Unit #1: Art of the Paleolithic
Announcements:
•assignment folders handed out
•Turn in initial assessment
•Posted
•Unit 1 activities and Terms
•Presentation information
Hunter/Gatherer lecture
Ice Age Bay Area video
write up
Paleolithic Cave Art of Europe
Sign up for prehistoric animal
groups
ES 3 Unit 1 Activities
•Life ways concept map - Hunter/Gatherers
•Connections concept map – Prehistoric era
•Video write up – Ice Age Bay Area
•Video write up – Lascaux Cave Virtual tour
•Prehistoric Animal Group work- art session #1
• research notes and cave painting panel
•Group board work notes
•Lecture notes•Cave painting notes - materials and theories
•Animal rarities
•Cave crisis
•Earth Map update
Unit #1 : terms
Paleolithic
Cro-Magnon humans
Anthropomorphic
totemism
shamanism
Przewalski horse
Imagery of the Environment
relationship with nature:
Changes in how
we meet our
basic needs
thru history
Food, shelter…
technological
revolutions
Hunter/Gatherers
agriculture
attitudes towards nature:
reverence
superiority
level of impact on nature
minimal
local
global
ART
HUMAN LIFEWAYS
How we meet our
basic needsfood, shelter and
water- has changed
drastically over the
past 1.8 my.
•Hunter/gatherers
•nomadic pastoralists
•Shifting agriculture
•settled agriculture
•industrial
Human life ways through time
Hunter/
Gatherer
Agriculture
Industrial
2 mya
1.99 million yrs.(99.5%)
10,000 272
This shift from:
depending directly on
our natural environment
Close connection to
Nature
Least impact on
Environment
Living within the earth’s
carrying capacity
Part of our ecosystem
growing and
harvesting our own
resources
Disconnection
from the natural
processes
Devastating
global
impacts
Living way beyond
the earth’s carrying
capacity
Superiority to…
In the beginning….
•Primates-Our earliest ancestors
arrived as far back as 85 mya
•scavenger /gatherers until 1.8 mya
•Prey species without much
protection or technology
to hunt.
•Nature was an uncontrollable
scary place where survival
was difficult.
•No means of protection
•Solitary and arboreal
HUNTING & GATHERING
Homo erectus 1.8 mya--first true Hunter/gatherer group, 1st to make tools
use of fire- warmth, protection, social interaction, light and cooking
1st humans to migrate out of Africa
Homo sapiens-- 200,000 years ago the arrival of H. sapiens marked the success
of our species.
• Very adaptable– increase in brain size gave us the advantage--- increase
need for protein
• Advanced society- innovation of tools and weapons, social groups.
• Expansion throughout the world
99.5% of our existence on earth has been as hunter/gatherers
Ice Age Environmental Conditions
• Ice Age ~1.8 mya - ~10,000 ya
• World’s water locked into giant glaciers---bringing
drought to Africa and most parts of world
• sea levels dropped 400 feet exposing continental shelves
• Change in vegetation:
Decrease in rainfall caused grasslands and dry forests to
develop in “corridors” between ice fields.
• mega-fauna migrations and expansion
Life Ways Concept Map----LWCM
Human Life ways Concept Map
Life way
Characteristics
impacts
1. Hunter/ Gatherer
a.
b.
2. Nomadic Pastoralists
a.
b.
3. Shifting Agriculture
a.
b.
4. Early Settled Agriculture-
a.
b.
10,000- 300 years ago
LW 1a. HUNTING & GATHERING
Typical of most h/g cultures:
- nomadic
- limited population size
- egalitarian society
- earth wisdom
- few possessions
- subsistence lifestyle…
- marginal land (today)
Photo: Last of the Ona, Tierra del Fuego
LW1b. HUNTING & GATHERING
Limited impact:
Most h/g cultures did not
have much of an impact
on their natural
environment
But there were
exceptions…
LW 1b. Environmental Impact
Burning grasslands: the sixth use of fire
– Altering plant communities—opening up forests encouraging
grasslands therefore large herbivores.
– Halting succession and creating edges.
– Disperse prey—collect insect and small mammal species as
they fled the fire.
– increase grass species for food and quality basketry material
Over hunting resulting extinctions of mega fauna:
HUNTING & GATHERING
The Pleistocene (1.8
m to 10 kya ) New
World mega fauna
represents one of the
greatest assemblages
of animals in Earth’s
history.
North American Extinctions
• 15,000 to 10,000 ya -- 85% of large
mammals went extinct in North
America- coincided with H.
sapiens's arrival
• The Americas were the last
continent to be populated by
humans.
• many went extinct over a period of
400 years.
• N. Amer. Mega species:
– Giant sloth
– Saber-toothed Tiger
– Columbian Mammoth
– Camelops
Paleolithic California
• 14,000 ya clovis points in North
America
• 11,500 – 4,500 ya milling stone
cultures- 13 types of seed
• 11,000 ya major extinctions of
fauna
• 10,000 ya end of the ice age
• 7,000 ya wide spread but
sparse hunter/gatherer groups
throughout California
• 3,000 ya gradual growth of
California tribe’s trading system
HUNTING & GATHERING
Bison latifrons, thrived in
North America for
approximately
200,000 years, but
became extinct some
15,000- 20,000 years
ago.
