Unit 1: Global Prehistory, 30,000–500 BCE

Contextualization of Prehistoric Art

• Prehistoric art refers to the art created by humans before the invention of writing.
• It is important to contextualize prehistoric art in order to understand its meaning and significance.
• Cultural context, historical context, and environmental context are three important factors to consider when contextualizing prehistoric art.
• Cultural context includes the beliefs, values, and practices of the people who created the art.
• Historical context includes the events and circumstances that were happening at the time the art was created.
• Environmental context includes the physical surroundings and natural resources available to the people who created the art.
• By considering these contexts, we can gain a better understanding of the purpose and meaning behind prehistoric art.

Materials, Processes, and Techniques in Prehistoric Art

• Materials
    * Stone: Prehistoric artists used stone to create sculptures, tools, and weapons. They used different types of stone, such as flint, obsidian, and jade, depending on availability and suitability for their purpose.
    * Bone: Bone was used to create tools, weapons, and decorative objects. It was often carved or engraved with intricate designs.
    * Ivory: Ivory was used to create small sculptures and decorative objects. It was often carved with intricate designs.
    * Clay: Clay was used to create pottery and figurines. Prehistoric artists would shape the clay by hand or using simple tools, and then fire it to harden it.
    * Pigments: Prehistoric artists used natural pigments such as charcoal, ochre, and manganese dioxide to create paintings and drawings. These pigments were often mixed with water or animal fat to create a paint-like substance.
• Processes
    * Carving: Prehistoric artists would carve stone, bone, and ivory using simple tools such as chisels and hammers. They would often use sand or water to smooth the surface of the object.
    * Engraving: Engraving involves cutting or scratching a design into a surface. Prehistoric artists would often use sharp stones or bones to engrave intricate designs onto bone or ivory objects.
    * Modeling: Modeling involves shaping a material such as clay or wax into a three-dimensional form. Prehistoric artists would use their hands or simple tools to shape clay into pottery or figurines.
    * Painting: Prehistoric artists would mix pigments with water or animal fat to create a paint-like substance. They would then apply the paint to a surface using brushes made from animal hair or plant fibers.
• Techniques
    * Relief: Relief is a sculptural technique where the sculpted elements remain attached to a solid background. Prehistoric artists would often create relief sculptures by carving into stone or bone.
    * Incision: Incision involves cutting or carving a design into a surface. Prehistoric artists would often use incision to create intricate designs on bone or ivory objects.
    * Hatching: Hatching involves creating a pattern of parallel lines to create shading or texture. Prehistoric artists would often use hatching in their drawings and engravings.
    * Stippling: Stippling involves creating a pattern of small dots to create shading or texture. Prehistoric artists would often use stippling in their drawings and engravings.

Theories and Interpretations of Prehistoric Art

Theories of Prehistoric Art

• Shamanism Theory
    * According to this theory, prehistoric art was created by shamans or religious leaders to communicate with the spirit world.
    * The art was used as a tool for religious and spiritual practices.
    * The images depicted in the art were believed to have magical powers that could help the shamans in their rituals.
• Sympathetic Magic Theory
    * This theory suggests that prehistoric art was created to control the environment.
    * The images depicted in the art were believed to have the power to control the animals and the environment.
    * For example, the images of animals were believed to attract the animals for hunting.
• Narrative Theory
    * According to this theory, prehistoric art was created to tell stories.
    * The images depicted in the art were used to tell stories of hunting, battles, and other important events.
    * The art was used as a form of communication to pass on information from one generation to another.

Interpretations of Prehistoric Art

• Art for Art's Sake
    * This interpretation suggests that prehistoric art was created for its own sake.
    * The art was created for aesthetic purposes and to express the creativity of the artists.
• Social and Political Interpretation
    * This interpretation suggests that prehistoric art was created to express social and political ideas.
    * The art was used to express the power and status of the individuals and the community.
• Psychological Interpretation
    * This interpretation suggests that prehistoric art was created to express the psychological state of the artists.
    * The art was used as a form of therapy to express emotions and feelings.

Global Prehistoric Artworks

➼ Camelid Sacrum in the Shape of a Canine

• Details
    * 14,000–7000 B.C.E.
    * From Tequixquiac, Central Mexico
    * Located at the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City, Mexico
    * Preserved in 1870 in the Valley of Mexico.
• Materials
    * Bone sculpture from a camel-like animal.
    * The bone has been worked to create the image of a dog or wolf.
• Content
    * Carved to represent a mammal’s skull.
    * One natural form is used to take the shape of another.
    * The sacrum is the triangular bone at the base of a spine.
• Context
    * Second skull: A Mesoamerican idea
    * The sacrum bone symbolizes the soul in some cultures, and for that reason it may have been chosen for this work.

