Prehistoric Art: Paleolithic Period

Welcome to the first official lecture of Survey of Art One.
Introduction to prehistoric art, focusing on the Paleolithic period (Old Stone Age).
This lecture is a highlight of Unit One material; additional reading is required.
Taking handwritten notes is recommended for better learning and exam preparation, since exams are open book open notes.
Announcements are posted every Monday morning on Canvas, with occasional updates during the week.
Lectures are stored in the module section of Canvas, organized by time period and topic.
Links to video clips and virtual tours will be provided.

Prehistory refers to all of human existence before writing.
Without written records, understanding relies on carved, drawn, or built objects.
Inferences and educated guesses are made based on archaeological records.
The Stone Age is a segment of prehistory before the Bronze and Iron Ages, characterized by stone tools.
The lecture will cover the Paleolithic period (Old Stone Age) and the next one will cover the Neolithic period (New Stone Age).
Paleolithic Period: Approximately 40,000 to 9,000 BCE.
Neolithic Period: Approximately 9,000 to 2,300 BCE.
Dates are broad and approximate due to the absence of recorded history, and subject to change with new discoveries.

Consider the motivations behind prehistoric art beyond mere aesthetics.
The urge to create art is intrinsically human, evident across different times and locations.
The focus is on Homo sapiens originating in Africa around 100,000 years ago.
Migration from Africa occurred around 80,000 years ago.
The lecture concentrates on artifacts produced approximately 30,000 to 20,000 BCE, mainly in Europe.
Early Homo sapiens created images, adornments, and cave decorations for various reasons.

An object dating from 40,000 BCE, made from a mammoth tusk and found in Germany, demonstrates imagination.
The object depicts a human body with an animal head, suggesting ceremony or spirituality.
It might represent a human wearing an animal mask, a magician, or a shaman.

Reconstruction of a Paleolithic iceman named Otzi.
Most Paleolithic people were hunter-gatherers, moving with seasons and food sources.
They lived in small working groups of 20-50 people for protection and cooperation.
They used stone and textile tools.
They likely lived in tents or animal hide shelters rather than caves.
Facial features suggest they were capable of language, possibly oral but not written.

Find spot: Willendorf, Austria.
Discovered during railway construction in the early 1900s along the Danube River.
A sculpture made of limestone, named the Venus of Willendorf, dates to approximately 28,000 BCE.
She has a curvy voluptuous figure.
She is not actually a Venus.
The sculpture is about 4.5 inches high, making it a sculpture in the round.
The material is not native to Willendorf, indicating it was transported.
Originally covered in red ochre pigment.
Represents a common subject, with more images of women than men, associated with fertility.
Her arms are covering her chest in a compact pose which indicates that it was made to be transported.
Her legs were not made to stand up, this indicates it was not fixated in one place.

Almost two feet tall, part of a stone structure in a rock shelter.
A relief sculpture carved into a rock and painted with red ochre pigment.
A petroglyph on a rock surface, suggesting a different purpose from portable sculptures.
She is holding a cornucopia with 13 marks, with uncertain meaning.

Discovered in 1994 near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in Southwestern France.
Cave explorers found drawings and paintings dating to approximately 30,000 BCE.
Carbon dating of charcoal used for drawings indicates they are among the oldest paintings.
The paintings feature layered animal imagery and complex styles.
The consensus is that the cave paintings likely weren't just decorative; theories suggest they had magical powers to capture animal spirits for successful hunts.
Cave paintings aren't just in the front, but sometimes go a mile back and getting to them meant tying in a rope and going down deep into the darkness of the cave.

Ritualistic Functions: The paintings may have been backdrops for ritualistic dances before hunts.
Educational Purposes: The paintings could have served as teaching tools, instructing new hunters about animals and hunting techniques.
Acoustic Qualities: Studied the acoustics and found they had amazing sound quality. The caves may have had a place for music and the art within them.
The paintings were not just for art's sake.

Handprints were created using reeds to spray naturally occurring pigments around the hand.
The hand prints indicate their mark and imprint on the space and record themselves forever.

Radiocarbon dating indicates two periods of activity: 30,000 and 25,000 years ago.
Torch marks, charcoal, and human footprints were found inside the caves.
They could have used scaffolding, they have found holes in the walls to hold a structure and scaffolding to reach the top of the caves.

Stone lamps were used to light the spaces with bone marrow and moss wicks.
Pigments are all naturally occurring ones like charcoal, clay materials, or berries. These allowed them to date the works since they have organic materials.

Some of the caves have full replicas, like in Southern France.
Most prehistoric sites are closed off because our breathing breaks them down more quickly, so there are projects of creating a replica to not cause harm to the real ones.
In southern France there is a full replica of the Chauvet Cave to create an accurate version of what it would've looked like.
The Cave of Lascaux: another famous cave in the textbook; check out the video under modules.
The Cave of Lascaux included 600 layered images. The drawings were done at separate times by paleolithic people, and revisited them over time.
Cave of Lascaux includes the first painting that tells a story.