Art in World Cultures – Unit 2: Prehistoric Art
What do you think is the first piece of art ever created?
Unfortunately, this question may never be answered. We will likely never know who
created the first piece of art or what that person created. Time, natural elements, and
other forces have erased most of the early art from the Earth. What we are left with are
a few remarkable examples of the earliest art.
Prehistoric art is always at least somewhat mysterious. By definition, prehistory is the
time before writing and prehistoric art is art produced before writing. This means that
for pieces of art produced in prehistoric times, all we know about the piece of art is what
is physically in front of us. Without written records, we are often left without knowing
who created the artwork, why they created the artwork, and even what meaning the
artist(s) had for the artwork. In some cases, archaeological evidence can give us some
clues about how an artwork was created or when it was created, but most other
information about the art is lost to us.
Paleolithic Art
In 1879, Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, a Spanish archaeologist, was digging near the
entrance to a cave in northern Spain. He was hoping to find prehistoric tools with
depictions of animals on them. Sautuola's eight-year-old daughter was with him, and
while her father worked, she ventured into the cave itself. When she called out to her
father, he probably was not expecting to encounter some of the world's oldest art,
hidden from view for thousands of years. Inside the cave, Sautuola and his daughter
saw images of a bison painted on the ceiling of the cave.
Cave paintings are the oldest pieces of art that are known to us. The earliest cave
paintings have been found in Europe and the paintings in the El Castillo cave in Spain
are believed to be up to 40,000 years old. This dating coincides with the first Homo
sapiens in Europe, although some archaeologists have suggested that the paintings
could have been made by Neanderthals, who were also found in Europe around this
time period. A cave in Australia also contains cave paintings that may be as old as
40,000 years, but the dating of the paintings has not been as firmly established.
Today, hundreds of cave paintings have been discovered. After the discovery of the
paintings by Sautuola, the next discovery (of the Lascaux Cave in France) did not occur
until 1940, over sixty years after the Sautuola discovery. If so many cave paintings exist
around the world, including over 300 in France and Spain alone, why did it take so long
for people to rediscover them? Two of the biggest factors in why these paintings
remained unknown to more modern peoples for so long are that the cave entrances
may have been hidden and the paintings are often deep within the caves where people
may be less likely to venture. The Lascaux Cave system was hidden until 1940 and the
2,000 figures painted in the cave extend along the length of the cave system.
How do you think prehistoric peoples created their paintings? The creation of cave
paintings is interesting at a basic level because the artists didn't have any of the tools
that we normally associate with paintings. They couldn't go to a store and buy paints of
different colors or choose among different-sized paintbrushes. Instead, cave artists
used what was around them. Feathers, moss, sticks, and their fingers served as ways
of putting "paint" on the walls and ceilings of the caves. They also used hollowed out
bones or reeds to blow colored powders onto the paintings, in a sort of "spray-painted"
technique. Archaeologists have found some of these hollow tubes in the caves with
powder still in them! Cave artists also took advantage of the rough stone surfaces of the
cave. In some caves, such as the Chauvet Cave in France, artists used the bumps in
the stone and other textures to emphasize parts of the animal. For example, in the
Chauvet Cave, an artist painted a bear's paw over a knob or bulge in the stone, which
makes the paw stand out and look fiercer.
For color, cave artists used ground minerals, such as yellow ochre and manganese.
With the available minerals, cave artists could use red, yellow, brown, and black colors
simply by applying the minerals to the cave walls. However, cave artists also used these
minerals to create pigments, mixing the minerals with materials such as animal fats or
bone marrow. It is most amazing that the "paint" used 40,000 years ago is still visible in
the cave paintings.
The cave paintings show some common themes from one cave to the next. Large
animals, such as bison, horses, and deer are often depicted. These large animals were
hunted by prehistoric peoples, although the animals most often hunted did not always
appear in the cave paintings. For example, many reindeer bones were found in the
Lascaux Cave, but no reindeer appear in the cave paintings. A tracing of a human hand
is also a common object in cave paintings. In some caves, finger fluting is also
found. Finger flutings are marks left by fingers in soft stone. Because the stone or
materials within the cave have to be soft enough for fingers to leave the marks, finger
flutings are not found in all caves. However, they do occur in some caves in Australia,
New Guinea, and southern Europe. Most finger flutings are lines, rather than the outline
of any object or animal.
