prehistoric art chapter 1

why did people start making art

art appears when people move out of africa and into europe/asia could have been a neurological mutation in brain that caused people to start creating art (thinking abstractly, making images, develop symbolic language) or art may have existed way before the pieces that were discovered, which would explain its level of skill

oven fired pottery

beginnings of specialization in neolithic period reg food supply means ppl devote time to special skills pottery weaving smelting pottery is durable clay also used female and male figures from romania

shamanism

belief in parallel spirit world accessed thru alternative states of consciousness bulges in wall suggest animals spirit

absolute dates

calander date for object written records maybe radiometric dating radiation levels

lion panel

chauvet. 25-17,000 BCE three large lion heads rhinos.

first discovered prehistoric paintings

discovered in altamira (13,000 bce) spain in 1878

naturalism

scholars first dated art based on how naturalistic (close to reality) it was more naturalistic, the more recent this isnt really accurate b/c some paintings that were super natural were actually the oldest

woman of willendorf

28-25000 BCE. hair covers head. different from romanian figure, which has facial features and shows woman sitting in introspection.

ain ghazal

30 plaster figures some are 3 ft tall (first known large scale sculptures) large size was moitvating force behind design made of bundles of reeds and plaster may have represented ancestors some are two headed - mythical function

bird headed man with a bison

unusual because it shows a human. seems to tell a story. stylistically different than other paintings. man could be a shaman (special powers, leaves body to communicate with spirits. hybrid figure with a human body and feline head is similar in this way.

hall of the bulls

lasaux

paleolithic art

10,000-40,000 years ago ice age mostly animals abstract shapes that could represent weapons, traps, insects human hands, rare instances show human forms women and kids worked as well as men shading and highlighting

mesolithic (middle stone age) years

10k to 8k BCE

paleolithic (old stone age) years

2 million years to 10k BCE lower (2 mill-100,000 BCE), middle (100,000-40k BCE), upper (40,000-10,000 BCE)

mammoths and horses

25-17 BCE engraving. a horse and 2 mammoths overlapping. series of parallel lines on horse can be identified as claw marks. a ritual killing of the animal? help hunters by symbollically killing before hunt? representation of animals behavior in hature?

neolithic (new stone age) years

8k to 2k BCE

ceiling view with bison

altamira

what do the figures at lascaux represent?

cow, deer, bulls, horses, a bear, engraved felines, a woolly rhinoceros are all depicted along the white limestone. curved walls suggest space.

how have interpretation of the meanings of paintings changed over time?

eartly 19th cen: art was for decorative purposes early 20th cen: social function - cave painting strengthens bonds between people. act of making art has religious purpose. magico religious theory. 2nd half of 20th cen: cave images systematically organized with diff animals predominating diff areas of the cave. shamanism. 1980s: steve mitchen says that cave paintings are teaching tools. bison paintings teaches hunters. history communicated thru art.

carving

half human half cat from germany hard to make could be to contact spirit world often of animals women and children were artists women are frequent subjects (possible matrilineal structure?) facial features arent a priority, reproductive ones are could be made by women to show diff stages of pregnancy

settlement at Jericho

houses of mud brick or stone dead buried beneath floors skulls displayed, made to look alive concept of afterlife? respect for dead, ancestor worship stone wall built around town in 7500 bce circular tower inside - monumental architecture was born

architecture in europe - tombs and rituals

houses of wood, branches, mud ten houses built of stone in scotland skara brae 3100-2600 bce hearth for cooking, beds and shelving of stone monumental architecture created for ceremonial burial and ritual

megaliths

huge blocks of stone for tombs and rituals trilithic (3 stone) post and lintel arrangement (two upright stones support 3rd horizontal one) to make a tomb dolmen tombs

neolithic (new stone age) art

ice age ends around 10,000 bce humans mature settle in places instead of moving seasonally domesticate animals and plants earliest evidence in east mediterranean and mespotamia settlement at Jericho

common motifs found in cave paintings of Southern france and northern spain?

large wild animals - bison, horses, deer traces of human hands

differences between depictions of animals at lascaux and chauvet

lascaux: red deer, horses, bulls, goats. chauvet: 5 times larger than lascaux. some consider it more impressive and beautiful. older. large, powerful animals. animals that couldnt be eaten or hunted (symbolized a religous purpose possibly). lions, cave bears, rhinos.

what purpose did paintings serve

naturalism is not only goal not optical images but composite ones - show features that make up animal but not necessarily anatomically accurate ritual or religious purpose maybe magico religious interpretation: create image to have power over subject - improve success of hunt stimulate fertitliy by showing preg animals

catal hoyok

neolithic town 7500 bce a thousand years later than jericho trade in ores 12 building phases no streets, houses have no doors at ground level houses are side by side with ladders in roofs any attracker would have to scale walls burials beneath floor platforms lining walls paintings on plaster lining walls animal hunts static quality - unlike earlier motion paintings first known landscape painting of town and Hasan Dag, a volcano sense of community more ornate rooms = shrines

what is an agreement that many contemporary scholars share?

one explanation may not work for all art. magico religous interpretation may work for lascaux, but not for chauvet, where 72% of animals represented were not hunted. decorated caves must have had special meanings because people returned to them for thousands of years.

relative dates

one object is older or more recent than another determined using stratigraphy - object found at lower layer or stratum of excavation is usually older than one found above it

paleolithic houses

small huts caves for shelter and ritual purposes huts in the ukraine found made of mammoth bones inside huts were prepared foods, tools, skins seasonal residences

menhirs

upright megaliths mark out horizontal space, maybe served as ritual centers large field of these at Menec - could be used to measure sun as a calander hard to get all these stones together often megaliths appear in circles (cromlechs) stonehenge made with at least 4 construction phases could mark passing of time or a ritual function

paleolithic art - tools and process

use lamps to paint by prepare surface with limestone ores, minerals, charcoal for colors blow minerals thru tubes of animal bone or reeds paint made by mixing powders with cave water/saliva/blood etc brushes made of feather fur chewed stick