We Know Much About Prehistoric Art Thanks to the Discovery of Written Evidence

Paleolithic Architecture

The oldest examples of Paleolithic dwellings are shelters in caves, followed by houses of wood, harbinger, and rock.

Learning Objectives

Draw Paleolithic dwellings and shelters

Key Takeaways

Central Points

• Early humans chose locations that could be defended against predators and rivals and that were shielded from inclement weather.
• Weather, h2o, and time have destroyed the bulk of campsites; our understanding of Paleolithic dwellings is therefore limited.
• Caves are the well-nigh famous case of Paleolithic shelters.

Cardinal Terms

• Mammoth:Alarge, hairy, extinct elephant-like mammal of the taxonomic genus Mammuthus.
• Hut:A small wooden shed, a archaic temporary domicile.
• Paleolithic:Early phase of the Rock Age, when primitive stone tools were used.

The Paleolithic Age, or Old Stone Historic period, spanned from around xxx,000 BCE until 10,000 BCE and produced the get-go accomplishments in homo creativity. Due to a lack of written records from this fourth dimension period, nearly all of our knowledge of Paleolithic man culture and fashion of life comes from archaeologic and ethnographic comparisons to modern hunter-gatherer cultures. The Paleolithic lasted until the retreat of the ice, when farming and use of metals were adopted.

Paleolithic Societies

A typical Paleolithic society followed a hunter-gatherer economy. Humans hunted wildlife for meat and gathered food, firewood, and materials for their tools, clothes, or shelters. The adoption of both technologies—clothing and shelter—cannot be dated exactly, but they were cardinal to humanity's progress. Every bit the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated, more elaborate, and more than house-like. At the finish of the Paleolithic era, humans began to produce works of fine art such as cavern paintings, stone fine art, and jewelry, and began to appoint in religious beliefs such every bit burying and rituals .

Dwellings and Shelters

Early men chose locations that could exist defended against predators and rivals and that were shielded from choppy weather. Many such locations could be establish nigh rivers, lakes, and streams, mayhap with low hilltops nearby that could serve as refuges. Since water can erode and change landscapes quite drastically, many of these campsites take been destroyed. Our understanding of Paleolithic dwellings is therefore express.

As early as 380,000 BCE, humans were constructing temporary forest huts . Other types of houses existed; these were more frequently campsites in caves or in the open up air with little in the fashion of formal structure. The oldest examples are shelters within caves, followed past houses of woods, harbinger, and rock. A few examples exist of houses built out of bones.

Temporary wood hut: An creative person's rendering of a temporary wood house, based on testify found at Terra Amata (in Prissy, France) and dated to the Lower Paleolithic era.

Caves

Caves are the most famous example of Paleolithic shelters, though the number of caves used by Paleolithic people is drastically small-scale relative to the number of hominids thought to accept lived on Earth at the time. Most hominids probably never entered a cave, much less lived in one. Notwithstanding, the remains of hominid settlements prove interesting patterns. In one cave, a tribe of Neanderthals kept a hearth burn down burning for a thousand years, leaving behind an accumulation of coals and ash. In some other cave, mail holes in the dirt floor reveal that the residents congenital some sort of shelter or enclosure with a roof to protect themselves from h2o dripping on them from the cave ceiling. They often used the rear portions of the cavern as middens, depositing their garbage there.

In the Upper Paleolithic (the latest part of the Paleolithic), caves ceased to deed equally houses. Instead, they likely became places for early people to get together for ritual and religious purposes.

Tents and Huts

Modern archaeologists know of few types of shelter used by aboriginal peoples other than caves. Some examples do exist, but they are quite rare. In Siberia, a group of Russian scientists uncovered a house or tent with a frame synthetic of mammoth bones. The peachy tusks supported the roof, while the skulls and thighbones formed the walls of the tent. Several families could live inside, where 3 small hearths, little more than rings of stones, kept people warm during the winter. Around 50,000 years ago, a grouping of Paleolithic humans camped on a lakeshore in southern France. At Terra Amata, these hunter-gatherers congenital a long and narrow house. The foundation was a ring of stones, with a flat threshold stone for a door at either terminate. Vertical posts down the middle of the house supported roofs and walls of sticks and twigs, probably covered over with a layer of straw. A hearth exterior served equally the kitchen, while a smaller hearth inside kept people warm. Their residents could easily carelessness both dwellings. This is why they are not considered true houses, which was a development of the Neolithic flow rather than the Paleolithic menstruum.

