AP Art History Unit 1 Notes: Global Prehistory

Global Prehistory (30,000-500 B.C.E)

  • Approximately 4% of the AP Art History exam.
  • Includes 11 specific works.
  • Content is compiled from the College Board and Khan Academy.

Background: What Is Global Prehistory?

  • Humans expressed themselves through art before written records.
  • "Prehistory" refers to the period before written records.
  • Humanity likely began in Africa around 3 million years ago; Homo sapiens migrated from there.
  • Global prehistory is divided into Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Mesolithic eras.
    • Paleolithic ("Old Stone Age" -- 35,000-10,000 B.C.E):
      • Associated with human evolution.
      • Predates the Neolithic period.
    • Mesolithic ("Middle Stone Age" -- 7,000-4,000 B.C.E in Europe):
      • Associated with hunter-gatherer societies.
      • Characterized by small, chipped stone tools (burins).
    • Neolithic ("New Stone Age" -- 4,500-1,500 B.C.E in Europe; 6,000-3,500 B.C.E in Ancient Near East):
      • Associated with the Agricultural Revolution.
      • Follows the Paleolithic period.

Characteristics of Prehistoric Art

  • First art forms appeared around 70,000 years ago: rock paintings made with natural materials like ocher and tools such as animal hair brushes and sharpened stones.
  • Prehistoric works mainly depicted animals; human forms were less frequent.
  • Regional variations:
    • Asia: Ritual objects, funerary stelae, ceramics (memorializing arts).
    • Europe: Megaliths, cave paintings, stone figurines (human/animal fertility, understanding cosmos).
    • Pacific: Pottery with incised geometric designs.
    • Americas: Animal bone/clay structures.
    • Africa: Rock paintings/rock sculpture.

The Neolithic Revolution

  • Transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to sedentary agricultural societies with animal domestication.
  • Shift from monumental rock art to portable, utilitarian objects for preserving or containing food.
  • Beginnings of architecture to support sedentary lifestyles.
  • Many Neolithic cultures did not yet have a writing system.

Key Vocabulary

  • Abstract: Non-representational, simplified or distorted depiction.
  • Acropolis: An elevated city or mound.
  • Bas relief: Sculptural technique where images are carved into and raised from the surrounding material.
  • Burin: Small steel object used for incising.
  • Bushel: A cylindrical earthenware vessel.
  • Hierarchy of scale: Technique using proportion to communicate the relative importance of figures.
  • Incising: Making deep cuts into a soft surface like clay for decoration.
  • Megalith: A large stone used to construct a monument.
  • Narrative art: Visual representation of a story or event.
  • Neolithic Revolution: Transition from nomadic to sedentary, agrarian societies; also known as the Agricultural Revolution.
  • Ocher: Natural reddish-brown pigment containing nitrous oxide.
  • Post and lintel construction: Architectural system with vertical posts supporting a horizontal lintel.
  • Register: Horizontal band of ornamental imagery on an object.
  • Sculpture in the round: Sculpture meant to be viewed from all sides.
  • Shamanism: Animistic religion believing shamans mediate between visible and spirit worlds.
  • Stele: Vertical slab serving as a marker or monument.
  • Subtractive sculpture: Technique removing material to create a sculpture.
  • Superimpose: To layer an object or image on top of another.
  • Trithilions: A pair of monoliths roofed by a lintel.
  • Zoomorphic: Having animal features or resemblance.

1. Apollo 11 Stones

  • Location: Namibia.
  • Date: c. 25,500–25,300 B.C.E.
  • Medium: Charcoal on stone.
  • Content:
    • Unidentified animal form (feline head, hind legs).
  • Context:
    • Found in a rock shelter in the Huns Mountains (southern coast of Africa).
    • Site of ongoing human settlement.
    • Named after the Apollo 11 spacecraft return.
    • Various stone tools from different areas found.
  • Form:
    • Two-dimensional.
    • Strict profile.
    • Silhouette colored with charcoal.
    • Portable.
  • Function:
    • Ritual use (suggested by other rock paintings and materials).
    • Capturing the animal's essence to aid hunting.

2. Great Hall of the Bulls

  • Location: Lascaux, France.
  • Period: Paleolithic Europe.
  • Date: 15,000–13,000 B.C.E.
  • Medium: Rock painting.
  • Content:
    • Paintings of wildlife (bison, bulls, horses, deer).
    • Animals in motion.
    • Rhinoceros, wounded man, and disemboweled bison.
    • Bird-headed figure interacting with bison and rhino (interpreted as a shaman).
  • Context:
    • Lascaux Caves in southern France.
    • Extensive example of Paleolithic narrative art.
    • Other caves show hand paintings and shamanistic beliefs.
    • Animals depicted were not part of the hunter-gatherers' diets.
  • Form:
    • Large-scale paintings, narrative art.
    • Animals in twisted perspective/composite view.
    • Ochre used to make the paintings.
    • Dark contour lines, some animals as silhouettes.
    • Groundlines present.
  • Function:
    • Theories suggest a connection to "sympathetic magic".
    • Visual representation to create a supernatural connection for hunting success.
    • Themes: survival, supernatural beliefs, shamanism.

