Google Map of the Global Prehistory SetGlobal Prehistory Image Study SetGlobal Prehistory Illustrated Glossary

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS 1-1Human expression existed across the globe before the written record. While prehistoric art of Europe has been the focus of many introductions to the history of art, very early art is found worldwide and shares certain features, particularly concern with the natural world and human’s place within it.1-1aPeriod of time before the written record are often defined in terms of geological eras or major shifts in climate and environment. The periods of global prehistory, known as lithic or stone ages, are Paleolithic (‘old stone age’), Mesolithic (‘middle stone age’), and Neolithic (‘new stone age’). A glacial period produced European ice ages; Saharan agricultural grassland became desert; and tectonic shifts in southeast Asia created land bridges between the continent and the now-islands of the Pacific south of the equator. Human behavior and expression was influenced by the changing environments in which they lived.1-1bGlobally, the earliest peoples were small groups of hunter-gatherers, whose paramount concern was sheer survival, resulting in the creation of practical objects. From earliest times, these practical tools were accompanied by objects of unknown purpose; ritual and symbolic works perhaps intended to encourage the availability of flora and fauna food sources. People established many artistic media, from the first fired ceramics, to painting and incised graphic designs (primarily on rock surfaces), sculpture (notably female and animal figurines), and architecture (stone megalithic installations).

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS 1-2First instances of important artistic media, approaches, and values occurred on different continents, with Africa and Asia preceding and influencing other areas as the human population spread.1-2aIn many world regions- including those not in direct contact with one another- art shows humans’ awareness of fundamental, stable, phenomena, from the macrocosmic (e.g., astronomical cycles, such as equinoxes and solstices) to the microcosmic (e.g., exploitation of permanent materials available in local environments, such as stone, hardened clay, and jade).1-2bHumanity is understood to have begun in Arica and radiated outward. Beginning around 77,000 years ago, the first ‘art’ was created in the form of rock paintings and carved natural materials, such as ocher. Geometric patterns and representations of life forms, usually human and animal, were typical two-dimensional creations. Three-dimensional forms were sculpted, and monuments, large-scale objects, and environments were assembled and/or constructed. Art making was associated with activities such as food production (hunting, gathering, agriculture, animal husbandry) and patterns of behavior, such as settlement, demonstration of status, and burial. For example, places of gathering or settlement and/or objects found in such places may be painted and/or incised with imagery related to their use.1-2cHumans established Paleolithic communities in West, Central, South, Southeast, and East Asia between 70,000 and 40,000 BCE. Paleolithic and Neolithic cave paintings featuring animal imagery are found across Asia, including in the mountains of Central Asia and Iran and in rock shelters throughout central India. In prehistoric China, ritual objects were created in jade, beginning a 5,000-year tradition of working with the precious medium. Ritual, tomb, and memorializing arts are found across Neolithic Asia, including impressive funerary steles from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Asia’s greatest contribution to early world art is in ceramic technology, with some of the earliest pieces (dating to 10,500 BCE) produced by the Jomon culture in Japan. Eve earlier pottery continues to be found, particularly in China. Ceramics were also produced in Iran beginning in the eighth millennium BCE and reined vessel forms arose from the adoption of the potter’s wheel in the fourth millennium BCE.

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS 1-2First instances of important artistic media, approaches, and values occurred on different continents, with Africa and Asia preceding and influencing other areas as the human population spread.1-2dIn the Pacific region, migrations from Asia approximately 45,000 years ago were possible because of lowered seal levels and the existence of land bridges. The earliest created objects have been dated to about 8,000 years ago. The Lapita peoples, who moved eastward from Melanesia to Polynesia beginning about 4,000 years ago, created pottery with incised geometric designs that appear across the region in multiple media today.1-2ePaleolithic and Neolithic Europe’s artistic statements were made in small human figural sculptures (central Europe), cave paintings (France and Spain), and outdoor, monumental stone assemblages (British Isles). These provide and integrate with the natural cycles of the cosmos and promote both human and animal fertility. These works establish the dynamic interplay of naturalism and abstraction found throughout art’s history.1-2fOn the American continent, from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego, indigenous peoples who had recently migrated from Asia (before 10,000 BCE) first made sculptures from animal bone and later from clay, with animals and sacred humans as dominant subject matter. Similar to European expressions, ancient American art adapts animal images to the natural contours of the chosen materials and features fecund females. The fact that female figurines may also display unusual or supernatural characteristics suggests the importance of shamanic religion brought from Asia very early in human history.