Paleolithic Artifacts

The Paleolithic era has a number of artifacts that range from stone, bone, and wood tools to stone sculptures.

Learning Objectives

Draw the characteristics of the artifacts during the Paleolithic era

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Artifacts dating from the Lower and Middle Paleolithic remain disputed every bit objects of artistic expression.
• In that location is some evidence that a preference for artful emerged in the Middle Paleolithic due to the symmetry inherent to discovered artifacts.
• The Venus of Tan-Tan is an declared artifact found in Morocco that is believed by some archaeologists to exist the earliest representation of the human form .
• The Venus of Berekhat Ram is believed by some to be a representation of a female homo effigy dating from the early Eye Paleolithic, however, the claim is highly contested.
• A carved elephant bone from Bilzingsleben has been interpreted every bit an early example of art making.
• The Paleolithic is characterized past the use of stone tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools.

Cardinal Terms

• quartzite:Ametamorphic rock consisting of interlocking grains of quartz.
• ochre:An earth pigment containing silica, aluminum, and ferric oxide
• flint:A hard, fine-grained quartz that fractures conchoidally and generates sparks when struck.
• paleoliths:A stone relic of the Paleolithic era.
• artifacts:Objects that are created by a human beingness with cultural and historical significance.

The Paleolithic or Old Stone Age originated effectually 30,000 BCE, lasting until ten,000 BCE, and is separated into three periods: the Lower Paleolithic (the primeval subdivision), Middle Paleolithic, and Upper Paleolithic. The Paleolithic era is characterized by the use of rock tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for employ as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers; even so, due to their nature, these have not been preserved to any great caste. Surviving artifacts of the Paleolithic era are known as paleoliths .

Acheulean hand-axes: Acheulean hand-axes from Kent. The types shown are (clockwise from top) cordate, ficron, and ovate. Evidence shows these early hominids intentionally selected raw materials with good flaking qualities and chose advisable-sized stones for their needs to produce sharp-edged tools for cutting.

The earliest undisputed art originated in the Upper Paleolithic. However, there is some testify that a preference for aesthetic emerged in the Middle Paleolithic due to the symmetry inherent in discovered artifacts and prove of attention to detail in such things every bit tool shape, which has led some archaeologists to translate these artifacts as early examples of creative expression. At that place has been much dispute among scholars over the terming of early on prehistoric artifacts as "art." More often than not speaking, artifacts dating from the Lower and Middle Paleolithic remain disputed equally objects of creative expression, while the Upper Paleolithic provides the first conclusive examples of fine art making.

Disputed Art(ifacts): Early Venuses

The Venus of Tan-Tan is an alleged artifact establish in Kingdom of morocco that is believed by some to be the earliest representation of the homo course . The Venus, a 2.iii inch long slice of quartzite stone dated between 300,000 and 500,000 years ago during the Middle Paleolithic, was discovered in 1999 in a river terrace deposit on the northward bank of the Draa River, just south of the Moroccan hamlet of Tan-Tan. There is controversy amidst archaeologists as to its nature and origin. Some archaeologists believe information technology was created by a combination of geological forces equally well as tool-based carving. Visible smudge stains have been interpreted by some as remnants of blood-red ochre pigments. For others, the rock'south shape is simply the result of natural weathering and erosion, and any human shape is a mere coincidence.

Drawing of the Venus of Tan-Tan: The Venus of Tan-Tan is an declared antiquity found in Morocco that is believed by some to exist the earliest representation of the man course.

The Venus of Berekhat Ram is a contemporary of the Venus of Tan-Tan, found at Berekhat Ram on the Golan Heights in 1981. Some believe it to exist a representation of a female human effigy, dating from the early Middle Paleolithic; however, the claim is highly contested. The object is a cerise tufic pebble, about i.4 inches long, which has at least iii grooves, perhaps incised with a abrupt-edged stone tool. The grooves have been interpreted every bit marker the cervix and arms of the figure by some, while others believe these to exist purely naturally-occurring lines .

