Stone Age Art Pieces

Great Hall of Bulls

The famous Hall of Bulls is large enough to
hold some fifty people. Other “rooms” and
“halls” are extraordinarily narrow and
tall.

Apollo 11 Stones

In total seven stone fragments of

brown-grey quartzite, some depicting
traces of animal figures were found.

Göbekli Tepe

Göbekli Tepe consists of four arrangements of

monolithic pillars linked together by segments of
coarsely built dry stone walls to form a series of
circular or oval structures. There are two large
pillars in the center of each complex which are
encircled by slightly smaller stones facing inward.

Key Elements:

Stonehenge
The stones at Stonehenge are made up of
earthen mounds, standing timbers (now
eroded), and upright carved stones. The
largest stones reach 4 meters (13 feet)
high, 2.1 meters (7 feet) wide, and weigh
about 25 tons.

Chauvet Cave's

As well as figurative pictures, Chauvet

contains an abundance of abstract art in the
form of geometric symbols (though less than
sites in the Cantabrian region of Spain), a
number of indecipherable marks, as well as
a quantity of red-ochre prehistoric hand
stencils and handprints.
 Stone Age Art Pieces

Great Hall of Bulls

White calcite, roofed by nonporous
rock, provides a uniquely dry place to
feature art.

Apollo 11 Stones

The seven slabs of rock with traces of animal figures

that were found in the Apollo 11 Cave in the Huns
Mountains of southwestern Namibia have been
dated with unusual precision for ancient rock art.

Göbekli Tepe

The monolithic T-shaped pillars were carved

from the adjacent limestone plateau and attest to
new levels of architectural and engineering
technology.

Features:
Stonehenge

Standing among the sarsens are

the remains of the bluestone
circle and inner oval.

Chauvet Cave's

The aesthetic quality of these

Palaeolithic cave paintings, and
secondly, their great age.
 Stone Age Art Pieces

Great Hall of Bulls

The cave of Lascaux, France is one of almost 350
similar sites that are known to exist. Both Neanderthals
and Modern Humans coexisted in this region 30,000
years ago. Life was short and very difficult; resources
were scarce and the climate was very cold.

Apollo 11 Stones

This is what makes the Apollo 11 cave stones find so

interesting: the stones offer evidence that Homo
sapiens in the Middle Stone Age us, some 25,000
years ago were not only anatomically modern, but
behaviorally modern as well.

Göbekli Tepe

The clues from Göbekli Tepe reveal that ancient

humans relied on grains much earlier than was
previously thought even before there is evidence
that these plants were domesticated.

How art pieces help people from the modern context understand the historical past:

Stonehenge

A World Heritage Site

Together with inter-related monuments and
their associated landscapes, they help us to
understand Neolithic and Bronze Age
ceremonial and mortuary practices. They
demonstrate around 2000 years of continuous
use and monument building between c. 3700
and 1600 BC.

Chauvet Cave's

The Chauvet Cave was discovered in

1994 by three cave explorers. The
dominant animals throughout the cave
are lions, mammoths, and
rhinoceroses. Horses, bison, ibex,
reindeer, red deer, aurochs, musk-oxen,
panther, owl are also represented
The Egyptian Art Pieces

Block statue
Block statues consist of a man squatting with his knees drawn up to his
chest and his arms folded on top his knees. Often, these men are wearing a
"wide cloak" that reduces the body of the figure to a simple block-like shape.
Most of the detail is reserved for the head of the individual being depicted.

Great Sphinx of Giza

The Great Sphinx is among the world's

largest sculptures, measuring some
240 feet (73 metres) long and 66 feet
(20 metres) high. It features a lion's
body and a human head adorned with
a royal headdress.

Narmer Palette

The “Main Deposit” at Hierakonpolis, where the Narmer

Palette was discovered, contained many hundreds of objects,
including a number of large relief-covered ceremonial mace-
heads, ivory statuettes, carved knife handles, figurines of
scorpions and other animals, stone vessels, and a second
elaborately decorated palette

Key Elements:

Tutankhamun’s mask

The mask is inlaid with coloured glass and gemstones,

including lapis lazuli (the eye surrounds and
eyebrows), quartz (the eyes), obsidian (the pupils),
carnelian, amazonite, turquoise, and faience.

Rosetta Stone

The inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone are in two

languages, Egyptian and Greek, and three writing
systems, hieroglyphics, demotic script (a cursive form
of Egyptian hieroglyphics), and the Greek alphabet,
which provided a key to the translation of the Egyptian
hieroglyphic writing.
The Egyptian Art Pieces

Block statue
Block statues consist of a man squatting with his
knees drawn up to his chest and his arms folded
on top his knees.

Great Sphinx of Giza

Itfeatures a lion's body

and a human head
adorned with a royal
headdress.

Narmer Palette

he Narmer Palette is a 63-centimetre-tall (2.07 ft),

shield-shaped, ceremonial palette, carved from a single
piece of flat, soft dark gray-green siltstone.

