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, : first stone tools
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 Writing and metallurgy First stone tools Animal husbandry
2,500,000 BCE , , , ,000BCE Today
Paleolithic
Mesolithic
Neolithic
History
Writing and metallurgy
First stone tools
Animal husbandry
Cave paintings
Homo sapiens
Agriculture
Sculpture

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. Paleolithic Cave 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 Lascaux Cave, France 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. Paleolithic Sculpture
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 Tuc d'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 4 3/8 inches (11.1 cm)
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 Venus of Willendorf, c. 20,000 BCE Çatal Hüyük,
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 Chatal Huyuk (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 Chatal Huyuk (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. Paleolithic vs. Mesolithic/Neolithic cave paintings
Compare the Paleolithic painting above with the Mesolithic painting on the right.

41. Paleolithic vs. 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?
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 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 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 Otzi the 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 Otzi here.

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.