Pre-historic Period

Regarded as nomads, our early ancestors engaged in primitive art using stone flakes to produce
fire to protect themselves. They joined hunting wild animals for food and used animal skins to
cover their bodies. Like them, the Cro-Magnons made carvings on wood and rocks and painted
the caves to scare wild beasts to protect their families and bands, who lived in deep and shallow
caves and rock shelters (Rafferty, 2020). Art is integral to the lifestyles and beliefs of many
cultures as proven by early cave paintings of our ancestors (Coppock, 2000). Being part of
Europe's modern men and women, Cro-Magnons were known in cave paintings that reflected
their daily hunting routines. Their paintings in Figure 6, were associated with magic and fertility
rituals, depicting pregnant women with large breasts and wide hips. In Southeast Asia, art began
since the early appearance of humans, on records in 43,900-year-old cave paintings discovered in
Maros-Pangkep, Sulawesi, Indonesia (Aubert et al., 2014).

During the Mesolithic age, the art of tool-making was improved like the use of axes by
sharpening the tools using stone flaking and grinding. They learned to use nets and hooks for
fishing. They also learned the art of dog domestication for food. During the Neolithic Age,
nomadism ended. They settled permanently and engaged in the art of farming. They raised
barley, wheat, millet, fruits and vegetables. The art of animal domestication was increased. Aside
from dogs, they raised goat, horse and sheep as a potential source for milk, cheese and meat.
They learned the art of pottery-making for water and food containers. Another new development
during this age was the polishing and the putting of handles on stone tools for a comfortable
hunting expedition.

The prehistoric timeline is generally divided into three major periods: the paleolithic,
the mesolithic, and the neolithic.

PALEOLITHIC PERIOD

Our species, Homo sapiens, first appeared about 200,000 years ago during the Paleolithic
period. Paleolithic means Old Stone Age, because in that time, we had just begun to use
stones as weapons and tools. Because of that, Paleolithic stone works are somewhat awkward
and bulky. We know more than that about the Paleolithic period though. For one thing, we were
the first and perhaps only species who could speak, and we developed that ability in the
Paleolithic. Along with more efficient communication, we began burying the dead, tinkering
with organized sound (that is, making music), and painting and carving objects. Throughout the
period, the stone tools gradually became more sophisticated.
The Paleolithic period finally ended when the Ice Age did, around 10,000 B.C.E. That means that
for the first 190,000 years of our existence, food was a rather scarce commodity. Humans were
forced to move from place to place, exhausting all the food before moving on.

MESOLITHIC PERIOD

The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age, was very different from the Paleolithic. Because the
glaciers were gone, the northern and southern regions suddenly had a bountiful food supply.
Forested regions were for the first time being cut down in small numbers. Flint was worked into
small tools, which were used for many different things. Fishing tackle and stone adzes have
been found and could have been used for fishing and shaping wood. Canoes and bows have
also been dated to this time period.

With food more plentiful and the development of better tools and weapons to hunt and make
use of animals, it's not surprising that the human population blossomed. With animals and
environments more diverse than they had been for thousands of years, it also seems only
natural that cultures that were more and more different from each other developed during this
time period.

NEOLITHIC PERIOD
When we realized that we could plant seeds and they would grow into something edible, we
moved into the Neolithic, or New Stone Age. In Mesopotamia and along the Nile, Indus, and
Yangtze river valleys, this happened around 8,000 B.C.E., though some parts of the world only
started farming around 4000 B.C.E. In some places, like the deserts of Eurasia or the plains of
North America, we wouldn't start farming until only recently, if at all. When farming was used in
any area, there was no longer a need to move every few weeks or months and settlements
became permanent, and consequently grew larger.
The issues of security and survival are depicted in the art of the prehistoric men and
women.

-hunted wild animals with crude implements

-used animal skins and fur as primary fabric

-used cave paintings to scare the wild beast

-used polished stones in horticulture

-learned the art of animal domestication