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS 1-3Over time, art historians’ knowledge of global prehistoric art has developed through interdisciplinary collaboration with social and physical scientists.1-3aOngoing archaeological excavations and use of carbon-14 dating has illuminated interconnections of art across the world. Due to the understandably small number of surviving and located monuments, however, reasons for similarity or difference in form remain largely conjectural. Nonetheless, comparisons of groups of objects and the application of ethnographic analogy (considering modern traditional cultural practices as models for ancient ones) and reconstruction of religious history (noting shamanism as the earliest, most persistent worldwide spiritual approach) can be applied to help establish general theories of the function and meaning of prehistoric art.1-3bSince it was first practiced circa 1900, modern stratigraphic archaeology (recording precisely each level and location of all objects) has served as a basis for art historical studies. Archaeology supports understandings of how people, culture, and therefore art travelled across the globe well before highly organized societies were formed. Important monuments, such as the caves at Lascaux, and media, particularly ceramics, were first discovered and described by archaeologists and then became available for interpretation by art historians- the two disciplines are highly complementary.

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS 1-3Over time, art historians’ knowledge of global prehistoric art has developed through interdisciplinary collaboration with social and physical scientists.1-3cThe function of artistic expression prior to written records is inferred from evidence of technology and survival strategies and based on the relation of tools and their function (whether task related or expressive), available food sources, the rise of sophisticated culture, and humans’ capacity to shape and manage the environment. Basic art historical methods can be applied to prehistoric art by comparing works of art, imagery, materials, and techniques to identify patterns (such as a prevalence of transformation animal-human iconography), then ethnographic approaches can be used to propose hypotheses (e.g., that certain iconography is shamanic in nature). Cross-cultural comparison can help establish wider generalizations (e.g., that South African, Asian, and indigenous American peoples all participated in rock/cave expressions of a visionary aesthetic). In this way, the apparent paucity of evidence can be mitigated and theories proposed, tested, refined, and potentially rejected by conflicting evidence or new information, as in other periods of art history and in other disciplines.3-3dInformation and objects from different parts of the world were gathered in European cultural centers, where their influence is evident in the contents of curiosity cabinets, advances in science and technology, consolidation of European political and economic power, and the development of modern conceptions of difference such as race and nationalism.

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Prehistory (or the prehistoric period) refers to the time before written records, however, human expression existed across the globe long before writing.

Writing emerged at different times in different parts of the world. The earliest writing is found in ancient Mesopotamia, c. 3200 B.C.E.

Homo sapiens (modern humans are a subspecies) -homo sapiens migrated out of Africa between 120,000 and 50,000 years ago.

The stone age is a prehistoric period when stone implements were widely used. The stone age is divided into the Paleolithic (old stone age) and Neolithic (new stone age). After the Stone age, the next periods are known as the bronze age and the iron age.

Historians distinguish the Neolithic period by the transition from people living as hunter-gatherers to the development of farming and the domestication of animals. The "Neolithic revolution" allowed people to create a more settled way of life. This happened at different times in different parts of the world. The first agriculture occurred in southwest Asia—in an area historians call the "fertile crescent."Prehistory was a time of major shifts in climate and environment.Modern archaeology uses a stratigraphic process, where archaeologists precisely record each level and the location of all objects.

In Asia, we have found Paleolithic and Neolithic cave paintings that feature animal imagery (in the mountains of Central Asia and Iran). Animal imagery has also been found in rock shelters throughout central India. In prehistoric China, we find ritual objects created in jade, (beginning a 5,000-year tradition of working with the precious medium). Ritual, tomb, and memorializing arts are found across Neolithic Asia, including impressive funerary steles from Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

In Europe, we have found small human figural sculptures (central Europe), cave paintings (France and Spain), and outdoor, monumental stone assemblages (British Isles) that date from the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods.

Spotted Horses and Human HandsPaint on limestoneIndividual horses are over 5' Horses 25,000–24,000 BCE; Hands c 15,000 BCEPech-Merle Cave, Dordogne, France

In the Pacific region, people migrated from Asia approximately 45,000 years over land bridges. The earliest created objects have been dated to c. 8,000 years ago. The Lapita peoples, who moved eastward from Melanesia to Polynesia beginning about 4,000 years ago, created pottery with incised geometric designs that appear across the region in multiple media today.

Humans make art. We do this for many reasons and with whatever technologies are available to us. Extremely old, non-representational ornamentation has been found across Africa. The oldest firmly-dated example is a collection of 82,000 year old Nassarius snail shells found in Morocco that are pierced and covered with red ochre. Wear patterns suggest that they may have been strung beads. Nassarius shell beads found in Israel may be more than 100,000 years old and in the Blombos cave in South Africa, pierced shells and small pieces of ochre (red Haematite) etched with simple geometric patterns have been found in a 75,000-year-old layer of sediment.

