Global Prehistory Essential Knowledge 1. How do we describe periods of time before the written record? Periods of time before the written record are often defined in terms of geological eras or major shifts in climate and environment. 2. What are the periods of global prehistory, known as? • Lithic or stone ages, o Paleolithic o Mesolithic o Neolithic 3. What did the glacial period produced in Europe produce? Ice ages 4. What happened geographically during the Ice ages? o Saharan agricultural grassland became desert; o Tectonic shifts in southeast Asia created land bridges between the continent and the now-­‐islands of the Pacific south of the equator. 5. What factors influenced human behavior and expression? The changing environments in which they lived influenced human behavior and expression. 6. Who were the earliest people? Globally, the earliest peoples were small groups of hunter-­‐gatherers. 7. What was their paramount concern? Their paramount concern was sheer survival. 8. What did they create to help them survive? They made practical objects, like tools and weapons. 9. What else did they make? Objects of unknown purpose, like ritual and symbolic works perhaps to encourage the availability food sources. 10. What media did these early people use to create art? • People established many artistic media: o Fired ceramics, o painting and incised graphic designs (primarily on rock surfaces) o sculpture (notably female and animal figurines) o architecture (stone megalithic installations). 11. What fundamental, stable phenomena were reflected in the art of ALL early humans ? • Early art making across the globe reflects humans’ awareness of fundamental, stable phenomena like § astronomical cycles, such as equinoxes and solstices § exploitation of permanent materials available in local environments, such as stone, hardened clay, and jade). 12. Where did Humanity began? Humanity is understood to have begun in Africa and radiated outward. 13. When was the first art created? Beginning around 77,000 years ago, the first “art” was created. 14. What forms did early art take? o Rock paintings and carved natural materials o Geometric patterns and representations of life forms, § usually human and animal, were typical two-­‐dimensional creations. o Three-­‐dimensional forms were sculpted, and monuments, large-­‐scale objects, and environments were assembled and/or constructed. 15. What activities were often associated with Art making? • Art making was often associated with activities such as • food production • hunting, gathering, • agriculture, animal husbandry • patterns of behavior, such as settlement, demonstration of status, and burial. 16. Where and when were Paleolithic communities established? West, Central, South, Southeast, and East Asia from70,000-­‐40,000 BCE 17. Where were Paleolithic and Neolithic cave paintings featuring animal imagery found? across Asia, including in the mountains of Central Asia and Iran and in rock shelters throughout central India. 18. What material was used in prehistoric China to create ritual objects? Jade ( beginning a 5,000-­‐year tradition of working with the precious medium ) 19. What art forms are found across Neolithic Asia? Ritual, tomb, and memorializing arts are found including impressive funerary steles from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. 19. What was Asia’s greatest contribution to early world art? Ceramic technology, some of the earliest pieces (dating to 10,500 B.C.E) produced by Jomon in Japan. Even earlier pottery continues to be found, particularly in China. Ceramics were also produced in Iran beginning in the eighth millennium B.C.E., 20. When do we start is see evidence of the use of the potter’s wheel? Refined vessel forms arose from the adoption of the potter’s wheel in the fourth millennium B.C.E. 21. How did Pacific Region migrations happen? In the Pacific region, migrations from Asia approximately 45,000 years ago were possible because of lowered sea levels and the existence of land bridges. 22. What did these early Pacific people create? 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. 23. What did Paleolithic and Neolithic people of Europe create? • small human figural sculptures (central Europe) • cave paintings (France and Spain), • outdoor, monumental stone assemblages (British Isles). 24. What do these creations reveal to us? These provide glimpses into the beginnings of ritual life (15,000 B.C.E.) as people tried o to influence and integrate with the natural cycles of the cosmos o to promote both human and animal fertility. These works also establish the dynamic interplay of naturalism and abstraction found throughout art’s history. 25. What did indigenous peoples, on the American continent, who had recently migrated from Asia, (before 10,000 B.C.E.) first make? o Sculptures from animal bone and later from clay, such as § Animals and sacred humans § Fecund females • female figurines may also display unusual or supernatural characteristics suggesting the importance of shamanic religion brought from Asia very early in human history. 