CE = Common Era (AD = Anno Domini, “in the year of the Lord”)
Timeline
15,000 BCE
3,200 BCE
63 BCE
1 BCE
1 CE
590 CE
1492 CE
2019 CE
Centuries
2019 CE: 21st Century CE
1198 AD: 12th Century CE
1334 BC: 14th Century BCE
Prehistoric Art
Connection to the history of humankind before text.
Definition of Prehistory
"Prehistory" = Human existence before writing.
Human Connection to Art
Humans are defined by their ability to make and understand art.
Prehistoric art offers a glimpse into the lives of those who came before us.
Art allows us to understand the world prehistoric people inhabited.
Prehistoric Periods
Paleolithic Period: “Old Stone” Age
Nomadic, hunter-gatherers.
Created paintings deep in caves that were revisited over thousands of years.
Carved small figures that could be carried.
Neolithic Period: “New Stone” Age
Development of agriculture led to permanent settlements.
Resulted in more enduring and monumental works of art.
Paleolithic Period: The Beginning of Art
Humans first made tools, marking the beginning of their ability to transform objects.
Example: Paleolithic Hand Axe (Black flint, Before 180,000 BC).
Ornamental Art
Geometrically inscribed pieces of ochre and shells painted with ochre and pierced (likely for stringing) dating from 75,000 to 100,000 years ago have been discovered.
Example: Pierced shells found in Blombos Cave in South Africa, buried within a 75,000-year-old layer of sediment.
Paleolithic Period: Cave Art
Cave art provides some of the earliest examples of representational art.
Pech-Merle Cave
Spotted Horses and Human Hands
Horses dated 25,000-24,000 BCE; hands c. 15,000 BCE.
Spotted Horses and Human Hands at Pech-Merle Cave
Paintings of spotted horses with accompanying negative handprints.
The horse’s head follows the curve of the rock.
The spots on the horse are likely naturalistic renderings of a prehistoric spotted horse.
Handprints
Artists used their hands as stencils, evident in the negative handprints.
Michel Lorblanchet's Reproduction of Cave Painting
Cave archaeologist Michel Lorblanchet was able to reproduce the Pech-Merle cave painting of Spotted Horses and Human Hands.
Lorblanchet chewed pigment in his mouth and used his hands as stencils, spitting the pigment onto the wall.
This technique allowed artists to paint on uneven walls.
He posits that both the negative handprints and the horses were painted with this method.
The Hand of the Artist
c. 15,000 BCE
Enduring for thousands of years.
Connection to Prehistoric Humans
Studying prehistoric art provides a sense of connection to humans who lived thousands of years ago.
"As you are, I once was. As I am, you will become."
Art provides insight into the worldview of prehistoric peoples, even before writing.
Meaning and Significance of Art
The history of art is a study of the meaning and significance of objects touched, molded, shaped, manipulated, and created by human hands (c. 15,000 BCE).
Meaning of Cave Paintings
Originally thought to be created out of humans’ innate love of beauty.
Cave paintings required great effort, suggesting more motivation was needed.
Hypotheses:
Hunting guides?
Rituals?
Sacred space?
Shelter from bad weather?
Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave
One of the oldest known caves in France.
Paintings dated (using carbon dating of the charcoal) as over 30,000 years old.
Many of these animals were not part of the Paleolithic diet.
Rendered Profile Drawings
Artist seems to examine the various features of the animal in rigorously rendered profile drawings of the heads of panthers, or lionesses.
Viewing the Images
Imagine viewing these images in the flickering light of a flame as they were originally intended to be seen.
Lascaux Cave
Discovered by an eighteen-year-old local man in 1940.
Became famous for its Hall of Bulls, featuring numerous naturalistically rendered animals who appear to be traveling around the top portion of the cave.
Hall of Bulls at Lascaux
When viewed with the light of a flame, the promenading animals would appear to come to life.
The cave paintings date from around 15,000 years ago.
Animals in Lascaux Cave
Paintings of a variety of animals, including bulls, lions, horses, bison, elk, deer, and a bear.
Created using black charcoal and several colors of ochre.
Ochre is a type of pigmented clay which comes in colors ranging from yellow to red to warm brown.
Ochre Quarry in France
Shows the range of colors found in the clay, from yellows to warm browns.
The colored pigments utilized in the cave paintings are a range of ochres, used alongside charcoal and black manganese dioxide.
Paintings and Drawings in Lascaux Cave
Hundreds of paintings and incised wall drawings survive throughout multiple rooms.
