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Chapter 1

Chapter 1. Prehistory. Key terms. Paleo-lithic : palaiós (Gk: old) líthos (Gk: stone). Meso-lithic : mesos (Gk: middle) Neo- lithic : néos (Gk: New) Mega- lithic mega (Gk: big ) Parietal art parietes (Latin: walls). Key Terms.

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Chapter 1

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  1. Chapter 1 Prehistory

  2. Key terms Paleo-lithic: palaiós(Gk: old) líthos (Gk: stone). Meso-lithic: mesos (Gk: middle) Neo-lithic: néos (Gk: New) Mega-lithic mega (Gk: big) Parietal art parietes (Latin: walls)

  3. Key Terms Paleo-lithic: Old Stone Age Meso-lithic: Middle Stone Age Neo-lithic: New Stone Age Mega-lithic Built with large stones Parietal art Paintings in the walls of caves

  4. 1. Origins of human life and culture • Scientists estimate the Earth is between 4 and 5 billion years old. • Hominids first appeared in Africa only 5,000,000 years ago. ….but what is a “hominid”?

  5. Origins of human life and culture HOMINID Hominid refers to humans and their ancestors. What are the characteristics of hominids?

  6. Origins of human life and culture Characteristics of hominids: • bipedal • shorter arms • better dexterity • larger brains • smaller faces

  7. Origins of human life and culture • Early hominids • (Australopithecus , homo habilis, homo erectus). • Flourished 1.5 million to 200,000 years ago, East Africa • Large brain, sophisticated tools, knew how to control fire • Developed language skills • They were carnivores and hunted large animals. • Between 500,000 and 200,000 years ago they migrated to Asia and Europe

  8. Origins of human life and culture • The homo sapiens evolved in Africa, ca. 120,000 BCE during the Pleistocene (Ice Age). • The homo sapiens was extremely successful, had larger brain and a lighter skeletal structure. • They spread from Africa into Asia, Europe Australia and the Americas.

  9. Timeline • (5 million years: first hominids) • Paleo-lithic: 2,500,000 up to c. 10,000 BCE • 2,500.000: first stone tools • 30.000 BCE cave paintings, 20,000 BCE sculpture • Meso-lithic: c. 10,000-8,000 BCE- animal husbandry • Neo-lithic: New Stone Age • c. 8,000-3,000 BCE • Full implementation of animal husbandry and agriculture • End of perido: 3,000 BCE writing and metallurgy

  10. Timeline History Paleolithic Mesolithic Neolithic • First stone tools • Homo sapiens • Cave paintings • Sculpture • Animal husbandry • Agriculture • Writing and metallurgy 2,500,000 BCE 120,000 10,000 8,000 3,000BCE Today

  11. 2- Life in the Paleolithic Period (2,500,000 up to c. 10,000 BCE) • hunter-gatherer nomadic cultures • individuals did not accumulate private property • lived an egalitarian existence (no accumulation of wealth) • lived in small bands, about 30 to 50 members in each group • created tools made of stone • buried their dead with rituals • created artistic forms of expression: • Cave paintings • Stone carvings

  12. 3-Paleolithic Cave Paintings • Dates: • How old are they? • Location: • Where can Paleolithic Paintings be found in Europe? • Themes: • What do the paintings depict? • Form: • How are these animals represented? • Function: • What were these paintings for? • Meaning: • What do they mean?

  13. PaleolithicCave Paintings How old are these paintings? They appear towards the end of the Paleolithic period (30,000-10,000 BCE)

  14. Paleolithic Cave Paintings(30,000 up to c. 10,000 BCE) • Where can I see these paintings? • The best examples are found in Southern France and Northern Spain: • Lascaux, France • Chauvet, France • Altamira, Spain

  15. Form and Themes • Do the animals form a scene? • Were the animals painted at the same time? • Are the paintings polychromatic? • Are they descriptive or narrative? • Are they realistic? Lascaux Cave, France

  16. Form and Themes • Has the artist used any techniques to add volume to the paintings?

  17. Form and Themes Lascaux, France, c. 15,000-10,000 BCE. • The animals do not form a group. They do not share the ground line and there is no common orientation. • Overlapping: animals painted at different times. • There is not a narrative or indication of place.

  18. Form and Themes • The paintings are descriptive. • They are a pictorial definition of the animals. • Animals are represented in profile. • Use of composite view: profile of body and frontal for horns.

  19. Form and Themes • Perspective: they artists used protuberances in the rock and gallery shapes to create volume.

  20. Meaning and Function • What is the meaning and function of these paintings?

  21. Meaning and Function Penguins, Cosquer Cave Bear and rhinoceroses, Chauvet Cave

  22. Meaning and Function • Are the paintings part of a religious ritual? Did Paleolithic people use sympathetic magic to propitiate a good hunt? • Are all these animals a source of food? Problem: what do the pictures of predators represent then?

  23. Meaning and Function • Decorative? Not likely. The paintings and engravings are located in the most remote areas of the caves. • Arrows and hand stencils: ritual based on the belief that harming the animal’s image is like harming the animal itself. • But predators, not only animals hunted for their meat, are depicted. • Other interpretations: shaman summoning powers, visions, dreams, calendar, shrine?

