Gardner's Art Ch 1. Art n the Stone Age

petroglyph

rock carving

Paleolithic (2.58 million to 11,700 years ago)

The earliest period of the Stone Age associated with the evolution of humans, characterized by the creation and use of rudimentary chipped stone tools. It predates the Neolithic period, i.e. time of farming.

Mesolithic

The Middle Stone Age of Europe, Asia, and Africa beginning about 12,000/11,800 years ago

Neolithic ("New Stone Age")

The later part of the Stone Age, when ground or polished stone weapons and implements prevailed, and transmigration replaced by the urban revolution.

Venus de Willendorf (Austria, 28,000-25,000 BCE)

Fertility figure based on exaggerated sexuality (enlarged breasts, pubic triangle yoni. Evidence of heat fracturing.

Venus de Hohle Fels (Germany 40-35,000 BCE)

Earliest known, undisputed example of a depiction of a human being. Mammoth tusk ivory. Belly held lovingly. Carved with flint tools suggests time and resources devoted to its creation.

Lady of Brassempouy (France 22,000 BCE)

Carved Ivory. Facial features, pleated hair.

Waterworn pebble resembling a human face

Makapansgat, South Africa

3,000,000 BCE

Jasperite

May represent first human face, or may have been shaped by nature and recognized by a human as "human"

Bhimbetka Petroglyphs (290 000 - 700 000 BCE)

Paintings in rock shelter 8, Upper Paleolithic period, Bhimbetka, India

Dendrochronology

The process of counting tree rings to determine the age of a tree

C14 dating

a technique used to date fossils that uses the known disintegration rate of radioactive carbon; the amount of carbon-14 remaining in fossils indicated their age

thermoluminescence dating

A relative dating method in which the energy trapped in a material is measured when the object is heated.

Lascaux Cave (15,000-13,000 hall of bulls)

A cave discovered in 1940 and containing exceptionally fine Paleolithic wall paintings and engravings

Chauvet Cave

The earliest known painted cave, dated to between 38,000 and 33,000 years ago. It is located in France.

Bear (Cave Painting)

France Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France, 30-28,000 BCE.

Wounded Bison (Altamira, Spain ca. 15,000 10,000 BCE)

Red ochre, charcoal

Depth and detail

Encyclopedic vs. sympathetic magic

Mezhirich (Ukraine) (15,000 bp)

- Mesolithic

- Mammoth bone hut, 95 mandibles

- Circular arrangement of mammoth bones 16,-11,000, but most likely 15,000

Lowenmensch (Lion-Man)

Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave, Germany

40-35,000 BCE

Chinese "Running" Horse, Lascaux

16,000-14,000 BCE

4' 11" long. Looks pregnant. Fletching could represent arrows or grass. Lower part of body employs heavier lines. Tail suggests two moments in time.

Hall of Bulls, Lascaux Cave

-15,000 BCE Prehistoric, Paleolithic

-Possibly represents a historical narrative, or sympathetic magic, i.e. paint the animal you are going to hunt wounded and it might happen, or bulls could also be seen as analogues for humans.

Wounded Man and Bison

Artist: unknown

Medium: fresco

Location: Lascaux Cave, Dordogne, France

Period: Prehistoric 16-13,000 BCE. Man could be seen as a shaman.

Vogelherd Horse

Earliest known animal carving, 28,000 BCE. Mammoth ivory. Horse galloping. Detail on mane.

Catalhoyuk, Turkey

- Is one of the oldest and largest complex settlements in the Neolithic

- 18 different occupation levels of this site, ~ 1,200 years

- Earliest occupation is ~ 9,000 years ago

- Over 1,000 houses, maybe 2,000

- Densely packed, no streets, shared walls. Had to enter homes through the roof

- A few open courtyard area

- Maybe 8,000 people lived here

- Most homes are about 226ft^2

- The only individuals that appear to have a higher status is babies: buried with decorate objects

- Cemeteries are in homes under the sleeping platforms

- Bodies are taken out to the elements and de-fleshed and then bundled up and buried

- One room had 60 individuals

- Artifacts being manufactured include fishhooks, pottery vessels, and beads

- Commitment to an agricultural way of life

- Not considered a city

Bison licking its flank

ca. 12,000 B.C.E.; Paleolithic; La Madeleine, France; reindeer horn

Atl=atl: pear Thrower with Interlocking Ibexes

Location: Grotte d'Enlene , France

Time: 16,000 BCE

Material: Reindeer Antler

Designed by Paleo-Indians for hunting. It was made by finding a stick with a notch where the end of a spear could rest, thus giving more leverage to make more powerful throws over longer distances.

Gobekli Tepe, Turkey

Hilltop shrine of circular structures, dating to about 9600 BC.