26. What techniques have illuminated interconnections of art across the world. Ongoing archaeological excavations Use of carbon-­‐14 dating 27. Are scientists and archeologists certain about their theories surrounding early human art making? No. 28. How are theories about early humans developed? o Comparisons of groups of objects o Application of ethnographic analogy(considering modern traditional cultural practices as models for ancient ones) o Reconstruction of religious history can be applied to help establish general theories of the function and meaning of prehistoric art. 29. What has served as a basis for modern art historical studies? Since 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. 30 What way does archaeology support Art History? 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. 31. How is the function of artistic expression prior to written records inferred? The function of artistic expression prior to written records is inferred from: § evidence of technology and survival strategies • based on the relation of tools and their function ( either task related/expressive), § available food sources § rise of sophisticated culture, § humans’ capacity to shape and manage the environment. 32. What basic art historical methods can be applied to prehistoric art? Visual comparison works of art to help identify patterns o imagery o materials o techniques Cross-­‐cultural comparisons help establish wider generalizations, such as: South African, Asian, and indigenous American peoples all participated in rock/cave expressions of a visionary aesthetic). I In this way, the apparent lack of written 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. Ancient Near East and Egypt Essential Knowledge 1. The art of the ancient Near East (present-­‐day Iraq, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Cyprus, from 3500 to 330 B.C.E.) is associated with which successive city-­‐states and cultural powers? Sumerian, Akkadian, Neo-­‐Sumerian and Babylonian, Assyrian, Neo-­‐Babylonian, and Persian. 2. The art of dynastic Egypt (present-­‐day Egypt and Sudan, from 3000 to 30 B.C.E.) generally includes coverage of which period? Predynastic Egypt and Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. The Amarna period during the New Kingdom was also important because of its cultural reform and stylistic revolution. 3. What did the study of artistic innovations and conventions developed in the ancient Near East and dynastic Egypt (facilitated by recorded/written information from the time) provide for our study of art history? A foundation for comparative understanding of later artistic traditions in the region and beyond. 4. What artistic forms did artists create during these time periods? o Fully developed, formal types §
Including sculptures of human figures interacting with gods §
Stylistic conventions representing the human form •
Combined profile and three-­‐quarter view. •
Important figures are set apart using a hierarchical scale or •
By dividing the compositions into horizontal sections or registers, which provide significant early examples of historical narratives. 5. What types of architecture were built in the Ancient Near East? Architectural representations included § towering ziggurats that provide monumental settings for the worship of many deities § heavily fortified palaces that increased in opulence over the centuries, proclaiming the power and authority of rulers. 6. What is reflected in the culture of dynastic Egypt? The culture of dynastic Egypt represents an elaborate funerary sect whose devotees created: §
§
numerous ka statues (to house the ka, or spirit, after death) artifacts, decorations, and furnishings for tombs. 7. What kinds of iconography does Egyptian art incorporate? o mythological and religious symbolism § often centered on the cult of the sun. 8. What was the culmination of monumental stone architecture in Egypt? o the pyramids o rock-­‐cut tombs o pylon (massive sloped gateway) temple § each demonstrating the importance of the pharaoh — a god-­‐king with absolute power, descended directly from the sun god. 9. What architectural element developed in Egypt had an impact on future architecture? The Egyptian architectural construction of the clerestory is particularly important for the history of architecture. 10. How did Egyptian artists make clear distinctions between the deified pharaoh and people in lower classes? Representations of humans make clear distinctions between the deified pharaoh and people in lower classes, using representational and stylistic cues such as: hierarchical proportion idealization versus naturalism. 11. Why did approaches to portraiture depend on a figure’s rank in society. The artistic canon of dynastic Egypt, with strict conventions of representation use of materials, and treatment of forms, was followed for many centuries with only short-­‐lived periods of experimentation and deviation (Amarna period). Vocabulary Prehistory Paleolithic Neolithic Abstraction Anthropomorphic Archaeology modeling Carbon 14 dating post-­‐and-­‐lintel construction henge corbelling relief sculpture incising stele cong Shamanism stylized Mesopotamia Apadama temple complexes captial ziggurat registers facade votive figure low and high relief cuneiform stylized base capital stylus cella ground line cylinder seals hieratic scale lamassu Egypt Canon Ka Mastaba Papyrus and Lotus Conventions Sarcophagus Maat Horus Osiris Anubis Ra Cubic and Frontal rock-­‐cut tomb pylon Peristyle obelisk sunken relief veneer necropolis engaged column hieroglyph cartouche clerestory canon of proportions ziggurat hypostyle hall pectoral Aten Amarna Ankh In situ