3. Camelid Sacrum in the Shape of a Canine

  • Location: Tequixquiac, central Mexico.
  • Date: 14,000–7000 B.C.E.
  • Medium: Bone.
  • Content:
    • Resembles the head of a canine (dog, coyote, or wolf).
    • Artificial holes for nose cavity and eye sockets.
    • Action of creating something from an animal shows reverence.
    • Remains of red ocher found.
  • Context:
    • Discovered in Tequixquiac, Mexico in 1870.
    • Made from the sacrum of a camelid (related to alpacas, camels, llamas).
    • Camelids originated in Asia/Africa, migrated to Americas via Bering Strait.
    • Bone sculpting was a tradition in Ancient Mesoamerica.
    • Sacrum bone hypothesized to be sacred.
    • Canines played a role in traditional stories and art (Mayan creation myth, Popol Vuh).
  • Form:
    • Subtractive sculpture.
    • Carvings and incisions made by a sharp instrument.
  • Function:
    • Visual representation of a mythological creature.
    • Object for communicating with the underworld via a shaman.

4. Running Horned Woman

  • Location: Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria.
  • Date: 6000–4000 B.C.E.
  • Medium: Pigment on rock.
  • Content:
    • Faceless, horned, running female deity towering over figures.
    • Grain cloud above deity's head.
    • Figure adorned in raffia skirt, body paint, armlets, garters.
    • Scarification marks and body suggest tribal traditions; deity performing a ritual.
    • Various figures in the background appear to be humans.
  • Context:
    • Surrounding region inhabited since the Neolithic era.
    • Large concentrations of rock in Algeria.
    • Found on an isolated plateau, suggesting a sacred space.
  • Form:
    • Figure in twisted perspective or composite view, illusion of movement.
    • Female deity superimposed on figures.
    • Hierarchy of scale (deity larger).
  • Function:
    • Female deity worshiped for survival.
    • Representation of the relationship between humans and the supernatural.

5. Beaker with Ibex Motifs

  • Location: Susa, Iran.
  • Date: 4200-3500 B.C.E.
  • Medium: Painted terra cotta.
  • Content:
    • Figures represent wildlife and agriculture.
    • Divided into registers.
    • Frieze with long-necked birds above water.
    • Running dogs below the frieze.
    • Central section with ibex (mountain goat) framed by meander patterns (agricultural fields).
    • Ibex's horns frame a clan symbol or identifying mark.
  • Context:
    • Found at an acropolis in Susa (Ancient Mesopotamia/cradle of civilization).
    • Located near a fertile river valley.
    • Animal domestication took place.
    • Monumental buildings and graves suggest a religious nature.
    • Remains of the dead gathered at the foot of the acropolis after defleshing.
    • Ceramics and burial items found with the beaker.
  • Form:
    • Simple geometric forms/stylized natural subjects.
    • Abstraction (clan-symbol/motif).
    • Exaggerated necks of birds, narrowed body of hound-like animals.
    • Repetition of animal forms suggests movement.
    • Twisted perspective (composite view).
    • Thin, fragile walls.
  • Function:
    • Fragility suggests ritual function.
    • Funerary object found in gravesite.

6. Anthropomorphic Stele

  • Location: Arabian Peninsula.
  • Date: Fourth millennium B.C.E.
  • Medium: Sandstone.
  • Content:
    • Upright human figure, three feet high.
    • Simplistic face.
    • Awl, dagger hanging from belt, and two horizontal cords frame the torso (perhaps a warrior).
  • Context:
    • Found in Ha’il, Saudi Arabia, with other similar stele.
    • Dry climate led to sedentary lifestyle and caravan routes.
    • Imitation of a human figure reveals figural representation in pre-Islamic Arabia.
    • Caravan networks linked ancient cultures through trade.
    • Knife blades as a tradition in some tribal communities.
  • Form:
    • Abstract facial features: oval-shaped eyes, triangular nose.
    • Features carved out of sandstone using bas relief.
  • Function:
    • Excavated from a burial site.
    • Stele or grave marker for an individual.
    • Similar objects found across sites in Yemen and Jordan.

7. Jade Cong

  • Location: Liangzhu, China.
  • Date: 3300–2200 B.C.E.
  • Medium: Carved jade.
  • Content:
    • Tubular interior and squarish exterior (bi disks and cong).
    • Bi disks symbolize the heavens, cong represent the earth (connection between worlds).
    • Masked images/faces incised on outer corners, may depict spirits or deities (round eyes, curved nose/mouth).
    • Resemble taotie masks of the later Shang dynasty.
  • Context:
    • Neolithic period of Ancient China: regional communities created tools and utilitarian items using stone.
    • Jade was a precious material reserved for the elite.
    • Liangzhu situated along the Yangtze River delta, allowing for settlement and agriculture.
    • More technologically and socially developed than surrounding Neolithic cultures.
    • Bi disks were laid with the bodies of the dead since the Hongshan culture.
    • Evidence of social stratification (elite buried with jade).
  • Form:
    • Artifact carved from jade (green and transparent, now faded in color).
    • Cong cut and incised through abrasion.
    • Abstract mask decorations incised carefully through small lines.
  • Function:
    • Found in burial tombs.
    • Suggests elite status of the individual(s) buried.
    • Safety passage to and wealth in the afterlife.