Mask of la Roche-Cotard

Also known as the Mousterian Protofigurine, the Mask of la Roche-Cotard is an antiquity from the Paleolithic period that was discovered in the entrance of the La Roche-Cotard cave, situated on the banks of the Loire River in French republic. Constructed using flint and bone, the stone is believed to represent the upper role of a confront, while the bone has been interpreted as optics. While some archaeologists question whether this artifact does indeed represent a rendered face, it has been occasionally regarded equally an example of Paleolithic figurative artistic expression.

Bilzingsleben

Bilzingsleben is a site of early Paleolithic human being remains discovered in Thuringia, Germany. The area was too the site of discovery of many rock and bone tools such as hoes, scrapers, points, and gougers. Ane bone fragment, an elephant tibia, has two groups of incised parallel lines which some have interpreted equally an early example of fine art making. The regular spacing of the incisions, their sub-equal lengths, and V-like cross-sections suggest that they were created at the same fourth dimension, with a single rock; however, no conclusive agreement has been made.

Blombos Cave

Discoveries of engraved stones in the Blombos Caves of South Africa has led some archaeologists to believe that early Homo sapiens were capable of abstraction and the production of symbolic art. Fabricated from ochre, the stones are engraved with abstract patterns, and while they are simpler than prehistoric cavern paintings constitute in Europe, some scholars believe these engraved stones represent the earliest known artworks, dating from 75,000 years ago. Although, much like the other pieces, this conventionalities remains contested.

Engraved ochre from the Blombos Cave: Engraved ochre from the Blombos Cavern has led some historians to believe that early Homo sapiens were capable of symbolic fine art.

Paleolithic Cave Paintings

Paleolithic cave paintings demonstrate early on humans' capacity to requite meaning to their surroundings and communicate with others.

Learning Objectives

Identify the types of images found in cave paintings in Europe dating from the Paleolithic era

Fundamental Takeaways

Key Points

• Cave paintings tin can be grouped into iii primary categories: animals, human figures, and abstract signs.
• Animals depicted include familiar herbivores and predatory animals.
• The about spectacular examples of cave paintings are in southern France and northern Kingdom of spain.
• Interpretations vary from prehistoric star charts, accounts of past hunts or mystical rituals for future ones, and shamanism .

Fundamental Terms

• chiaroscuro:An artistic technique developed during the Renaissance, referring to the utilise of exaggerated light contrasts in order to create the illusion of book.
• shamanism:A range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit globe.
• Parietal Art:Paintings, murals, drawings, etchings, carvings, and pecked artwork on the interior of rock shelters and caves; besides known as cavern fine art.
• polychromy:The art or practice of combining different colors, peculiarly bright ones, in an artistic way.

The Paleolithic , or One-time Rock Age, ranges from 30,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE and produced the first accomplishments in man creativity, preceding the invention of writing. Archeological discoveries across a broad swath of Europe (peculiarly southern France and northern Spain) include over two hundred caves with spectacular paintings, drawings, and sculpture that are amidst the earliest undisputed examples of representational image-making. Paintings and engravings along the caves' walls and ceilings fall nether the category of parietal art .

Themes and Materials

The nigh common themes in cave paintings are large wild fauna, such equally bison, horses, aurochs , and deer. The species constitute almost often were suitable for hunting past humans, simply were not necessarily the typical casualty found in associated os deposits. For example, the painters of Lascaux, France left mainly reindeer bones, just this species does not appear at all in the cave paintings; equine species are the about common.

Drawings of humans were rare and were usually schematic in nature as opposed to the detailed and naturalistic images of animals.
Tracings of human easily and hand stencils were very popular, even so, besides as abstruse patterns called finger flutings.

The pigments used appear to be red and yellowish ochre , manganese or carbon for blackness, and prc clay for white. Some of the colour may have been mixed with fat. The paint was applied by finger, chewed sticks, or fur for brushes. Sometimes the silhouette of the creature was incised in the rock offset, and in some caves many of the images were simply engraved in this fashion, taking them out of a strict definition of "cave painting."

