Chapter 1: Art In the Stone Age

What is not a function of the megalithic monument at Stonehenge

A historical memorial

passage grave

A prehistoric tomb with a long stone corridor leading to a burial chamber covered by a great tumulus.

What was found in Makapansgat, South Africa?

A reddish brown jasperite pebble with a face carved into it.

What is the likely function of the Neolithic site of Göbekli Tepe

A religious center

apse

A semicircular recess in the wall of a building

beam

A structural member, usually horizontal, that carries a load that is applied transverse to its length. Wooden intel.

What settlement is associated with the beginning of large-scale, or monumental, sculpture?

Ain Ghazal

Where was the human figure made from plaster, painted and inlaid with bitumen found?

Ain Ghazal, Jordon (West Asia)

Why were animals depicted in twisted perspectives?

Allows a complete depiction of the concept of the animal

What is the seeming contradiction in the paintings of the Chauvet cave?

Although they are the oldest Paleolithic paintings, they exhibit advanced painting features and narrative content.

What animals are on the wall of the Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France?

Aurochs, horses, and rhinoceroses

What paintings are found in the cave at Altamira, Spain from 13,000 - 10,000 BCE

Bison

What was found in La Madeleine, France from 12,000 BCE

Bison licking it's flank made out of Reindeer horn

Tumulus

Burial Mound

What was found in the Apollo 11 cave in Namibia in 28,000 BCE?

Feline with human feet drawn with charcoal on stone.

What do historians suspect is the purpose of the Venus of Willendorf?

Fertility Figure

What was found in Brassempouy, France?

Head of a woman carved out of woolly mammoth ivory

What does Skara Brae, Scotland have?

Houses made with stone, timber and no roof

What was found in Jericho made out of plaster, painted and inlaid with seashells?

Human skull with restored features

What was found in Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany?

Human with feline head carved out of wooly mammoth ivory

ground line

In paintings and reliefs, a painted or carved baseline on which figures appear to stand.

Anatolia

Large peninsula in West Asia

Where is the Hall of Bulls located?

Lascaux Cave, France

What is the feline head in Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany, carved from?

Mammoth ivory

What transitional period occurred just before Europe became climatically, geographically, and biologically much as it is today?

Mesolithic Era

What component is lacking from large Neolithic fortifications and megalithic structures?

Mortar

Where is the Apollo 11 cave located?

Namibia

What was found in Willendorf, Austria from 28,000-25,000 BCE

Nude woman (Venus of Willendorf) shaped out of limestone

What architectural technique is used at the far-flung Neolithic sites of Hagar Qim and Stonehenge

Post and lintel

What is in the Reclining woman made from?

Rock-cut relief

What's on the left wall in the Axial Gallery of the cave in Lascaux, France?

Running horse

Where are the circle of trilithons

Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England

What most likely is the purpose of negative handprints appearing in some Paleolithic caves?

Signatures

What country is the Altamira cave located in?

Spain

What paintings were in Pech-Merle, France?

Spotted horses and negative hand imprints on cave walls.

What is the Neolithic Jericho near the west bank of the Jordan river?

Stone laid without mortar

What was found in Göbleki Tepe, Turkey?

T-shaped stone pillar with animal reliefs

Neolithic

The "new" Stone Age. The shift to food production and built settlements.

What architectural form makes the temple at Hagar Qing noteworthy

The combination of straight and curved forms

What is most likely the explanation for the lack of consistent ground line, the different drawing techniques, and the overlapping figures in the cave paintings of the Paleolithic in Europe

The paintings were done over many years by many different artists

What great human advance accounts for the Neolithic origins of metalwork, weaving, pottery, and simple clay records?

The settlement into organized societies around agriculture

How do materials of the paintings from çatal höyük differ from Paleolithic paintings

They are made using brushes on a prepared surface

What was found in the cave at Le Tuc d'Audoubert, France in 15,000-10,000BCE

Two bisons reliefs

Mesopotamia

Western Asia which is now home to Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey and Syria.

What was found in Laussel, France from 25,000 -20,000 BCE

Woman holding a bison horn in painted limestone

What painting as at the well of the cave in Lascaux, France?

Woolly rhinoceros, wounded man, and disemboweled bison

twisted perspective/ composite view

a convention of representation in which part of a figure is shown in profile and another part of the same figure is shown frontally

Composite View

a defined way of displaying attribute information that represents a complete "picture" of a member

lintel

a horizontal beam used to span an opening

radiocarbon dating

a method of measuring the decay rate of carbon isotopes in organic matter to determine the age of organic materials such as wood and fiber

dry masonry

a mortarless stone construction technique in which the stones are held in place by their own weight

trilithons

a pair of monoliths topped with a lintel; found in megalithic structures

What is in Newgrange, Ireland that originated from 3200-2500 BCE

a passage grave that contains a corbeled dome

burin

a pointed tool used for engraving or incising

dome

a rounded vault forming the roof of a building or structure, typically with a circular base.

Post-and lintel

a system of construction in which two posts support a lintel

corbeled vaulting

a vault formed by the piling of stone blocks in horizontal courses, long beams inward until the two walls meet in an arch

Megalith

a very large usually rough stone used in prehistoric cultures as a monument or building block

Henge

an arrangment of megalithic stones in a circle, often surrounded by a ditch

What is the most salient feature of the climatic environment of northern Europe around 9000 BCE

melting ice

Conceptual representation

representation of the fundamental distinguising properties of a person or object, not the way a figure or object appears in space and light at a specific moment.

mesolithic

the "middle" Stone Age between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic ages

Paleolithic

the "old" Stone Age, during which humankind produced the first sculptures and paintings. Art used for ritual purposes

Optical representation

the representation of people and objects seen from a fixed viewpoint

What's in Malta (a island country in Southern Europe)

the ruins of Hagar Qim from 3200-2500 BCE

incise

to cut into a surface with a sharp instrument

find spot

where an artifact was found; provenance, origin

Where was the deer hunt wall painting located and from?

Çatal höyük, Turkey from 6000 BCE