Prehistoric Art

 

 

Key Periods

Paleolithic Art:        40,000-8,000 BCE in the Near East
    "Old Stone Age"     40,000-4,000 BCE in Europe

• Hunter-Gatherers, Nomadic

 

Neolithic Art:         8,000- 3,000 BCE in the Near East   

     "New Stone Age"   4,000- 2,000 BCE in Europe    (Stonehenge)

• Cultivated, raised livestock, organized settlement.

 

Characteristics of Paintings

• Animal figures dominate- usually with a dark outline

• Humans represented as stick figures, negative handprints

• Lascaux Caves, 15,000- 13,000 BCE, France

• Altimira Caves, Spain

Characteristics of Sculpture

• All in-the-round sculpture is portable

• Some human representations have emphasis on certain body parts

• Carvings on cave walls utilize natural formations in the rock 

Characteristics of Architecture

• Shelters out of large animal bones

• Post and lintel systems (most basic type of architecture)

• Stonehenge