➼ Anthropomorphic Stele

• Details
    * 4th-millennium B.C.E.
    * From Arabian Peninsula
    * Mainly made of sandstone
    * Preserved in National Museum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• Stele: an upright stone slab used to mark a grave or a site
• Form and Content
    * Anthropomorphic: having characteristics of the human form, although the form itself is not human.
    * Belted robe from which hangs a double-bladed knife or sword.
    * Double cords stretch diagonally across body with an awl unifying them.
• Function: Religious or burial purpose, perhaps as a grave marker.
• Context
    * One of the earliest known works of art from Arabia.
    * Found in an area that had extensive ancient trade routes.

➼ Jade Cong

• Details
    * c. 3300–2200 B.C.E.
    * From Liangzhu, China
    * Made from a carved jade
    * Preserved in Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China
    * Cong: a tubular object with a circular hole cut into a square-like cross-section
• Form
    * The circular hole is placed within a square.
    * Abstract designs; the main decoration is a face pattern, perhaps of spirits or deities.
    * Some have a haunting mask design in each of the four corners—with a bar-shaped mouth, raised oval eyes, sunken round pupils, and two bands that might indicate a headdress—which resembles the motif seen on Liangzhu jewelry.
• Materials and Techniques
    * Jade is a very hard stone, sometimes carved using drills or saws.
    * The designs on congs may have been produced by rubbing sand.
    * The jades may have been heated to soften the stone, or ritually burned as part of the burial process.
• Context
    * Jades appear in burials of people of high rank.
    * Jades are placed in burials around bodies; some are broken, and some show signs of intentional burning.
    * Jade religious objects are of various sizes and found in tombs, interred with the dead in elaborate rituals.
    * The Chinese linked jade with the virtues of durability, subtlety, and beauty.
    * Made in the Neolithic era in China.

➼ The Ambum Stone

• Details
    * c. 1500 B.C.E.
    * From Ambum Valley, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea
    * Made from graywacke
    * Preserved in National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• Form
    * Composite human/animal figure; perhaps an anteater head and a human body.
    * Ridgeline runs from nostrils, over the head, between the eyes, and between the shoulders.
• Theories
    * Masked human.
    * Anteater embryo in a fetal position; anteaters thought of as significant because of their fat deposits.
    * May have been a pestle or related to tool making.
    * Perhaps had a ritual purpose; considered sacred; maybe a ­fertility symbol.
    * Maybe an embodiment of a spirit from the past, an ancestral spirit, or the Rainbow Serpent.
• History
    * Stone Age work; artists used stone to carve stone.
    * Found in the Ambum Valley in Papua New Guinea.
    * When it was “found,” it was being used as a ritual object by the Enga people.
    * Sold to the Australian National Gallery.
    * Damaged in 2000 when it was on loan in France; it was dropped and smashed into three pieces and many shards; it has since been restored.

➼ Tlatilco Female Figurine

• Details
    * c. 1200–900 B.C.E.
    * From Central Mexico, site of Tlatilco
    * Made out of ceramic
    * Preserved in Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey
• Form
    * Flipper-like arms, huge thighs, pronounced hips, narrow waists.
    * Unclothed except for jewelry; arms extending from body.
    * Diminished role of hands and feet.
    * Female figures show elaborate details of hairstyles, clothing, and body ornaments.
• Technique: Made by hand; artists did not use molds.
• Function: May have had a shamanistic function
• Context and Interpretation
    * Some show deformities, including a female figure with two noses, two mouths, and three eyes, perhaps signifying a cluster of conjoined or Siamese twins and/or stillborn children.
    * Bifacial images and congenital defects may express duality.
    * Found in graves, and may have had a funerary context.

➼ Terra cotta fragment

• Details
    * 1000 B.C.E.
    * From Lapita, Reef Islands, Solomon Islands
    * Made from incised terra cotta
    * Preserved in University of Auckland, New ­Zealand
• Form
    * Pacific art is characterized by the use of curved stamped patterns: dots, circles, hatching; may have been inspired by patterns on ­tattoos.
    * One of the oldest human faces in Oceanic art.
• Materials
    * Lapita culture of the Solomon Islands is known for pottery.
    * Outlined forms: they used a comb-like tool to stamp designs onto the clay, known as dentate stamping.
• Technique
    * Did not use potter’s wheel.
    * After pot was incised, a white coral lime was often applied to the surface to make the patterns more pronounced.
• Tradition
    * Some designs found on the pottery are used in modern Polynesian tattoos and tapas.

➼ Apollo 11 Stones

• Details
    * c. 25,500–25,300 B.C.E.
    * Painted using charcoal on stone,
    * Preserved in State Museum of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia
• Form
    * Animal seen in profile, typical of prehistoric painting.
    * Perhaps a composite animal rather than a particular specimen.
• Materials
    * Done with charcoal.
• Context
    * Some of the world’s oldest works of art, found in Wonderwerk Cave in Namibia.
    * Several stone fragments found.
    * Originally brought to the site from elsewhere.
    * Cave is the site of 100,000 years of human activity.
• History
    * Named after the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, the year the cave was discovered.