  24. Themes: The Humans Figure • Representations of the human figure are extremely rare in Paleolithic art. • There are some stick figures and some body parts, but they are very unusual in cave painting. Lascaux Cave, France

  25. Artistic Value Observe these paintings from the Chauvet Cave. Are they artistically accomplished?

  26. The Chauvet Cave • Discovered in 1994 • Oldest prehistoric paintings (30,000 BCE) yet the most artistically accomplished. • Great variety of animals (13 species)

  27. The progression of Art Felines in 30,000 BCE Felines 31,000 years later… Conclusion: The progression of art is not linear. Older works can be more artistically accomplished than newer ones.

  28. 4. PaleolithicSculpture • Apart from painting, the peoples of the Paleolithic period created sculptures in clay, rock, and bone. • Sculpture appears between 20,000 up to c. 10,000 BCE • Sculpture depict animals and female human figures. Clay bison. Cave of Tucd'Audoubert, France, c. 13,000 BCE

  29. 4. Paleolithic Sculpture (20,000 up to c. 10,000 BCE) • Paleolithic sculptures are also of great artistic quality • They depict animals realistically Bison Licking an Insect Bite. La Madeleine, France, 20,000-12,000 BCE

  30. 4. Paleolithic Sculpture (26,000 up to c. 10,000 BCE) • Figurines representing women are common in this period. • They are often called “Venus figurines” • The Venus of Willendorf (c. 20,000 BCE) is the most famous one.

  31. Venus Figurines • Here are other examples. • Are these representations symbolic or realistic? • Are they abstract? • Do they represent historical women (i.e., a queen), a goddess (i.e., “Venus”), or an idea (fertility)? • How big do you think they are? Why?

  32. Venus Figurines • They are symbolic and abstract. • They seem to represent feminine features rather than a particular woman. • They are unrealistic (exaggerated proportions, absence of facial features).

  33. Venus Figurines • These figurines are really small. • They were portable • Some look like charms that could be hanged from an necklace. 4 3/8 inches (11.1 cm)

  34. Venus Figurines ÇatalHüyük, c. 6,000 BCE Venus of Willendorf, c. 20,000 BCE Artemis of Ephesus, 1st c. CE • They maybe fertility goddesses like the later examples above, or just amulets. • If they were amulets, they may have been used to propitiate fertility or to protect women in childbirth.

  35. 5. Life in the Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods (c. 10,000-3,000 BCE) • Agrarian Revolution • End of the Ice Age • Permanent settlement • Domestication of animals • Farming replaces hunting • Pottery, weaving develop • The wheel is invented • At the end of this period metal tools appear; copper and tin are made into bronze

  36. 5. Life in the Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods (c. 10,000-3,000 BCE) • With the use of animal husbandry and agriculture, the first settlements appear in the Middle East • Reconstruction of the settlement of ChatalHuyuk (Turkey).

  37. 5. Life in the Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods (c. 10,000-3,000 BCE) Reconstruction of the interior of a Neolithic house in ChatalHuyuk (Turkey).

  38. 5. Life in the Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods (c. 10,000-3,000 BCE) • Agriculture results in awareness of seasonal change. • Preoccupation with regeneration (life/death of crops). • Religious cults associated with fertility and the contributing forces (rain) • Cult of ancestors?: human skulls covered in plaster.

  39. 6- Mesolithic/ Neolithic Paintings Paintings in the Mesolithic/ Neolithic periods present some new features. What has changed? Cingle de la Mola, Spain. 7,000-4,000 BCE Valtorta Gorge, Spain, c. 8,000-3,000 BC

  40. Paleolithicvs. Mesolithic/Neolithic cave paintings • Compare the Paleolithic painting above with the Mesolithic painting on the right.

  41. Paleolithicvs. Mesolithic/Neolithic cave paintings • Which one is more realistic? • Which one is more schematic? • Which one narrates a scene? • Which one features humans interacting with animals? Paleolithic Mesolithic

  42. 6. Mesolithic and Neolithic Paintings (c. 10,000-3,000 BCE) Human representation in communal scenes Interaction among humans and humans with animals Record of memorable events or rituals Located in shelters rather than in the interior of caves Less realistic, more schematic Usually monochromatic (use of just one color)

  43. 3. Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods (c. 10,000-3,000 BCE) Megalithic monuments are typical in Northern Europe during this period: -They maybe burial sites -They are frequent in France, Ireland, and England. Menhir/ monolith

  44. 3. Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods (c. 10,000-3,000 BCE) Megalithic monuments: Dolmen

  45. 3. Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods (c. 10,000-3,000 BCE) Dolmen from Antequera, Spain, c. 2800 BCE.

  46. 3. Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods (c. 10,000-3,000 BCE) Alignments Carnac, France, c. 2,800 BCE

  47. 3. Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods (c. 10,000-3,000 BCE) Megalithic monuments: Cromlech/ Circle of stones Stonehenge (England), c. 2750-1500 BCE

  48. Did you know? • In 1991 hikers found a dead body in the Italian Alps and called the police. • The body was that of a man who had died in 3300 BCE! • The study of Otzithe Iceman has allowed us to learn about the life of Neolithic people in Europe • Scientists discovered that he had been wounded in his back by an arrow. After all the discovery turned into a murder investigation! Read more about Otzihere.

  49. Did you know that…? • By the time the outer circle in Stonehenge was completed in 1500 BCE… • …the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt had been standing for 1,000 years? 1500 BCE 2560 BCE BCE The Ice Age lingered in Northern Europe longer and made development in that region slower and more difficult than in the more temperate areas of Middle East and Northern Africa.

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