Plastered Skull from Jericho

• Neolithic (9000-7000 BCE)

• Heads removed for ceremonial purposes

• Eyes inlaid with shells, plaster and some traces of pigment

• Kathleen Kenyon, 1953

Ain Ghazal, Jordan

• Neolithic (6750 BCE and 6500 BCE)

• Plaster and figures in pits. First monumental form, maybe ancestors

• Ritual removal of skulls hidden under the floor

Skara Brae, Scotland

The Neolithic village included paths connecting the dwellings as a community.

Menhirs at Carnac

Neolithic 4500-2000 BCE

Northwestern France

Big vertical rocks

Alignment might line up with sun

Stonehenge, England, 3000-2000 BCE

Built by different groups of people at different times, deals with the sunrise on the summer solstice

Urban Revolution

First proposed by archaeologist V. Gordon Childe, between approximately 4000 and 1500 BCE human societies in certain river valleys transformed from Neolithic farming villages into more complex urban societies. What might this transition be called?

Hafting Method

The way a point is attached to a spear shaft

Obsidian

A usually black or banded, hard volcanic glass that displays shiny, curved surfaces when fractured and is formed by rapid cooling of lava, used for paleolithic tools.

Blombos Cave, South Africa

Cave site with evidence of art and Homo sapiens-style artifacts dating to as early as 75,000 years ago.

Sulawesi, Indonesia

earliest amh cave painting sites

- date to about 40,000 ya

-

Chauvet Cave, France

- Earliest paintings dates to 32,000ya

- Friends found the cave art in early 90s

- Are depictions of cave bears, rhinos, human handprints, mountain lions, bison, etc

- Torch marks on wall - used to get off burnt wood

- Torch marks can be dated, sometimes they are over paintings

- Dated the charcoal with AMS dating

Altamira Cave

A cave in northern Spain where prehistoric paintings were discovered in 1879. The paintings are believed to be 25,000 - 35,000 years old.

Bison Sculpture

Tuc Audoubert, France 13,000 BCE, for of parietal art

ochre

an earthy pigment containing ferric oxide, typically with clay, varying from light yellow to brown or red.

hunter-gatherers

People who survive by hunting animals and gathering wild plants.

Portable Art

objects of art, such as small sculptures, that can be carried from place to place

Parietal Art

Art made on stationary surfaces, especially cave walls and ceilings.

nomadic

wandering from place to place

naturalism/realism

Representing animals or humans in a recognizable, lifelike manner.

Hand Stencils

Prehistoric negative images of hands (made by spray-painting through a tube): c.f. positive handprints.

shamanism

The practice of identifying special individuals (shamans) who will interact with spirits for the benefit of the community. Characteristic of the Korean kingdoms of the early medieval period and of early societies of Central Asia. (p. 292)

Animism(Shamanism)

Belief that animals, objects, and natural forces possess spiritual qualities.

Sympathetic Magic Theory

Theory that an image could symbolically influence the real-world animal or event it represented.

Hunting Magic Theory

Belief held among early humans that spells, rituals and cave art could assist them in their hunts. Or if they drew something like that it would make the animal come to them.

Pictograph

Image painted onto a rock surface.

Stonehenge Trilithons

- Pairs of upright stones supporting horizontal lintels; demonstrate post-and-lintel construction and sophisticated stone engineering.

Skara Brae

a Stone Age village in Northern Scotland discovered by archaeologists in the 1800s

post and lintel construction

Construction method in which a horizontal beam rests on vertical supports.

Dolmen/Cromlech

Two or more upright stones supporting a stone or stone slab

Atlatl / Spear Thrower

Device that increases leverage, allowing a hunter to throw a spear or dart farther and with greater force.

Obsidian Hydration

The technique of dating obsidian artifacts by measuring the microscopic amount of water absorbed on fresh surfaces.

Trois-Freres Cave

Cave in France; Magdalenian known for its omposite human-animal figure; traditionally interpreted as a shaman or supernatural figure, but exact meaning is unknown.

Mezhirich, Ukraine

Mesolithic. (15,000 years ago); famous for mammoth-bone huts and circular arrangements of mammoth remains; technically Late Upper Paleolithic rather than Mesolithic.

Mesolithic Rock Art

Often features humans, animals, hunting, and action; generally more focused on human activity and narrative scenes than much earlier Paleolithic cave art.

Göbekli Tepe, Turkey

c. 9600-8200 BCE; monumental circular enclosures with T-shaped pillars carved with animals; important because large-scale ritual architecture appeared extremely early, before or during the transition to agriculture.

Complex Societies

Society with large populations, specialized labor, social hierarchy, institutions, and organized political or religious structures.