Archeologists also found multiple stone tools, likely used for carving drawings into the walls.
The spitting technique was also utilized to color the animals with ochre pigment.
Construction of Lascaux Cave Paintings
Holes found in some walls may have been used to support scaffolding of tree limbs to allow artists to climb to the top of the cave to paint.
Theories Regarding the Purpose of Lascaux Paintings
Dating back 15,000 years, theories range from:
“Hunting magic” to enhance hunting outcomes.
Religious ceremony or shamanism.
Love of beauty.
Impossible to know the true purpose due to lack of written documents from Paleolithic peoples.
Complexity of Renderings
The complexity of the naturalistic renderings of animals allows us a glimpse into a bygone world.
Paleolithic Period: Carved Figures
Numerous small carved figurines also survive from the Paleolithic period.
Woman of Willendorf (Venus of Willendorf)
Oolitic Limestone Tinted with Red Ochre
c. 24,000-22,000 B.C.E
Height: 4-3/8“
Discovered outside the village of Willendorf, Austria in 1908.
Carved from oolitic limestone, a stone not found in the area, suggesting it was carried by nomads.
Features of Woman of Willendorf
The deep navel is indicated using a naturally occurring indentation in the oolitic limestone.
Originally painted with red ochre, much of the color has been lost, but some is still visible in the navel and deeper carved areas.
Theories About Woman of Willendorf
Originally named Venus and considered a fertility goddess due to exaggerated female anatomical features.
New theories suggest it could have been used for trade between groups of Paleolithic peoples across Europe.
Similar Carved Figures
Found widely distributed throughout Europe.
Examples:
Woman from Dolní Vĕstonice Czech Republic (c. 23,000 BCE, Height: 4-1/4“).
Woman from Brassempouy France (c. 26,000-24,000 BCE, Height: 1.4“).
Neolithic Period: Megalithic Architecture
The development of agriculture allowed for settlements, domesticating animals, and growing of crops.
This led to more permanent settlements during the Neolithic period.
The period is marked by the construction of megalithic, or large stone, architecture.
Henge Definition
A henge is a circle of stones or posts, typically surrounded by a ditch.
Stonehenge
England, c. 2900-1500 BCE.
There are over 1,000 examples of stone circle structures in Britain, Ireland, and northern France.
Stonehenge is the most complex of the Neolithic stone architecture.
Speculation and Theories
Because Stonehenge was built in prehistoric times, much of what we know is based on speculation and informed theories.
The mystery of Stonehenge has also led to many unlikely and unsupported, albeit whimsical, theories.
Historical Evidence
Historians can use evidence from the site, including geology to track the stones, and archaeology to unearth nearby artifacts.
This evidence helps piece together a plausible explanation of Stonehenge and its significance.
Relationship to the Sun
One of the most incredible features of Stonehenge is its relationship to the sun.
A central horseshoe shape of massive trilithons are arranged to frame the sunrise on the summer solstice and the sunset on the winter solstice.
Building Phases
Stonehenge was built during at least 3 different building phases from 3100-1500 BCE.
Construction Techniques
Scholars speculate that stones (up to 50 tons each) were moved on rolling logs.
Largest stones were likely transported up to 20 miles.
Sophisticated understanding of physics and pulleys with levers was needed to place stones (which are partially buried to increase stability).
Smaller bluestones (approx. 4 tons each) were possibly transported from Preseli Mountains in Wales, about 150 miles away.
Current Theories About Stonehenge
Relate to death and burial.
The cremated remains of dozens of people were found at the site of the megalithic stones.
Woodhenge
Nearby Stonehenge stood a Neolithic henge which was made of wooden posts.
Woodhenge, arranged in a remarkably similar configuration to Stonehenge, sat alongside the settlement of Durrington Walls where prehistoric peoples are believed to have lived.
Theories suggest that prehistoric peoples associated wood with the living and stone with the dead.
When people died at the settlement of Durrington Walls, they journeyed from Woodhenge to Stonehenge where they were buried.
Prehistoric Avenues
Evidence suggests that there are prehistoric avenues leading from Woodhenge down to the River Avon.
The dead would have been carried down this avenue then transported on the River Avon toward Stonehenge.
Another avenue leads from the River Avon to the sacred site of Stonehenge, where the body would have been buried.
Pairing of Wood and Stone
“We are looking at a pairing – one in timber to represent the transience of life, the other in stone marking the eternity of the ancestral dead.” -Mike Parker-Pearson of the University of Sheffield