As one of the first forms of art for which we have evidence, cave paintings are an
important source of information about prehistoric peoples. However, because we don't
have written records or more information about the cave art, we can never be certain
why prehistoric artists created these works of art. Over the years, a number of different
theories have been put forth to try to explain the existence of these art works.
One of the first theories about the cave paintings was that they were related to hunting.
In some of the paintings, details about the animals that hunters might need to know are
present, such as shoulder veins drawn on some of the bison. Some of the images also
show animals pierced with spears or other weapons. Relatedly, some archaeologists
have proposed that prehistoric peoples may have believed that by creating a likeness of
the animal they would be more likely to kill the animal. If so, the cave paintings
represent a kind of "hunting magic" that prehistoric people may have used before hunts.
However, researchers have found that many cave paintings contain animals that
wouldn't have been typical prey for prehistoric people, including lions.
Another theory that archaeologists have for cave paintings is that they were made by
prehistoric shamans. Research suggests that many hunter-gatherer societies practiced
shamanism. Although we don't know for sure whether prehistoric hunter-gatherers also
practiced shamanism, it is a good possibility. Shamanism involves a religious practice
where a practitioner or shaman reaches an altered state of consciousness through
trance in order to interact with the spiritual world. Some groups that practice shamanism
believe that shamans can heal the sick or can communicate with the spirits of the dead.
Prehistoric groups may have believed that the shamans could communicate with the
spirits of the animals painted in the caves.
Interestingly, archaeologists have suggested in recent years that some of the paintings
appear to have been created by prehistoric females. By measuring and analyzing the
hand prints and other markings made in the cave paintings, scientists discovered that
they were made by both men and women. Although we often associate shamans with
men in modern society, there is evidence from previous cultures of female shamans.
The presence of women's handprints does not discount the theory of shamans creating
the cave paintings, but they do add more questions about the prehistoric peoples who
created these works.
Whatever the reason the paintings were made, they must have been an important
practice to prehistoric groups. The evidence suggests that prehistoric peoples returned
to caves for over 20,000 years to create these paintings. They weren't a quick fad or
trend or even isolated practices. Instead, these pieces of art were created by many
different people over many thousands of years.
PALEOLITHIC SCULPTURE
The earliest forms of human art also include sculpture. Today, about 150 sculptures
from the Paleolithic period have been found in Europe, Eurasia, and Asia. Most of these
sculptures are small statues or reliefs. Reliefs are outlines of images on stone, wood, or
other materials, where the background is carved away from the outlines so that the
outlines stand out.
One of the statues that has been found from this period of time is known as the Woman
of Willendorf. This female figure is thought to have been carved between 24,000 and
22,000 BCE. It was discovered in 1906 in Austria. It is carved from limestone, which is
not native to where it was found, and it has been tinted with red ochre. TheWoman of
Willendorf is one of the sculptures that has been found, but others are similar.
Like the cave paintings, the statues and reliefs from the Paleolithic period remain a
mystery to archaeologists and other scientists. Traditionally, many people believed that
these statues were related to fertility rituals or were created to represent fertility. Some
archaeologists have also suggested that the figures may have been created as a
representation of an "ideal" woman. While the figures don't generally fit the
representations of beauty today, keep in mind that during the Ice Age, food was often
scarce. The proportions of these statues may reflect prosperity or increased fertility.
Although we have little information about the reasons these statues were created, there
is some evidence that they were created and used by prehistoric women.
Neolithic Art
Over time, life for prehistoric people changed. As the Ice Age passed, humans were
able to begin the first forms of agriculture. Some of them domesticated animals, planted
crops, built better stone tools, and began to live in permanent settlements. Some people
began to live in larger groups, perhaps for defense or other practical measures. In these
larger groups, job specialization began to develop, where an individual had one or more
particular jobs to perform within the group.
This major transition from Paleolithic life to Neolithic life is represented in art pieces
such as clay pots and other home decorations. Archaeological evidence from the ruins
of the first permanent settlements such as Catalhoyuk in modern-day Turkey includes
art work such as paintings, sculpture, and pottery. We also see the beginnings of
architecture as we know it in these first settlements, with the creation of permanent
homes made out of stone, timber, and mud.
POTTERY
Although we don't know exactly when people began creating pottery, we do know that
clay pots were important during the Neolithic period. By firing the clay pots at a high
temperature, Neolithic people were able to create water-tight vessels, which could be
used to carry water. In a world without indoor plumbing, permanent settlements faced
the challenge of getting water to people's homes. These water-tight pots offered a
solution, enabling people to carry water from a water source to homes within the
settlement. The pots were also used for cooking, storing food, and transporting food.
