ambum Stone

Location: Ambum Valley, Enga Provine, Papua New Guinea

Artist: N/A

Date: c. 1,500 B.C.E

Culture: (probably) ancient Oceania

Period/Style: Prehistoric, Neolithic

Medium/Material: Greywacke

Theme(s): Birds, pestle

Form: Made out of greywacke, probably to get a rich, brown color to represent the importance of animals.

Function: Considered sacred and credited with supernatural powers by present day people of the region.

Content: A bird-like figure that sits like a human calmly.

Context: It has a higher level of figurative qualities than other pestles and may be in a unique class of its own.

10. Tlatilco female figurine

Location: Central Mexico, site of Tlatilco

Artist: N/A

Date: 1,200-900 B.C.E

Culture: (probably) ancient Mexican

Period/Style: Prehistoric, Neolithic

Medium/Material: Ceramic and panit

Theme(s): fertility, exaggeration, idealism

Form: Form used to show physical "deformities," color to show different body parts

Function: suggested they are related to women's roles in regards to nature

Content: A nude woman, probably to show the ideal body figure of the time.

Context: The figure is completely nude and revealing an exagerrated contrast in proportions. Tlatico figurines show a fascination with physical deformities.

11. Terracotta fragment

Location: Lapita Islands, Solomon Islands, Reef Islands

Artist: N/A

Date: 1,000 B.C.E

Culture: (probably) ancient Oceania

Period/Style: Prehistoric, Neolithic

Medium/Material: incised terracotta

Theme(s): storage, ???

Form: Patterns which include faces and figures, and a red, vibrant color

Function: piece of pottery used for cooking, serving, and storing

Content: Geometric patterns, lines, and shapes.

Context: Lapita art is known for ceramics, which have intricate repeating geometric patterns that sometimes include anthropomorphic faces and figures.

Terracotta Fragment

Stele

stone markers to denote important religious or civic sites or to be used as burial markers

abstraction

Art that does not depict an actual person, place or thing as it looks in the real world.

acropolis

A "high city" - generally the most important area of the city which would be built on a hill

anthropomorphic

ascribing human characteristics to nonhuman things

burin

A pointed tool used for engraving or incising.

composite view

See twisted perspective.

contour line

outline of a figure or shape

cromlech

A circle of monoliths. Also called henge.

dolmen

Several large stones (megaliths) capped with a covering slab, erected in prehistoric times.

frieze

A broad horizontal band of sculpted or painted decoration near the top of the object

ground

A coating applied to a canvas or some other surface to prepare that surface for painting; also, background.

ground line

In paintings and reliefs, a painted or carved base line on which figures appear to stand.

handthrown

Pottery object not made on a pottery wheel.

ideogram

A simple, picture like sign filled with implicit meaning.

incise

To cut into a surface with a sharp instrument; also, a method of decoration, especially on metal and pottery.

lintel

A beam used to span an opening.

medium (media)

The substance or agency in which an artist works; also, in painting, the vehicle (usually liquid) that carries the pigment.

megalith (adj., megalithic)

Literally, "great stone"; a large, roughly hewn stone used in the construction of monumental prehistoric structures. See also cromlech, dolmen, menhir.

menhir

A prehistoric monolith, uncut or roughly cut, standing singly or with others in rows or circles.

Mesolithic

The "middle" prehistoric period, between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic ages.

monolith

A column that is all in one piece (not composed of drums); a large, single block or piece of stone used in megalithic structures.

monumental

In art criticism, any work of art of grandeur and simplicity, regardless of its size.

mural

A wall painting; a fresco is a type of mural medium and technique.

naturalism

The doctrine that art should adhere as closely as possible to the appearance of the natural world.

Naturalism, with varying degrees of fidelity to appearance, recurs in the history of Western art.

Neolithic

The "new" Stone Age, approximately 7000-3000 B.C.

Paleolithic

The "old" Stone Age, during which humankind produced the first art objects beginning ca. 30,000 B.C.

pigment

An insoluble powder that is mixed with water, oil or another base to produce paint

Popul Vu

Mayan creation story

provenance

A record of ownership of a work of art used as a guide to authenticate it.

radiocarbon dating

Method of measuring the decay rate of carbon isotopes in organic matter to provide dates for organic materials such as wood and fiber.

sarsen

A form of sandstone used for the megaliths at Stonehenge.

Sculpture in the round

Freestanding figures, carved or modeled in three dimensions - not attached to another surface (except

a base)

silhouette

a portrait in profile showing the outline only and filled in with black

slip

A suspension in water of clay and/or other materials used to coat the outer part of a piece of pottery in the production of ceramic ware.

stylization

The decorative generalization of figures and objects by means of various conventional techniques. In other words, a repetition of the same look, whether within a geographic area or by a particular artist.

Subtractive sculpture

Sculpture technique in which materials are taken away from the original mass, i.e., carving

sympathetic magic

magic predicated on the belief that one thing or event can affect another at a distance as a consequence of a sympathetic connection between them -like a voodoo doll.

twisted perspective

AKA Composite View - a convention of representation in which part of a figure is shown in profile and

other part of the same figure is shown frontally.

Trilithon

A pair of monoliths topped with a lintel; found in a megalithic structure