Introduction to Prehistoric Art

Identified 4 basic types of Stone Age art:

1. Petroglyps – Rock carvings & Engraving.
2. Pictographs (pictorial imagery, ideomorphs,
includes cave painting and drawing.
3. Prehistoric sculpture (including small Figurines,
and sculptures)
4. megalithic art(petroforms or any other works
associated with immoveable rock surface are
classified as parietal art.
Prehistoric or Stone Age art is first known period of
prehistoric human culture, during which work was
done with stone tools. The period began with the
earliest human development, about 2 million
years ago. It is divided into three periods:

1. Paleolithic – Old Stone Age

2. Mesolithic – Middle Stone Age
3. Neolithic – New Stone Age

Head of a Woman (Siberia)

Carved in mammoth ivory, 3 inches long
Malta, Central Siberia, middle period
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
©Alexander Marshack
Gobekli Tepe Mesolithic Site, Turkey. Animal Relief Carvings. The earliest

Example of megalithic Stone Age art

The "new" arts to emerge from this era were weaving,
architecture, the construction of megaliths and increasingly
stylized pictographs that were well on their way to becoming
writing.
The earlier arts of statuary, painting and pottery stuck with (and
still remain with) us. The Neolithic era saw many refinements to
each.
The Thinker of Cernavoda (B.C.5,000) Romanian

Neolithic terracotta sculpture of the Hamangia

culture.
National Museum of Romania
Bisons, from the Caves at Altamira, circa 15000 BC (Cave Painting)
The Paleolithic period, or Old Stone Age, was the longest
phase of human history.
Paleolithic peoples were generally hunters and gatherers who
sheltered in caves, used fire, and fashioned stone tools. Their
cultures are identified by distinctive stone-tool industries.

Rock carving - A petroglyphic Saharan rock carving from

southern
 Prehistoric Art - Paleolithic
(2 million years ago-13,000 BC.)

Paleolithic or "Old Stone Age" is a

term used to define the oldest
period in the human history.
Paleolithic means old stone age
from the Greek paleos=old and
lithos=stone. It began about 2
million years ago.
SONG AND DANCE - As a method of Healing
and Expression
Ancient Greek Orator
 Statuette
(mother
Alabaster goddess?) from
Male figurine,
statuette from 'Ain Ghazal
clay. From the
the Samarran (Jordan). Reed
Samarran site
site, c.6000 s coated with
(northern Iraq),
bce. Eyes inlaid plaster and
c.6000 bce.
with bitumin. decorated with
red paint and
bitumin
Ancient Body Art - has been practiced across the globe
since at least Neolithic times, as evidenced by mummified
preserved skin, ancient art, and the archaeological record .
Jewellery - consists of small decorative items worn for
personal adornment, such
as brooches, rings, necklaces,earrings, and bracelets.
Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes
Mythology can refer to the collected myths of a group of
people—their collection of stories they tell to explain
nature, history, and customs —or to the study of such myths.
 POTTERY –
provides not only
some of the most
distinctive vase
shapes from
antiquity but also
some of the oldest
and most diverse
representations of
the cultural beliefs
and practices of the
ancient Greeks.
 "Neolithic" refers to the "new stone age," generally
reflecting the use of stone tools with some use of
metals and with people settling into permanent
communities, the development of agriculture, and
animal husbandry.

http://www.accd.edu/sac/vat/arthistory/arts1303/Neolith1.htm
 megaliths,cairns and
Mythology of Gods petroforms
- Early Egyptian
religion
Ancient- (3,000BC TO 100 A.D)
belonging to the very distant past and no
longer in existence.
"the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean“

1. Metallurgical art and bronze sculpture

2. Writing
3. Alphabet
4. Drama
5. Paper
Ancient Hebrew Alphabet
The ancient Greek drama, is a
theatrical culture that flourished
in ancient Greece from c. 700 BC.
Renaissance (1450 AD - 1620)

PRINTING PRESS
Printing Books-

"Modern Book
Printing" sculpture,
commemorating
Gutenberg's
invention on the
occasion of
the 2006 World
Cup in Germany
A paper codex of the acclaimed 42-line Bible,
Gutenberg's major work- PRINTED BOOKS
Modern (1839 - present)

photograph telephone

telegraph
movie camera, film, radio, T.V, videotape,
cassette tape, personal computer, compact
disc, mobile phones, phonograph (gramaphone
and Internet
Vocabulary:

1. petroglyph - a design chiseled or chipped out of a rock surface

2. pictograph - a design painted on a rock surface
3. rock art panel - a group of pictograph and/or pictograph figures
4. nomadic - having no fixed home and wanders from place to place in search of
food
5. ritual - set form or way of conducting a ceremony
6. prehistoric - before written history
7. murals - picture painted on a wall
8. excavations - holes made by digging or hollowing out
9. polychrome - decorated in a variety of colors
10. incised - carved or engraved
11. hominid - member of a family of two-footed, erect mammals, of which modern
man is the only survivor
12. Homo sapiens - scientific name for modern humans
13. Paleolithic - period of early human culture in which chipped or flaked stone
tools were made and used
14. Pleistocene - most recent ice age
15. Neanderthal - extinct species of prehistoric man who lived in caves in Europe,
North Africa, and western and central Asia
THANK YOU