Main Examples of Cave Paintings: French republic and Spain

France

Lascaux (circa 15,000 BCE), in southwestern France, is an interconnected serial of caves with one of the well-nigh impressive examples of artistic creations past Paleolithic humans.

Cave paintings in Lascaux, French republic: The most famous section of the cavern is "The Great Hall of the Bulls," where bulls, equines, and stags are depicted.

Discovered in 1940, the cavern contains most two g figures, which can be grouped into three chief categories—animals, human figures, and abstruse signs. Over ix hundred images draw animals from the surrounding areas, such as horses, stags, aurochs, bison, lions, bears, and birds—species that would have been hunted and eaten, and those identified equally predators. The paintings contain no images of the surrounding landscape or the vegetation of the time.

The Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave (circa 30,000 BCE) in the Ardèche department of southern France contains some of the primeval known paintings, equally well as other testify of Upper Paleolithic life. The Chauvet Cave is uncharacteristically large, and the quality, quantity, and condition of the artwork found on its walls have been chosen spectacular. Hundreds of animal paintings accept been catalogued, depicting at least thirteen unlike species—not just the familiar herbivores that predominate Paleolithic cave fine art, just also many predatory animals, such as cavern lions, panthers, bears, and cave hyenas.

Drawings of horses from the Chauvet Cave in France: The Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave in the Ardèche department of southern France is a cave that contains some of the earliest known cave paintings.

Every bit is typical of nearly cavern art, there are no paintings of complete human figures in Chauvet. There are a few panels of cherry-red ochre hand prints and hand stencils made past spitting paint over hands pressed confronting the cave surface. Abstract markings—lines and dots—are found throughout the cave.

The artists who produced these unique paintings used techniques rarely plant in other cavern art. Many of the paintings announced to have been made after the walls were scraped clear of debris and concretions, leaving a smoother and noticeably lighter area upon which the artists worked. Similarly, a 3-dimensional quality and the suggestion of movement are achieved by incising or etching effectually the outlines of certain figures. The fine art besides includes scenes that were complex for its time—animals interacting with each other. For instance, a pair of wooly rhinoceroses are seen butting horns in an apparent contest for territory or mating rights.

Spain

Altamira (circa 18,000 BCE) is a cave in northern Spain famous for its Upper Paleolithic cave paintings featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and homo hands. The cave has been declared a World Heritage Site past UNESCO.

Painting of a bison in the Groovy Hall of Policromes, Altamira, Spain: Altamira's famous Upper Paleolithic cavern paintings feature drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and human being hands.

The long cave consists of a series of twisting passages and chambers. Human occupation was limited to the cave rima oris, although paintings were created throughout the length of the cavern. The artists used polychromy—charcoal and ochre or haematite—to create the images, ofttimes diluting these pigments to produce variations in intensity , creating an impression of chiaroscuro . They as well exploited the natural contours in the cave walls to requite their subjects a three-dimensional effect.

Interpretations

Similar all prehistoric art, the purpose of these paintings remains obscure. In recent years, new research has suggested that the Lascaux paintings may contain prehistoric star charts. Some anthropologists and art historians also theorize that the paintings could be an account of past hunting success, or they could represent a mystical ritual to meliorate future hunting endeavors. An alternative theory, broadly based on ethnographic studies of contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, is that the paintings pertained to shamanism.

Paleolithic Sculpture

Paleolithic sculptures establish in caves are some of the primeval examples of representational art.

Learning Objectives

Talk over aspects and characteristics of Paleolithic cave sculptures

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Sculptural work from the Paleolithic consists mainly of figurines , chaplet, and some decorative utilitarian objects constructed with rock, bone, ivory , clay, and wood.
• "Venus figurines" is an umbrella term for a number of prehistoric statuettes of women that accept been found by and large in Europe, just also in Eurasia and Siberia.
• Venus figurines are characterized by shared stylistic features, such as an oval shape, large belly, broad-gear up thighs, large breasts, and the typical absenteeism of artillery and feet.
• Also known every bit the Mousterian Protofigurine, the Mask of La Roche-Cotard is a representational artifact from the Paleolithic period that was discovered in the entrance of a cave named La Roche-Cotard.
• Discoveries of engraved stones and beads in the Blombos Caves of Southward Africa has led some archaeologists to believe that early Homo sapiens were capable of abstraction and the product of symbolic art.