Features:

Tutankhamun’s mask

The mask was decorated with bands of glass paste

imitating lapis lazuli and adorned with semi-precious
stones and glass.

Rosetta Stone

The Stone is a broken part of a bigger

stone slab. It has a message carved
into it, written in three types of
writing.
The Egyptian Art Pieces

Block statue
The block statue is a type of memorial statue that first emerged in the Middle
Kingdom of Egypt. These statues were used in temples typically as funerary
monuments of non-royal yet important individuals. The posture of the statue
was possibly intended to resemble a guardian seated in the gateway of a temple.

Great Sphinx of Giza

A Sphinx is a mythological creature with

the body of a lion and the head of a
person. In Ancient Egypt a lot of times the
head was that of a Pharaoh or a god. The
Egyptians built sphinx statues to guard
important areas such as tombs and
temples.

Narmer Palette

This object depicts the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt

into the "Kingdom of the Two Lands" under the divine king.
This object is a ceremonial palette used in the ritual of mixing
and applying the King's eye makeup. The palette is arranged in
three easily read registers on the back and four on the front.

How art pieces help people from the modern context understand the historical past:

Tutankhamun’s mask

Masks such as Tutankhamun's were created to

ceremoniously cover the face in grandeur and to allow
the spirit to recognize the body after death.

Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is one of the most important

objects in the British Museum as it holds the key
to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs a script
made up of small pictures that was used
originally in ancient Egypt for religious texts.
 Chinese Civilization Art Pieces

Folding Screen
A folding screen is a type of free-standing furniture
consisting of several frames or panels, which are often
connected by hinges or other means. They have practical
and decorative uses, and can be made in a variety of
designs with different kinds of materials. Folding screens
originated from ancient China and were popular amongst
Europeans.

The Great Wall of China

Its main body consists of walls, horse tracks,

watch towers, and shelters on the wall, and
includes fortresses and passes along the Wall.
The Great Wall reflects collision and exchanges
between agricultural civilizations and nomadic
civilizations in ancient China.

Key Elements:

The David Vases

These vases are the archetype of blue-and-white
porcelain. They stand at almost two feet tall and are
covered in well-defined illustrations in deep cobalt blue.
They have bands of the traditional peony motif and the
central body is decorated with dragons, phoenixes and
clouds.
Terracotta Army

The figures include warriors, chariots and

horses. Estimates from 2007 were that the
three pits containing the Terracotta Army held
more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520
horses, and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of
which remained buried in the pits near Qin Shi
Huang's mausoleum.

Changxin Palace Lantern

Changxin Palace Lantern is of fine foundry. It is very

splendorous and is a masterpiece representing the bronze
arts of the Han Dynasty. It successfully presented the
outstanding designing intension of the artisan and
integrated lighting, air purification and polished designs.
 Chinese Civilization Art Pieces

Folding Screen
Folding screens can be set up to partition a large
room and change the interior features of the space.
Screens may be used as a false wall near the
entrance from one room to another to create a
desirable atmosphere by hiding certain features like
doors to a kitchen.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall was continuously built from

the 3rd century BC to the 17th century AD on
the northern border of the country as the great
military defence project of successive Chinese
Empires, with a total length of more than
20,000 kilometers.

Features:

The David Vases

They were made for the altar of a Daoist temple and their
importance lies in the dated inscriptions on one side of
their necks, above the bands of dragons. The long
dedication is the earliest known on Chinese blue-and-
white wares.

Terracotta Army

The bodies of the soldiers were made in an assembly

line fashion. There were moulds for the legs, arms,
torsos, and heads. These pieces were then assembled
together and custom features such as ears, mustaches,
hair, and weapons were added later. There are
between 8 and 10 different head shapes for the
soldiers.

Changxin Palace Lantern

Its round lamp base can rotate

and the lighting direction and
lightness are adjustable.
 Chinese Civilization Art Pieces

Folding Screen
Folding screens can be arranged to divide a big
room and alter the interior decor. In order to create
a cozy ambiance, screens can also be utilized as a
makeshift wall around the doorway leading from
one room to another.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China protected its people

from invasion by northern nomadic tribes and
promoted trade between the two sides.
Nowadays, although its military function has
ended, it is the top tourist attraction in China
and a symbol of the Chinese nation.

How art pieces help people from the modern context understand the historical past:

The David Vases

Their significance is indicated by the date markings on
one side of their necks, above the bands of dragons, which
indicate that they were created for the altar of a Daoist
temple.

Terracotta Army

The role of the Terracotta Army was to "guard" the

entire mausoleum and Qin Shi Huang believed that the
army could protect him in the afterlife.

Changxin Palace Lantern

Water that is stored in the lamp holder can be

used to dissolve smoky soot. The entire lantern
has a seamless appearance and is quite
artistically beautiful.