Prehistoric

1. Prehistoric Art

2. Prehistoric Art
• Our knowledge of Prehistoric “cave people” based on art (and
fossils)
• The art that survives is a small fraction of the total art created
• Study of Prehistoric art began only about 200 years ago

3. Ice Age – Stone Age
• Earliest upright human beings came into existence 4.4 million years
ago
• Homo sapiens (“wise humans”) appeared about 200,000 years ago
• Earliest humans from Africa.
• As the Ice Age glaciers receded, humans spread across Asia, into
Europe, and finally to Australia and the Americas

4. Prehistoric Periods
• Paleolithic Old Stone Age Paleo = old / Lithic = stone
(35,000 – 8,000 BCE)
• Mesolithic Old Stone Age Meso = middle / Lithic = stone
(8,000 – 4,000 BCE)
• Neolithic New Stone Age Neo = new / Lithic = stone
(6,000 – 1500 BCE)
• Bronze Age Bronze - alloy metal made from tin and copper
(2300 - 1000 BCE)
• Iron Age Iron – cutting tools and weapons made from iron or steel
(1200 - 1000 BCE)

5. Dating System
Dating System (based on Gregorian Calendar)
BCE (Before Common Era)
CE (Common Era)
Older Terms for Dating:
BC (Before Christ)
AD (Anno Domini)
1000
BCE
1000
CE0
2020
CE
Year
10,000
BCE
etc.

6. Cave Paintings

8. Why did Prehistoric People
make cave art?
Theories
Human Need / Desire to Create and Decorate
Worship / Spirituality
Used for Teaching / Story-telling
“Magic” Power – similar to voodoo practices
Calendar (way to mark time passed / hunting season)

9. Chauvet Cave

10. Four Horses
Chauvet Cave (Southern France
near the Pont-d’Arc)
Wall Drawing (Charcoal)
30,000 BCE (Paleolithic)
Cave discovered in 1994
Cave was sealed for thousands of
years (outstanding condition)
Named after Jean-Marie Chauvet,
one of the Archaeologists who
discovered the cave
Earliest known paintings ever found
Cave contains representations of
predatory animals, handprints,
mythological creatures, minotaur,
female form
Cave closed to the public

11. Lascaux Cave

12. Hall of Bulls Lascaux Cave, France

13. Images of Animals
(Bulls and Horses) on
cave ceiling
Overlapping images
produced over
thousands of years
Cave discovered in
1940
Opened to the public
after World War II
(closed in 1963 due to
damage)
Hall of Bulls
Lascaux Cave (Dordogne, France)
Wall Drawing (Charcoal & Natural Clay on Limestone)
14,000 BCE(Paleolithic)

14. Bird-Headed Man and Bison
Lascaux Cave

15. Narrative (tells a story)
Relationship of Humans
with Animals
Mythological figure lying
down
Hunting Scene?
Bird-Headed Man and Bison
Lascaux Cave (Dordogne, France)
Wall Drawing (Charcoal on Limestone)
14,000 BCE (Paleolithic)

16. Interior Map of Lascaux Cave

17. Altamira Caves Altamira, Spain

18. Bison Altamira Cave

19. First Paleolithic cave
discovered
Discovered by accident in
1868 by a local hunter,
then visited in 1876 by a
nobleman
Not accepted as authentic
until 1902
Relief (bison image raised
from the background –
created by carving around
the bison)
Bison
Altamira Cave (Altamira, Spain)
Charcoal and Clay on Limestone Relief
12,000 BCE (Paleolithic)

20. Prehistoric Sculpture
animals and female figures
are the main subjects

21. Lamp with Ibex Design

22. Oil lamp used to light a
cave
Animal design (Ibex)
engraved on bottom of
stone
Unity of Composition -
Form of Ibex fits curved
shape of the stone
Supports theory that
humans need to
decorate
Lamp with Ibex Design
Found in La Mouthe Cave (Dordogne, France)
Engraved Stone
15,000 – 13,000 BCE (Paleolithic)
Top of stone
(for burning oil)

23. Woman from Willendorf

24. Found in Willendorf, Austria
Other similar statues of female nudes
have been found in the region
Fertility symbol?
Cultural differences of “beauty”
Originally named “Venus from
Willendorf” (but Venus title limits the
interpretation since it is unknown what
she represents)
Woman from Willendorf
28,000 – 25,000 BCE (Paleolithic)
Carved Limestone
11.1 cm tall

25. Horse and Sun Chariot

26. Trundholm Sun Chariot
1400 BCE (Bronze Age)
Cast bronze with gold disk
54 cm long
Discovered in Denmark in
1902 by a farmer ploughing
their field
Chariots (wheeled cart) dating
back to 2000 BCE
Symbolism of Horse and Sun
(now a national symbol of
Denmark – the artwork is on
the 1,000-krone banknote)
Perhaps used for rituals to
reenact the passage of the
sun?
Sun disk engraved gold with
curved patterns

27. Prehistoric Architecture
As Paleolithic people adopted a settled, agricultural way of life, they
began to build structures to use as houses, storage, and shelters
for animals
Neolithic people also built Tombs and Buildings used for
Ceremonies

28. Mammoth Bone House
Reconstruction Drawing

29. Found in the Ukraine
Hunter-gatherers built houses
using bones of the Wooly
Mammoth (exist form of the elephant)
The bones were covered with
animal hides and natural materials
to keep the inside warm
The houses were typically located
on old river terraces. This type of
location is believed to have been
a strategic one, as it is placed
near the pathway of migrating
animal herds between the
stepped plain and the riverside.
Mammoth Bone House
16,000 – 10,000 BCE
(Paleolithic)
Architecture (made from
bone)

30. Wooly Mammoth

31. Stonehenge Wiltshire, England

32. Stonehenge
2750 – 1500 BCE (Neolithic)
Architecture (stone)
A henge is a circle of stones
surrounded by a ditch
Post and Lintel system
Many theories why
Stonehenge was built
(ceremonies, calendar,
observatory of sun and starts)
Stones from southern Wales
On Summer Solstice (June 21)
every year the sun rises
directly over Stonehenge
(over the heel stone)

34. Map of Stonehenge