➼ Great Hall of the Bulls

• Details
    * 15,000–13,000 B.C.E.
    * From Paleolithic Europe
    * A rock painting,
    * Found in Lascaux, France
• Content
    * 650 paintings: most common animals are cows, bulls, horses, and deer.
• Form
    * Bodies seen in profile; frontal or diagonal view of horns, eyes, and hooves; some animals appear pregnant.
    * Twisted perspective: many horns appear more frontal than the bodies.
    * Many overlapping figures.
• Materials
    * Natural products were used to make paint: charcoal, iron ore, plants.
    * Walls were scraped to an even surface; paint colors were bound with animal fat; lamps lighted the interior of the caves.
    * No brushes have been found.
      * May have used mats of moss or hair as brushes.
      * Color could have been blown onto the surface by mouth or through a tube, like a hollow bone.
• Context
    * Animals placed deep inside cave—some hundreds of feet from the entrance.
    * Evidence still visible of scaffolding erected to get to higher areas of the caves.
    * Negative handprints: are they signatures?
    * Caves were not dwellings, as prehistoric people led migratory lives following herds of ­animals; some evidence exists that people did seek shelter at the mouths of caves.
• Theories
    * A traditional view is that they were painted to ensure a successful hunt.
    * Ancestral animal worship.
    * Represents narrative elements in stories or legends.
    * Shamanism: a religion based on the idea that the forces of nature can be contacted by intermediaries, called shamans, who go into a trance-like state to reach another state of consciousness.
• History
    * Discovered in 1940; opened to the public after World War II.
    * Closed to the public in 1963 because of damage from human contact.
    * Replica of the caves opened adjacent to the original.

➼ Running Horned Woman

• Details
    * 6000–4000 B.C.E.
    * A pigment on rock,
    * Found in Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria
• Form
    * Composite view of the body.
    * Many drawings exist—some are naturalistic, some are abstract, some have Negroid features, and some have Caucasian features.
    * The female horned figure suggests attendance at a ritual ceremony.
• Content
    * Depicts livestock, wildlife, and humans
    * Dots may reflect body paint applied for ritual or scarification; white patterns in symmetrical lines may reflect raffia garments.
• Context
    * More than 15,000 drawings and engravings were found at this site.
    * At one time the area was grasslands; climate changes have turned it into a desert.
    * The entire site was probably painted by many different groups over large expanses of time.

➼ Beaker with Ibex Motifs

• Details
    * 4200–3500 B.C.E.
    * From Susa, Iran
    * Painted terra cotta
    * Found in ­Louvre, Paris
• Form and Content
    * Frieze of stylized aquatic birds on top, suggesting a flock of birds wading in a Mesopotamian river valley.
    * Below are stylized running dogs with long narrow bodies, perhaps hunting dogs.
    * The main scene shows an ibex with oversized abstract and stylized horns.
    * Stylized: a schematic, nonrealistic manner of representing the visible world and its contents, abstracted from the way that they appear in nature
• Materials and Techniques
    * Probably made on a potter’s wheel, a technological advance; some suggest instead that it was handmade.
    * Thin pottery walls.
• Context and Interpretation
    * In the middle of the horns is a clan symbol of family ownership; perhaps the image identifies the deceased as belonging to a particular group or family.
    * Found near a burial site, but not with human remains.
    * Found with hundreds of baskets, bowls, and metallic items.
    * Made in Susa, in southwestern Iran.

➼ Stonehenge

• Details
    * c. 2500–1600 B.C.E.
    * Made out of sandstone, Neolithic Europe,
    * Found in Wiltshire, United Kingdom
• Technique
    * Post-and-lintel building; lintels grooved in place by the mortise and tenon system of construction.
      * Mortise and tenon: a groove cut into stone or wood, called a mortise, that is shaped to receive a tenon, or projection, of the same dimensions
    * Large megaliths in the center are over 20 feet tall and form a horseshoe surrounding a central flat stone.
    * A central horseshoe is surrounded by lintel-connected megaliths.
    * Hundreds of unidentified stones surrounded the monument.
    * Builders lacked wheels and pulleys. Stones may have been transported on logs or a greased sleigh.
• Context
    * Each stone weighs over 50 tons, reflecting the structure's intended permanence.
    * Some stones were imported from over 150 miles away, suggesting they were sacred.
• History
    * Perhaps took 1,000 years to build; gradually redeveloped by succeeding generations.
• Probably built in three phases:
    * First Phase: circular ditch 36 feet deep and 360 feet in diameter containing 56 pits called Aubrey Holes, named after John Aubrey who found them in the 18th century.
      * Today the holes are filled with chalk.
    * Second Phase: wooden structure, perhaps roofed.
      * The Aubrey Holes may have been used as cremation burials at this time.
      * Adult males were buried at these sites, generally, men who did not show a lifetime of hard labor, signifying it was a site for a select group of people.
    * Third Phase: stone construction.
• Tradition
    * British Isles forests may have inspired wood circles.
    * Stone circles are still common in Britain, indicating Neolithic popularity.
• Theories
    * As an observatory, it may predict eclipses and be oriented towards the summer and winter solstices.
    * According to a new theory, elite males were buried at Stonehenge.
    * An alternative theory suggests it was a healing site.