Same genus as our
present day bison –
Bison bison
8 feet high at the
shoulder and 4,400 lb.
HUNTING & GATHERING
Columbian Mammoth
Larger than the wooly mammoth 12-13 ft. high(9-11ft) ,
7-9 tons (6 tons)– their tusks were also 12-13 ft. long
(5-6 ft long).
Last mega fauna to go extinct about 12,500 ya
HUNTING & GATHERING
Partial skeleton of
Columbian
mammoth found on
Guadalupe R.,
downtown San Jose,
July 2005!
2011 2 skeletons
found in Castroville.
CA
Survivors of the Paleolithic Extinction
• California Condor
• California Grizzly
Bear
• Jaguar
• Pronghorn Antelope
• Tule Elk
HUNTING & GATHERING
In Australia, over
60 species of
large marsupials
vanished with
the arrival of
aboriginal
peoples (40-60
kya on).
Hunting and Gathering
Theories of Mass
extinction of mega
fauna in N. America and
Australia:
• Over hunting by
humans
• Climate change
• Loss of habitat
• Disease
• Combination of all
HUNTING & GATHERING
- For 99% of our hominid
history, we collected the
resources we needed
directly from the natural
environment.
- Today, fewer than 1/10 of
1% of us still follow this
lifestyle – marginal lands
- Today the remaining H/G
cultures are on the
frontlines of
environmental action.
Ice Age Bay Area
video write up:
After viewing this video write 200
words or half a page giving
• a description of what it must have
been like living in California 20,000
years ago.
• What was the SF bay like back
then?
• What habitat would you call it?
• What animals did humans hunt?
• What predators did humans have
to deal with?
• What evidence do we have?
http://science.kqed.org/quest/vi
deo/ice-age-bay-area/
ART of the EUROPEAN
PALEOLITHIC
ART of the PALEOLITHIC
In some cases
dating back over
32,000 years,
these images are
among the most
beautiful ever
made.
(China horse & cows, Lascaux
cave)
Dating the cave paintings
• Extinction of subject
matter
• Layering of art work
• by proximity to
settlements and
fossil evidence
• radio carbon dating
• Uranium-thorium
technique
El Castillo , Spain
S. Africa 8,000 ya
S. America, 10,000 ya
Australia, 40,000 ya ?
Indonesia
10,000 ya
India , 30,000 ya
N. American ,
1,000 ya
ART of the PALEOLITHIC
Connections Concept Map -- CCM
Time period
1. Prehistoric era : 2 million 10,000 years ago
Lascaux, Altamira and Chauvet
cave art
Primary Lifeway
description of art work and examples
attitude toward nature
A.
B.
C.
2.Neolithic age-10,000 years ago A.
B.
C.
3.Classic Period-5000 years ago= A.
rise of Egyptian, Greek, Persian
civilizations
B.
C.
CCM 1a. Early Homo sapiens: Cro Magnon humans
•40,000 ya entered Europe
•social hunter/gatherer society
•Huts made from rocks, clay,
bones, branches and
hides
•Hunted larger prey in groups.
•Intentional burials---Spirituality
and sense of community
and cooperation
•complex language
•Technological innovation
ART of the PALEOLITHIC
CCM 1b. ART of the EUROPEAN
PALEOLITHIC
Cave paintings & drawings:
scratching, drawn OR
painted with a substance
mixed before hand and then
applied by spraying or brush.
stencil technique
Effigies & 3 dimensional art:
carved out of bone, stone or
antler.
thought to have spiritual
significance
Adornments:
clothing
jewelry
implements- tools and weapons
CCM 1b. ART of the PALEOLITHIC
Almost exclusively, the
art of the Paleolithic
depicts large
mammals such as
horses, deer, and wild
cattle.
No landscapes or scenes
Humans were rarely
depicted but when
they were, they
exhibited spiritual
significance
Chauvet Cave, France
CCM 1c. Attitude towards Nature
•Nature was respected and
revered
•Complete dependence on
the abundance in their
local environment.
•They had no control over their
environment
•Elements controlled their
survival.
•Nature-based spirituality
•Earth wisdom- knowledge of
natural systems, seasons,
processing resources and
prey behavior
•Humans were a part of the
ecosystem
Prehistoric animal groups- sign up
Animals of Paleolithic Art project
part 1 research
•Natural history
•Status- extinct? How? Related
contemporary species if extinct.
•Art work depicting your
animal – describe, what colors
were generally used, what caves
were they located, realistic? Accurate?
Herbivore? Prey?
Take notes on each
Meet in groups next thurs.
Over the weekend I will be sending
out a power point with images of
your animals
Animals of Paleolithic Art project
part 2 : cave drawing panel
• Review the power point images
of your animal, familiarize
yourself with the animal and how
it was depicted in the cave art.
• Each group will create a panel of
drawings of your chosen animal
in the style of the Paleolithic
artists
• We will begin the project week 3
• We will present both the research
information and the art panel to
the class on Thurs. April 27th.