Blombos Cave, South Africa about 80,000 BC

The oldest known representational imagery comes from the Aurignacian culture of the Upper Paleolithic period (Paleolithic means old stone age). Archeological discoveries across a broad swath of Europe (especially Southern France, Northern Spain, and Swabia, in Germany) include over two hundred caves with spectacular Aurignacian paintings, drawings and sculpture that are among the earliest undisputed examples of representational image-making. The oldest of these is a 2.4-inch tall female figure carved out of mammoth ivory that was found in six fragments in the Hohle Fels cave near Schelklingen in southern Germany. It dates to 35,000 B.C.E.

Woman from BrassempouyIvoryheight 1¼ (3.6 cm)c 30,000 BCE

Woman from Ostrava PetrkoviceHematiteheight 1¾" (4.6 cm)c. 23,000 BCE

Woman from WillendorfLimestoneheight 4⅜" (11 cm)c. 24,000 BCE

Lion-HumanMammoth ivoryheight 11⅝" (29.6 cm)c. 30,000–26,000 BCE

Video Resource: Living with the Gods: The Lion-Human

Camelid sacrum in the shape of a caninePaleolithicTequixquiac, Central MexicoBone14,000-7,000 BCE

Cross Cultural ComparisonsTuffery, Pispupo Lau Afe (corned beef 2000)Muybridge, The Horse in MotionCotsiogo, HigePainting of a Sun Dance

The caves at Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc, Lascaux, Pech Merle, and Altamira contain the best known examples of pre-historic painting and drawing. Here are remarkably evocative renderings of animals and some humans that employ a complex mix of naturalism and abstraction. Archeologists that study Paleolithic era humans, believe that the paintings discovered in 1994, in the cave at Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc in the Ardéche valley in France, are more than 30,000 years old. The images found at Lascaux and Altamira are more recent, dating to approximately 15,000 B.C.E. The paintings at Pech Merle date to both 25,000 and 15,000 B.C.E.

Video Resource: Cave Art: Complex Paintings From Prehistory

Apollo 11 StonesPaleolithicNamibiaCharcoal on stone25,500–25,300 B.C.E

Cross Cultural Comparisons

Great Hall of the BullsPaleolithicLascaux, FranceRock Painting15,000-13,000 BCE

Lascaux Cave Virtual Tour

Bird-Headed Man with BisonPaint on limestonelength approx. 9' (2.75 m)c. 15,000 BCE

Cross Cultural ComparisonsTomb of the Triclinium;Michelangelo’s Sistine ChapelKara Walker, Darkytown Rebellion

Running Horned WomanNeolithicTassili n’Ajjer, AlgeriaPigment on Rock6,000-4,000 BCE

Cross Cultural ComparisonsMasks and HeaddressesAka Elephant MaskIkenga; Malagan Mask

Video Resource: Tassili n’Ajjer: Cave Paintings in Africa

Beaker with Ibex MotifsNeolithicSusa, IranPainted Terra Cotta4,200-3,500 BCE

Kahn Academy Video ResourceIbex Beaker Analysis

Cross Cultural ComparisonsMartinez, Black on Black Ceramic VesselThe David VasesKoons, Pink Panther

Anthropomorphic SteleNeolithicArabian PeninsulaSandstone4th Millennium BCE

Cross Cultural ComparisonsMutu, Preying MantraFemale Deity from NukuoroBraque, Portuguese

Jade CongNeolithic ChinaLiangzhu, ChinaCarved Jade3300–2200 B.C.E

Cross Cultural ComparisonsMondrian, Composition with Red, Blue, and YellowChavin de HuantarMartinez, Ceramic Vessels

Kahn Academy Video Resource: Jade Cong Analysis

The Ambum StoneNeolithicAmbum Valley, Papua New GuineaGreywackec. 1500 B.C.E

Cross Cultural ComparisonsAnimal Forms: Detail from the LakshamnaTempleTuffery, Pisupo Lua AfeBuk Mask

Tlatilco Female FigurineNeolithic MexicoCentral Mexico, site of TlatilcoCeramic1200–900 B.C.E

Cross Cultural ComparisonsVeranda PostPower Figure;Reliquary of Sainte-Foy

Terra Cotta FragmentNeolithic LapitaSolomon Islands, Reef IslandsTerra cotta (incised)1000 B.C.E

Cross Cultural ComparisonsHiapoMalagan MaskLindauer, Tamati Waka Nene

Stonehengec. 2750–1500 BCESalisbury Plain, Wiltshire England

Video Resource: Secrets of Stonehenge

Megaliths

Cromlech or Henge

Post and Lintel Lintel

Post

Trilithon

Significant astronomical alignments at Stonehenge