While these pots served a function for Neolithic people, the creators also added
decoration and pattern to these pots, even though these decorations have no practical
use for the pots or the people. Some of the patterns on these early pots resembles
basket-weaving patterns and may have been taken from that practice. In China,
prehistoric people painted pieces of pottery to add decoration or for other reasons.
Later, the potter's wheel, which is a revolving stand that can be used to form clay into
pottery, was invented and increased the ease of creating clay vessels. This
advancement appears to have occurred sometime around 3000 BCE. The method not
only increased the production of clay vessels, but it also enabled artists to create more
decorative elements on the vessels. As the creation of pottery became more
specialized, permanent settlements often included people who focused on creating
pottery as their "job."
PAINTINGS
During the Paleolithic period, most paintings were done on the walls and ceilings of
caves. As people moved into more permanent settlements and homes during the
Neolithic period, they brought painting with them. They included paintings in their homes
in "shrines" and on some of the functional items that they used, such as pottery vessels.
In Catalhoyuk, archaeologists found a painting of a large red bull with smaller humans
around it. They believe that the bull may have had some religious significance, perhaps
for a male deity and/or as a symbol of strength. This theory is strengthened by the fact
that archaeologists found bull skulls and horns in some of the religious shrines of the
now-ruined settlement. In addition, the paintings found in the excavated settlement were
created on plaster walls, and a new layer of plaster was applied if a change was made
to the painting. This is in contrast to the earlier cave paintings, which were made on the
natural stone of the caves and which show signs of changes.
In other shrines and areas, archaeologists have found hunting scenes painted on walls.
This is perhaps not surprising given the importance of hunting to prehistoric people, and
those traditions would have continued into permanent settlements for at least some
amount of time. What is surprising about these paintings are the differences between
them and the cave paintings of the Paleolithic period. The hunting scenes in Catalhoyuk
regularly feature human hunters, who are almost absent from Paleolithic paintings.
Neolithic hunting scenes include humans, sometimes in large groups, in a wide variety
of poses and settings, armed with weapons like bows and spears. While these scenes
may not tell a story as later paintings would do, they are a step in that direction. These
paintings are also important because they are some of the first paintings of humans
and, particularly, because the artists took care in representing the human form. The
heads and faces of the humans are often painted in profile, the position that gives us
the most information about the face of all possible angles, but the torso is painted from
the front, which also gives us more information.
Painting also occurred in other areas of the Neolithic world. In China, for example,
artists painted pottery. Typically, these early paintings were more ornamental than
representing an event or place. Pieces of pottery might be decorated with lines, dots,
spirals, and depictions of animals.
SCULPTURE
The creation of sculpture also continued into the Neolithic period. Many of the
sculptures created during this time period also used the human form in some way.
Archaeologists have found more evidence of religion and religious rituals for the
Neolithic period than for earlier time periods, and it is likely that some of these
sculptures and figurines were related to these religious beliefs.
One sculpture that was created during the Mesolithic period and which serves as a
bridge between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods is known as the Shigir
Idol. Estimated to have been created in 7500 BCE, it is the oldest known wooden
sculpture. The sculpture is of a human, although the body is flat and covered with
geometric motifs.
Another example of Neolithic sculpture includes the plaster statuettes that were found in
present-day Jordan in the Middle East. Archaeologists there uncovered about three
dozen of these statuettes, including some that have two heads! Believed to be from
about 6500 BCE, the statuettes have cores of twigs and reeds that are covered over by
a white plaster. The statuettes vary in size, with some up to three feet tall, and they
have eyes that were created by using black bitumen, a tar-like material.
MONUMENTS
During the Neolithic period, groups around the world also began to alter the physical
landscape that they lived in. They built permanent settlements, erected houses, and
began to grow crops. They also altered the landscape in more artistic ways, building
large stone monuments. As with other examples of prehistoric art, our understanding of
these pieces of art is incomplete; they are a source of mystery and controversy for art
historians and archaeologists today.
Monuments created during the Neolithic period were often made out of large blocks of
stone. Many of these large stones weighed up to several tons and could measure fifteen
or more feet in height, making it quite remarkable that prehistoric people were able to
move these stones to the site of the monument and then erect and arrange many of
these stones in intentional ways. One of these large stone blocks is known as
a megalith or monolith. When one of these blocks is placed upright on one end, it is
called a menhir. A cromlech is a row of menhirs. Megaliths and the resulting
monuments have been found in many areas of the world, including Europe, Africa, and
Asia.
