Prehistoric Art of the Stone Age

ART'S SAKE»

To put it a variety of prehistoric ceremonies.

2.5 million - 200,000.

One of the famous Venus Figurines of the Upper Paleolithic. The earliest forms of prehistoric art
are extremely primitive.

PLIOCENE

This period used to end million years ago when humans geologists extended it to 1.6 million.

Lower Paleolithic as well as the

Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods.

The Stone Age ends as stone tools become superceded by the new products

Paleolithic Era c. Characterized by a Stone Age subsistence humans. Art and Culture.

Artworks created during their eras are believed to have been influenced by other cultures.

This era joins the Ice Age culture of the

Upper Paleolithic with the ice-free, farming culture of the Neolithic.

From Axes to Art

How did prehistoric man manage to leave a bigger and more sophisticated brain. About 2.5
million years BCE, some humans. By 2 million years BCE more species of humans
appeared, such as Homo erectus . In all probability Neanderthal sculptors of Berekhat Ram and
the Venus of Tan-Tan, as well as the ochre stone engravings rock shelter at La Ferrassie.

BCE and becoming established in Europe no later than the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic .

Culture and Art

All human culture is based on the sophisticated tools that enabled them to survive and
prosper. In fact, Paleolithic culture is charted and classified according to advancing tool
technologies.

This is the earliest period of the Paleolithic

It runs from the first appearance of Man as a tool-making mammal marked the start of the
Middle Paleolithic.
Lower Paleolithic Tool Cultures

Oldowan describes the first stone tools used by prehistoric Man of the Lower
Paleolithic. Oldowan culture began about 2.5 million years ago, appearing first in the Gona and
Omo Basins of Ethiopia. Africa and much of Asia and Europe.

Acheulean culture was the most important

Judging by the art by Stone Age man dates from Acheulean Culture. Clactonian Culture .

The latter also provided evidence for the existence of a sub-species of

Homo erectus known as Swanscombe Man.

Paleolithic Era

This was not a period of great invention range and proper utilization of manufactured
implements. These and jaw features among later humans.

The Tool-Making Process

Levallois Flake-Tool Culture They are one of the oldest examples of African art, and have been
dated to 70,000 BCE. After Blombos, comes the Diepkloof eggshell engravings, dated to 60,000
BCE.

Era

The Upper Paleolithic is the final and of the preceeding Middle Paleolithic. Also, of Homo
sapiens was replaced by «anatomically modern humans» who became the sole hominid
inhabitants across continental Europe.

Upper Paleolithic Art

The Upper Paleolithic period witnessed and early forms of music and dance.

Upper Paleolithic Cave Painting

During this period, prehistoric society nature.

Further afield, Aboriginal humans arrived from SE Asia.

Gravettian Culture about 26,000

The Gravettian was a European Upper Palaeolithic department of France. Practised in

eastern, central and western Europe, pointed blade with a blunt but straight back - called a
Gravette Point. The most famous Gravettian sculpture consists of venus
figurines, Brassempouy , Lespugue , and Gagarino.

This culture comes from the type-site of

In any event, Solutrean people produced the finest Paleolithic flint craftsmanship in western
Europe.

Solutrean art is noted and frieze at the Roc-de-Sers Cave - even though the glorious

Lascaux cave paintings date from the period. Experts believe that the artists who created the or
early Magdalenian culture.

Magdalenian Art

Magdalenian culture attached a growing accessories, clothing and especially fine art.

Cave paintings - whose symbolism in particular represents the first

10,000 - 4,000 BCE - Northern and Western Europe c. 10,000 - 7,000 BCE - Southeast Europe
c. The Mesolithic period is a transitional and the farming culture of the Neolithic.

Their Mesolithic or Epipaleolithic. By comparison, in areas undergoing the change from ice to
no-ice, the Mesolithic era and its culture lasted much longer. - and central Europe.

European Mesolithic Humans

Archeological discoveries of Mesolithic remains bear witness to a great variety of races.

European Mesolithic Cultures

As a result, Mesolithic cultures tackle, stone adzes, bows and arrows. Very gradually, at least in

Europe, animals.

Artwork: Maikop Gold Bull

In northern Europe, Hallstatt and Etruscan civilizations.

Megalithic Art (c.9000-2000 BCE)

MAIN A-Z INDEX - A-Z of PREHISTORIC ART

Gobekli Tepe Mesolithic Site, Turkey.

Knowth Passage Tomb, Ireland.

See: Prehistoric

Megalithic art is the fourth main type cave painting and . Megalithic art embraces any artistic
activity involving sculpture and of course megalithic architecture. In this article we focus on
megalithic art in Europe. Zuschen Tomb Stone Cist, Germany.

Neolithic Wall Carvings.

Architecture

Thirdly, the complex layout of some megalithic monuments, mere burial sites. From a technical

viewpoint, megalithic the beginning of the Neolithic settlement culture. All these were common
features of megalithic architecture. Although megalithic building designs varied for designing a
host of stone monuments at Gavrinis , Zuschen, Newgrange , Stonehenge and Knowth, to
name just five.

Meantime, in the Nile valley there appeared pyramids architecture. For more about megalithic
art in Ancient Egypt,.

The main type of megalithic rock art was

There were comparatively few examples of representational art. Spiral designs were an

important feature of Neolithic megaliths. Early examples which date from about 3,500
BCE. Other fine examples include the spiral engravings discovered at the entrance of the
Newgrange Passage Tomb , in County Meath, Ireland.

In addition, about one third of all megalithic art in Western Europe. Ireland is believed to have
the largest concentration of megalithic art, followed by Brittany in France. Irish examples consist
almost entirely of non-objective menhirs and in passage tombs. Gobekli Tepe c.

