AP Art History - Global Prehistory (UNFINISHED)

Stone Age

dependence on tools and weapons made of stone

Paleolithic

• ”old stone”

• nomadic + portable art

• painted cave walls (usually animals)

• hunted and foraged

• learned fire, developed language, created simple tools and shelters

Mesolithic

• ”middle stone”

• people began to congregate around water, transition period

• made pottery and cave paintings

• hunted, gathered, stored food

• bows and arrows + animal taming started

Neolithic

• ”new stone”

• settlement → led to monumental stone architecture

• farming in permanent villages

• made pottery, carved wood, built shelters/tombs/places of worship

• specialized jobs

• complex tools from copper and bronze

Anthropomorphic

having human like characteristics or form

Henge

Circular ditch with a bank

Ocher

A material used to paint rock paintings

Apollo 11 Stones

• oldest example of figurative art

• named bc the excavators were listening to the radio when it was discovered

• portable art

• bovids or felines, zebra, giraffe, ostrich

Apollo 11 Cave, Namibia, Africa

Location where Apollo 11 stones were found

Profile

A pose/persepective of a subject

• the animals on the apollo 11 stone are in strict _______

Quartzite, charcoal, ocher, and white

Materials of the Apollo 11 Cave Stones

Great Hall of the Bulls

• sevaral artists over the decades

• images entirely linear at times

• in situ

• twisted perspective

• naturalism

• horses, deer, bison, elk, lions, rhino, bear

• similar to almost 350 other sites

• hunting magic? narratives? encyclopedia of wildlife?

Charcoal and Ochre on rock

Materials Used for the Great Hall of the Bulls

Naturalism

art style

resembles the real world

Twisted Perspective

pose combining multiple viewpoints into one subject

In-Situ

artifact that hasn’t been moved from its original place

Lascaux, France, Paliolithic Europe

Location for the Great Hall of the Bulls

c. 25,500 - 25,300 BCE

Time period for the Apollo 11 Cave Stones

15,000 - 13,000 BCE

Time period of the Great Hall of the Bulls

Camelid Sacrum in the Shape of a Canine

• carved out of an extinct camelid

• early hunters & gatherers period

• discovered in 1870

• earliest cultural artifict from Mesoamerica

• symbolism of rebirth or Osiris (in Egypt), fertility, or hunting

• subtractive technique

• mask?

Tequixquiac, central Mexico

Location for Camelid Sacrum in the Shape of a Canine

14,000 - 7,000 BCE

Time Period for Camelid Sacrum in the Shape of a Canine

Camelid Sacrum (bone)

Material for Camelid Sacrum in the Shape of a Canine

Subtractive Technique

removing material to create a sculpture

Running Horned Woman

• twisted perspective

• scarification or body paint

• raffia

• humans in settled groups

• region holds special status bc of elevation/unique topology

  • not made for everyday use

• ritual? rite? ceremony

• shaman? horned deity?

Tassili n”Ajjer, Algeria

Location of Running Horned Woman

6,000-4,000 BCE

Time Period of Running Horned Woman

Pigment on Rock

Material for Running Horned Woman

Beaker with Ibex Motifs

• funerary object

• 
  

Susa, Iran; Neolithic

Location of Beaker with Ibex Motifs

4200-3500 BCE

Time Period for Beaker with Ibex Motifs