The most common form of megalith architecture in Europe is a tomb. Portal tombs are
constructed with several upright stone blocks with a capstone placed over them.
Although many of these portal tombs contain human remains, archaeologists are not
sure whether they functioned primarily as tombs or whether there were other reasons
for their creation. Passage tombs consist of a stone passage way to a burial chamber,
all of which is covered by an earthen mound.
One of the older examples of a passage tomb is Newgrange, created in Ireland around
3200 BCE. Newgrange is made of a large circular mound of earth, with passageways
and chambers made of stone. Some of the stones at the front of the tomb are engraved
with artistic patterns of swirls, dots, and other ornamentation. Inside the tomb,
archaeologists found the unburned bones of at least two individuals as well as evidence
of cremated or burned bones. However, the primary purpose of Newgrange is a
mystery. The alignment of the tomb is such that once a year, on the winter solstice, the
sun shines directly down the passageway to the chamber. An alignment with the sun is
common in Neolithic monuments, so Newgrange may have also held religious or
ritualistic importance to the people who created it.
While tombs are the most common of megalith architecture, they are often
overshadowed by the more dramatic stone monuments created in the Neolithic period.
Perhaps the most well-known monument created during this time isStonehenge, which
is found in England. Stonehenge consists of an outer ring of smaller stones which
surround the inner cromlech. The innermost stones of this monument form a horseshoe
shape that is aligned with the rising sun on the summer solstice.
Key to Stonehenge Image:
1. The Altar Stone, a six-ton monolith of green micaceous sandstone from Wales
2. barrow without a burial
3. barrows (without burials)
4. the fallen Slaughter Stone, 4.9 metres long
5. the Heel Stone
6. two of originally four Station Stones
7. ditch
8. inner bank
9. outer bank
10. The Avenue, a parallel pair of ditches and banks leading 3 km to the River Avon
11. ring of 30 pits called the Y Holes
12. ring of 29 pits called the Z Holes
13. circle of 56 pits, known as the Aubrey holes
14. smaller southern entrance
Archaeologists have discovered many interesting facts about Stonehenge and the
people who created it although there are still many mysteries about it. Stonehenge was
likely built between 3000 BCE and 2000 BCE and some of the surrounding earthworks,
such as the earthen ditch and bank that surround Stonehenge, may be older. Cremated
remains have been found at the site, suggesting that the monument was used as some
sort of burial site. Some of the stones are bluestones and are believed to have come
from a site about 240 miles away, quite a distance for prehistoric people! They each
weigh about four tons and there are around 80 bluestones at the site. The larger outer
stones, weighing up to about fifty tons each, are believed to have come from a site
about twenty miles from the site of Stonehenge.
However, there are still many aspects of Stonehenge that remain a mystery. Although
many theories have been put forth, archaeologists are not sure how Stonehenge was
built or how it was used. For example, some archaeologists have suggested that
Stonehenge was a site for rituals or other religious practices; others have suggested
that Stonehenge may have been a place of healing. We know some pieces of the
mystery, but the overall answers may remain unknown forever because the people who
built and used Stonehenge didn't leave us with written records.
Although we may think of Europe when thinking about megalithic architecture,
archaeologists have found examples all over the world, including Africa, the Middle
East, and Asia. One of the oldest astrological monuments is found in Nabta
Playa, which is south of the present-day city of Cairo in Egypt. The monument is at
least 1,000 years older than Stonehenge and it accurately notes the summer solstice.
Megalith burial sites were also common in prehistoric Asia, particularly on the Korean
Peninsula where archaeologists estimate that around 35,000 megaliths are found. Most
of these are portal tombs or dolmans. Those in the northern Korean Peninsula tend to
be a table-style dolman, with a capstone resting on other stones. Those in the southern
Korean Peninsula are often an underground stone pit with a capstone placed over it on
the ground. Indonesia also has megalith sites, including some that were created by
isolated cultures into the nineteenth century CE.
In this unit, we've explored some of the art works that have been found from prehistoric
times. Although our knowledge and understanding of prehistoric art is limited, these
pieces form the basis of human art. Prehistoric art gives us a glimpse into the lives,
beliefs, and minds of the people who made them. As we continue to explore art through
history and culture in the units to come, keep these early pieces of art in mind. They
provided the foundations of art for all of the pieces that would be created in the future.