8. Stonehenge

  • Location: Wiltshire, UK.
  • Period: Neolithic Europe.
  • Date: c. 2500–1600 B.C.E.
  • Medium: Sandstone.
  • Content:
    • Outermost ring: erected stones with lintels (trilithons).
    • Smaller stones standing upright without lintels within this ring.
    • Upright sandstones arranged in a semi-circle on the interior.
    • Sandstones frame an even smaller half circle.
    • Sun shines between a pair of stones during the summer solstice.
  • Context:
    • Construction not through organized labor.
    • Connection to solstice suggests importance of planning.
    • Three periods of construction:
      • Period 1 (3100 B.C.E): henge (circular ditch and bank), Aubrey holes (pits).
      • Period 2 (3000-2900 B.C.E): Aubrey holes used as burial sites, wooden posts at center.
      • Period 3 (2500-1600 B.C.E): stones erected within henge in a circular manner.
    • Remains of humans from second construction were analyzed (young adult males).
    • Connection to astronomy (solar & lunar calendar).
  • Form:
    • Trilithons constructed using post-lintel technique.
    • Stones arranged in concentric rings.
    • Megaliths were bluestones (sandstone and limestone).
  • Function:
    • Solar calendar or observatory (connection to astronomical phenomenon).
    • Burial site for the elite.

9. The Ambum Stone

  • Location: Ambum Valley, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea.
  • Date: c. 1500 B.C.E.
  • Medium: Greywacke.
  • Content:
    • Zoomorphic figure with elongated nose, circular eyes, long arms, and round lower torso.
    • Resembles an echidna (mammal with elongated snout).
    • Figure is curved into a fetal-like position.
  • Context:
    • Found with other ancient pestles stylized in animal form in New Guinea.
    • One of the earliest examples of sculpture in Oceania.
    • Believed to be a relic containing ancestral powers when discovered by the Enga people in the early 20th century.
  • Form:
    • Carved from greywacke (hard, dark sedimentary stone).
    • Facial features carved using high relief.
    • Smooth, lustrous exterior.
    • 8 inches tall.
  • Function:
    • Most likely a pestle (curvature of the creature’s neck).
    • Ritual object (granted ancestral powers).

10. Tlatilco Female Figurine

  • Location: Central Mexico, site of Tlatilco.
  • Date: 1200–900 B.C.E.
  • Medium: Ceramic.
  • Content:
    • Female nude figurines.
    • Double-headed (bicephalic), may symbolize duality (Mesoamerican shamanism and tradition).
    • Wide hips, pinched waist.
    • Elaborate hairstyles.
    • Pose resembles dancers.
  • Context:
    • Valley of Mexico inhabited by the Tlatilco people before the Aztec Empire.
    • Plant domestication (c. 5000 B.C.E).
    • Settlement (c. 2000 B.C.E).
    • Early cultures created nude female figurines to promote survival (high infant mortality rates).
    • Motifs of animals from the surrounding environment found on other Tlatilco figures.
  • Form:
    • Completely handcrafted, clay shaped by hand.
    • Exaggerated proportions (wide hips and pinched waist).
    • No detail on hands or feet.
    • Details on face added through incising.
    • Chips of paint present.
  • Function:
    • Found in a grave in Mexico City by miners.
    • Promote fertility and survival.
    • Suggest fascination with the supernatural (physical deformity interpreted as supernatural).

11. Terra Cotta Fragment

  • Location: Lapita. Solomon Islands, Reef Islands.
  • Date: 1000 B.C.E.
  • Medium: Terra cotta (incised).
  • Content:
    • Fragments of pottery with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures.
    • Stylized human faces.
    • Forms bear semblance to traditional tattoo designs and cloth from Polynesia.
  • Context:
    • Lapita culture known for ceramics with geometric motifs and anthropomorphic designs.
    • Ceramics found in islands of SE Asia and the Pacific.
    • Originated in SE Asia, spread to the Pacific.
    • Lapita people were seafarers in Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia.
    • Polynesia populated 4,000-3,500 years ago.
  • Form:
    • Reddish color (terra cotta clay).
    • Simple and complex patterns incised and stamped into wet clay before low-fired.
    • Sharp and natural tools used for fine designs.
    • Fragile and thin walls.
  • Function:
    • Poor technical composition and lack of carbon residue suggest use for storing or serving food.
    • Theories suggest men practiced tattooing on these vessels.