SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE

Sogod, Southern Leyte

LEARNING MODULE NO. One(1)

Name: ________________________________________ Score:

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Course & Year: ____________________________________ Date:

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Subject: Art Appreciation

Module Title: Art in Prehistoric Period (Western Art History)

Learning Outcome: By the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. discuss how art was used by prehistoric people to depict everyday life; and

2. identify the types and characteristics of art in Prehistoric Period

Reference: Art Appreciation Book ( Beo Nicolas Caslib. Jr, Dorothea C. Garing, etc.)

Fichner- Rathus, L. (2017). Understanding Art. 11th Ed. Boston: Cengage Learning.

Gilbert, R. (2005). Living with Art. New York: McGeaw- Hill.

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I. Concept Notes/Big Ideas/ Summary

Prehistory is defined as the period of time before written records.

Prehistoric art refers artifacts made before there was a written record.

Long before the oldest written languages were developed, people had become expert at
creating forms that were both practical and beautiful.

*Dating Conventions and Abbreviations:

°B.C. = before Christ

B.C.E. = before the Common Era

°A.D. = Anno Domini (in the year of our Lord)

C.E. = Common Era

°c or ca.= circa. /°C.= century

•Prehistory main geological epochs:

Pliocene (c. 5,300,000 BCE). This epoch begins roughly with the emergence of upright of early
hominids. They were too busy to stay alive to create art.This period used to end 2.5 million
years ago when humans first started making tools.

Pleistocene (c. 1.6 m- 10,000 BCE). This is the geological period that covers the earth's most
recent glaciations. It witnessed the emergence of modern man and the great works of
Paleolithic rock art like cupules, engravings,pictographs, cave murals, and ceramics. Pleistocene
comes from the Greek words (pleistos, "most") and (kainos, "new").

Holocene (c. 10,000 BCE- Now). During its prehistory section this geological period saw the birth
of Human civilization, as well as a range of sophisticated paintings, bronze sculptures, exquisite
pottery, pyramid and megalithic monomental architecture. It is divided into four overlapping
periods: the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.

Introduction to Prehistoric Art

TYPES

Archelogists have identified four basic types of Stone Age art as follows:

1. Petroglyphs (cupules, rock carvings and engravings);

2. Pictographs (pictorial imagery, ideomorphs, ideograms or symbols includes also paintings and
drawings);

3. Prehistoric sculpture (including small totemic statuettes known Venus figurines, various
forms of zoomorphic and therianthropic ivory carving and relief sculptures);

4. Megalithic art (petroforms or any other works associated with arrangements of stones)

a. Parietal art- artworks that are applied to an immoveable rock surface.

b. Mobiliary art- works that are classified as portable.

CHARACTERISTICS

•Extremely Primitive earliest forms of prehistoric art

The cupule- a mysterious type of Paleolithic cultural marking, amounts to no more than a
hemispherical or cup-like scouring of the rock surface.

Venuses of Tan-Tan and Berekhat Ram- known early sculptures are crude representations of
humanoid shapes that some experts doubt wether they are works of art at all.

El Castillo cave paintings- the monochrome cave murals at Chauvet, the Aboriginal rock art from
Australia(Rock art in the Green Sahara)

Apollo II Cave Stones, The Jericho Skull, Working jade,and much more.

DATING and CHRONOLOGY

A number of highly sophisticated techniques are now available to help establish the date and
the chronological list of dates and events of ancient artifacts from Paleolithic era and later such
as: radiometric testing, Uranium/Thorium dating, and thermoluminescence.

II. Examples/ Sample Problems and Solutions

*Pictures

III. Excercises/ Questions/ Study Guides/ Drills/ Quizzes/Activity - Based

Learning/

Performance Tasks/ Project Based Learning

Quiz: Multiple Choice. Choose and underline/highlight the best answer.

1. This remains was identified as the least understood type of rock art.

a. Cupules. b. Green Sahara rock art. c. Stone Age Lions

2. This epoch means 'entirely recent'.

a. Pleistocene. b. Holocene. c. Pliocene

3. Artifacts made before there was a written record.

a. Mesolithic art. b. Prehistoric culture c. Prehistoric art

4. Parietal art is

a. immoveable. b. overlapping. c. portable

5. Pleistocene comes from a Greek word which means 'most'.

a. pleistus. b. preistos. c. pleistos

6. Type of stone age where cave paintings are found.

a. Petroglyphs. b. megalithic art. c. pictographs

7. C.E stands for

a. Christ Era. b. Common Egypt. c. Common Era

8. One of the famous artworks of the upper Paleolithic.

a. King Tutankhamen. b. Venus of Willendorf. c. Narmer Palette

9. Served as protective havens for the early humans.

a. stones. b. trees. c. caves

10. The birth of human civilization happened in this geological period.

a. Pliocene. b. Pleistocene. c. Holocene