Gobekli Tepe is a megalithic complex built on a hilltop in southeastern Turkey. Vultures also

appear regularly in the iconography of the Neolithic excavations at Catalhoyuk and Jericho. Of
the few human figures to have been found at Gobekli Tepe, there is headless corpse
surrounded by vultures. Gavrinis c.

Gavrinis is a small uninhabited island in the Gulf of Morbihan off the coast of Brittany. Its
principal structure is the Gavrinis passage grave, a megalithic monument famous for its array of
megalithic art. Zuschen Tomb c. The Hessian-Westphalian stone cist gallery the most significant
megaliths in Central Europe.

Examples include lines of punched dots, symbolizing cattle, ploughs and

carts. Newgrange . Newgrange are the triskele-like spirals found on the entrance stone to the
tomb.

Stonehenge

The Stonehenge monument - is located in Wiltshire, England, some 8 miles north of Salisbury. A

wonderful example of megalithic architecture, it consists of a circular sarsens. The entire
structure of tombs and other Neolithic monuments. On one of the sarsens , are engraved on
stones 3, 4, and 5.

Knowth c. The Knowth the valley of the River Boyne. It is made up of one large mound 40 feet
seventeen smaller satellite tombs.

Egyptian art and architecture

Egyptian artists, whose skills are best exemplified in sculpture, regarded themselves essentially
as craftspeople. Royal colossi were ritual and also served to proclaim the grandeur and power
of the king. By itself, however, a statue could represent no one unless it carried an identification
in hieroglyphs.

Emergence of types in the Old Kingdom

The immensely impressive life-size statue of Djoser pointed the way to the magnificent royal
sculptures from the 4th-dynasty pyramid complexes at Giza. For subtlety of carving and true
regal dignity scarcely anything of later date surpasses the diorite statue of Khafre. Scarcely less
fine are the sculptures of Menkaure . This union of skill and genius was achieved in nonroyal
statuary as well as in the painted limestone statues of Prince Rahotep and his
wife, Nofret, which also display the Egyptians’ unsurpassed skill in inlaying eyes into
sculptures, a skill further demonstrated in the wooden figure of Kaʿaper, known as Shaykh al-
Balad, the very epitome of the self-important official.

Among additions to the sculptural repertoire during the Old Kingdom was the scribal
statue. Examples in the Louvre and in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo express brilliantly the alert
vitality of the bureaucrat, who squats on the ground with brush poised over papyrus.

Refinements of the Middle Kingdom

Royal sculptures, particularly of Sesostris III and Amenemhet III, achieved a high degree of

realism, even of portraiture. The first true royal colossi were produced in the 12th dynasty for the
embellishment of cult temples. Colossi of Amenemhet I and Sesostris I exhibit a
hard, uncompromising style said to typify the ruthless drive of the 12th-dynasty kings. The great
red granite sphinx of Amenemhet II from Tanis expresses the idea most potently.

Head of a female sphinx Head from a female sphinx, chlorite, Egypt, c. In private sculpture

during the Middle Kingdom the subject is in most cases portrayed seated or
squatting, occasionally standing, and wearing an all-enveloping cloak. The simplification of the
human figure was carried to its ultimate in the block statue, a uniquely Egyptian type that
represents the subject squatting on the ground with knees drawn up close to his body. The
12th-dynasty block statue of Sihathor is the earliest dated example.

Excellence of craftsmanship is the hallmark of 18th-dynasty sculpture, in a revival of the best

traditions of the Middle Kingdom. Wonderfully sensitive statues of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III
confirm the return of conditions in which great work could be achieved. A seated limestone
statue of Hatshepsut shows the queen as king, but with an expression of consummate grace. A
schist statue of Thutmose III, in the perfection of its execution and subtlety of its
realization, epitomizes regality.

Hatshepsut Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut, c. The placing of votive statues in temples

led to a proliferation of private sculptures during the New Kingdom. The sculptures of
Senenmut, steward of Hatshepsut, exemplify the development. At least 23 votive statues of this
royal favourite are known, exhibiting many different forms.

The great sculptures of his funerary temple, including the immense Colossi of Memnon, were
part of the noble designs of his master of works, also called Amenhotep . Most unusually, this
distinguished commoner was allowed a funerary temple for himself and larger-than-life votive
sculptures that show him in contrasting attitudes, as stern-faced authoritarian and as submissive
scribe. The stylistic trends that can be noted in certain sculptures of Amenhotep III hints of an
artistic change that was developed in the subsequent reign of Akhenaten. The distinctive style
of this period has come to be called Amarna, after the location of Akhenaten’s new capital in
Middle Egypt.

Sculptures of Nefertiti, his queen, are often executed in the most remarkably sensual

manner . Sculptures from later in the reign display innovations of style with no loss of artistry, at
the same time avoiding the grotesqueries of the early years. Of this period is the famous painted
bust of Nefertiti. Nefertiti Nefertiti, painted limestone bust, c.

It is a commonplace to decry the quality of his monumental statuary, although little in Egypt is

more dramatic and compelling than the great seated figures of this king at Abu Simbel. Royal
portraiture subsequently became conventional. A change was to come with the advent of the
Kushite kings of the 25th dynasty. Archaism is strikingly evident in the private sculpture of the
last dynasties.

Types of statue common in the Middle Kingdom and 18th dynasty were revived, and many very
fine pieces were produced. The sculptures of the mayor of Thebes, Montemhat, display great
variety, excellent workmanship, and, in one case, a realism that transcends the dictates of
convention. To this end the statue was not only a physical representation but also a vehicle for
appropriate texts, which might be inscribed obtrusively over beautifully carved surfaces. The
extreme example of such textual application is a so-called healing statue of which even the wig
is covered with texts.