ANCIENT ART

Stone Age
Bronze Age
Iron Age
STONE AGE ( c. 30,000 BCE to about 3,000 BCE)
 Paleolithic Period or Old Stone Age (c. 30,000 BCE -10,000 BCE)
 Mesolithic Period or Middle Stone Age (10,000 BCE- 8,000 BCE)
 Neolithic Period or New Stone Age (8,000 BCE- 3,000 BCE)
PALEOLITHIC AGE (C. 30,000 BCE -10,000 BCE)

-coined by John Lubbock in 1865

The earliest art of prehistory, created during the Lower Paleolithic
Age, is the Bhimbetka Petroglyphs, found in the Auditorium cave in
Central India and dated to at least 290,000 BCE. Next oldest is the
Venus of Berekhat Ram (c.230,000 BCE) discovered on the Golan
Heights, and the Venus of Tan-Tan (c.200,000), discovered in
Morocco. The first type of so-called "cave art", is the cave painting in
Cantabria, as exemplified by the abstract El Castillo cave paintings
dated to 39,000 BCE
Cupule and meander petroglyph on The Venus of Berekhat Ram was
a boulder at the Auditorium Cave, found by archeologist N. Goren-
Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh, India
Inbar (Hebrew University of
(c.290,000-700,000 BCE).
Jerusalem) during archeological
excavations on the Golan Heights
between Syria and Israel during
the summer of 1981.

Cupule and meander petroglyph on

a boulder at the Auditorium Cave,
Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh, India
(c.290,000-700,000 BCE).
 The world's oldest cave art in the
rock shelter of El Castillo, Spain.
The Red-Ochre Disk or Large Dot
below the hand stencils is dated
39,000 BCE.

Lion-Human of Hohlenstein
The Venus of Tan-Tan was found
Stadel (38,000 BC)
during an excavation on the north bank
It was discovered in a cave in
of the River Draa by Lutz Fiedler, state
Hohlenstein Mountain, located in
archeologist of Hessen, Germany
the Swabian Jura of southwest
(200,000-500,000 BC)
Germany.
MESOLITHIC PERIOD (C.10,000-4,000 BCE)
 Cave paintings overwhelmingly depicted animals, rock
paintings were usually of human groupings. The painted
humans typically seem to be engaged in either hunting or
rituals.
 Far from being realistic, the humans shown in rock painting
are highly stylized, rather like glorified stick figures. These
humans look more like pictographs than pictures, and some
historians feel they represent the primitive beginnings of
writing (i.e.: hieroglyphs).
NEOLITHIC PERIOD (8,000 BCE- 3,000 BCE)
 Humans were settling themselves down into agrarian
societies, which left them enough spare time to explore
some key concepts of civilization—namely, religion,
architecture, writing and art.
 The "new" arts to emerge from this era were weaving,
architecture, megaliths, and increasingly stylized
pictographs that were well on their way to becoming
writing.
 Neolithic art was still created for some functional
purpose. There were more images of humans than
animals, and the humans looked more identifiably
human.
POTTERY

Neolithic pottery in China

During the era of Chinese Neolithic art, there is introduction of the
potter's wheel and better kilns.
JAPANESE POTTERY

Ancient Japanese ceramic ware -

known as Jomon Pottery - is the
second oldest type of ceramic after
that of China. The Oldest Japanese
pots (Incipient Jomon culture) were
discovered at the Odai Yamamoto I
site, Aomori Prefecture, dating to
about 14,540 BCE.
TYPES OF JOMON POTTERY

Jomon pots are traditionally divided

into five categories: (1) "fukabachi" -
deep bowls or jars; (2) "hachi" -
bowls of medium depth; (3)
"asabachi" - shallow bowls; (4)
"tsubo" - containers with narrow
mouths and long necks; and (5)
"chuko" - vessels with spouts. Note:
very shallow bowls are sometimes
referred to as "sara" - plates.
MEGALITH STRUCTURES
Stonehenge is a
prehistoric monument in
Wiltshire, England, two
miles (3 km) west of
Amesbury. It consists of
a ring of standing stones,
each around 13 feet
(4.0 m) high, seven feet
(2.1 m) wide, and
weighing around 25
tons.
 BRONZE AGE (3,300-1,200 BCE)
 Key Points
 An important development
of the Bronze age was the
evolution of metallurgy.
 It is the earliest period for
which we have direct
written accounts.
 It is marked by widespread
migrations and trade, esp.
across Europe and the
Mediterranean.
EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS

Hieroglyphs were the formal writing system

used in Ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs
combined logographic, ideograms, syllabic
and alphabetic elements, with a total of some
1,000 distinct characters
SUMERIAN CUNEIFORM
Cuneiform, or Sumero-Akkadian
cuneiform, was one of the earliest
systems of writing, invented by
Sumerians. It is distinguished by
its wedge-shaped marks on clay
tablets, made by means of a blunt
reed for a stylus. The name
cuneiform itself simply means
"wedge-shaped".
IRON AGE ( 1,100-200 BCE)

The Bronze age gave way to the Iron age after the serious disruption of the
tin trade: the population migrations of around 1200-1100 BC reduced the
shipping of tin around the Mediterranean and from Britain, limiting supplies
and raising prices.