Central Terms

• Eurasia:The largest landmass on World, consisting of Europe and Asia.
• flint:A hard, fine-grained quartz that fractures conchoidally and generates sparks when struck.

The Paleolithic or Old Stone Historic period existed from approximately xxx,000 BCE until ten,000 BCE, and produced the first accomplishments in man creativity. Archeological discoveries across Europe and Asia include over two hundred caves with spectacular paintings, drawings, and sculptures that are among the earliest undisputed examples of representational fine art-making. Sculptural work from the Paleolithic consists mainly of figurines, chaplet, and some decorative commonsensical objects constructed with rock, bone, ivory, clay, and woods. During prehistoric times, caves were places of habitation as well equally possible spaces for ritual and communal gathering. Unsurprisingly, caves were the locations of many archeological discoveries attributable to their secluded locations and protection from the elements.

Venus Figurines

"Venus figurines" is an umbrella term for a number of prehistoric statuettes of women that have been found more often than not in Europe, merely also in Asia and Siberia, dating from the Upper Paleolithic. These figures are all quite small-scale, between 4 and 25 cm tall, and carved mainly in steatite , limestone , bone, or ivory. These sculptures are collectively described as "Venus" figurines in reference to the Roman goddess of beauty, as early historians assumed they represented an ideal of beauty from the time.

The Venus figurines accept sometimes been interpreted as representing a mother goddess; the affluence of such female person imagery has led some to believe that Upper Paleolithic (and after Neolithic) societies had a female-centered faith and a female-dominated gild. Various other explanations for the purpose of the figurines take been proposed, such as the hypothesis that the figurines were created equally cocky-portraits of actual women.

Stylistic Features

Venus figures are characterized by shared stylistic features, such equally an oval shape, large belly, broad-gear up thighs, large breasts, and the typical absence of arms and feet. Hundreds of these sculptures have been found both in open up-air settlements and caves. The Venus of Hohle Fels, a 6 cm effigy of a woman carved from a mammoth 's tusk, was discovered in Federal republic of germany's Hohle Fels cave in 2008 and represents i of the earliest establish sculptures of this type.

The Venus of Hohle Fels: The Venus of Hohle Fels, a 6 cm figure of a woman carved from a mammoth's tusk, was discovered in Germany's Hohle Fels cave in 2008 and represents one of the earliest constitute sculptures of this type.

Additionally, the Venus of Willendorf is a especially famous example of the Venus figure. While initially idea to be symbols of fertility, or of a fertility goddess, the true significance of the Venus effigy remains obscure, as does much of prehistoric art.

The Venus of Willendorf: The Venus of Willendorf is a especially famous example of the Venus effigy.

Mask of La Roche-Cotard

It is also known as the "Mousterian Protofigurine," the Mask of La Roche-Cotard is an artifact from the Paleolithic period that was discovered in the entrance of a cave named La Roche-Cotard, on the banks of the Loire River in France. Constructed using flint and bone, the stone is believed to correspond the upper part of a confront, while the bone has been interpreted every bit eyes. While some archaeologists question whether this artifact does indeed represent a rendered face, information technology is typically regarded as an example of Paleolithic figurative artistic expression.

Blombos Cave

Discoveries of engraved stones and beads in the Blombos Cavern of South Africa has led some archaeologists to believe that early Homo sapiens were capable of abstraction and the production of symbolic art. Made from ochre , the stones are engraved with abstract patterns, while the beads are made from Nassarius shells. While they are simpler than prehistoric cave paintings institute in Europe, some scholars believe these engraved stones represent the primeval known artworks, dating from 75,000 years agone.

Nassarius trounce beads from the Blombos Cavern: Discoveries of engraved stones and chaplet in the Blombos Cave of South Africa has led some archaeologists to believe that early Human being sapiens were capable of abstraction and the product of symbolic art.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/the-paleolithic-period/

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