Bison

Altamira cave, Santander, Spain

12,000-11,000 BCE

• Old Stone Age
• 30,000 BCE
• simple shell necklaces
• human & animal forms
• ivory, clay, stone
• cave wall paintings
• representation of humans and animals

Waterworn pebble

Makapansgat, South Africa

3,000,000 BCE

Redish brown jasperite approx 2 3/8" wide

Animal facing left

Apollo 11 cave, Namibia

23,000 BCE

• Common Namibian animals: zebra, horse, mammoth, ibex, bison
• humans infrequent; men never
• strict profile painting: head, body, tail + all four legs

Human w/ feline head, Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany

30,000-28,000 BCE. Mammoth ivory 11 5/8th" high

animal heads + human bodies: speculations > sorcerers, masked magicians, costumed humans - of importance

Venus of Willendorf

Willendorf, Austria

28,000-25,000 BCE

Anatomic exaggeration = fertility

no facial features

mostly nude women: dubbed "Venuses" - misleading: did not represent deities during Old Stone Age

Woman holding bison horn

Laussel, Dordogne, France

25,000-20,000 BCE

approx. 1'6" high

• early relief sculpture from Paleolithic rock shelter (common dwelling for early humans).
• open-air art
• exaggeration of breasts, abdomen, hips = fertility

Reclining woman, rock-cut relief, La Magdelaine cave, Tarn, France, ca. 12,000 BCE. Approx. half life-size.

• natural contours of stone wall: give illusion of real presense to forms 

Two bison, reliefs in cave at Le Tuc d'Audoubert, Ariège, France, ca. 15,000-10,000 BCE. Clay, each approx. 2' long.

• Hand modeled clay reliefs by building up against freestanding rocks. Smoothed with spatula-like tools.

Bison with turned head, fragmentary spearthrower,

La Madeleine, Dordogne, France 

12,000 BCE

Reindeer horn, approx. 4" long

• mammoth tusks formed into human/animal forms
• detailed engravings

Bison, detail of a painted ceiling

Altamira cave, Spain

12,000-11,000 BCE approx 5' long

• herds of animals in profile (alive, standing or curled up on ground)
• not on common ground line. Float above viewers head (like clouds in the sky)l
• no setting, no background, indication of place.

Spotted horses and negative hand imprints,

Pech-Merle, Lot, France 

22,000 BCE, approx. 11'2" long

• primitive writing form
• signs & humans hands: common
• blew/spat pigment around hands: "negative"
• dip hand in pigment + press against wall: "positive" imprint
• "signatures"
• mural wall paintings: inspired by rock formation + usage of stone tools

Hall of the Bulls

Lascaux, Dordogne, France

15,000-13,000 BCE

Largest bull approx. 11'6" long

• best known Paleolithic cave with large circular gallery
• various animals w/ various sizes + styles/techniques = painted at different times
• "herd" = different animals moving in different locations
• horns at twisted perspective: profile head with horns from the front = more natural representation. 

Rhinoceros, wounded man, and disemboweled bison

Lascaux, France

15,000-13,000 BCE

Bison 3'8" long

• rhino, bison
• early appearance of bird-man (penis!) 

• beginning of agriculture: wild wheat, barley
• animal herds: goats, sheep, pigs
• Tigris & Euphratis River in Mesopotamia (modern Syria and Iraq)
• Neolithic innovations: weaving, metalworking, pottery, counting/recording w/ tokens
• Jericho, Ain Ghazal, Çatal Höyük

Great stone tower built into settlement wall

Jericho

8000-7000 BCE

• Jericho: plateau in Jordan River valley with unfailing spring + small village w/ mud brick houses on round/oval stone foundations
• stone tower: 13ftx28ft high, 33ft diameter w/ inner stairway

Human figure

Ain Ghazal, Jordan 6750-6250 BCE

Plaster, painted and inlaid w/ cowrie shell & bitumen

3' 5 3/8" high

• multiple statuettes, ritually buried
• bitumen: tarlike substance to delineate pupils of eyes (cowrie shells)
• painters added orange & black hair, clothing & body paint/tattoos.
• Beginning of monumental sculpture

Schematic reconstruction drawing of a section of Level VI,  Çatal Höyük, Turkey

6000-5900 BCE

• Çatal Höyük wealth: trade in obsidian (glasslike volcanic stone valued by Neolithic toolmakers & weapon makers
• urban living: lack of streets, joined houses w/ no doors. Openings in roofs as pathways + chimneys. Core: living room & kitchen
• buildings: more stable, strong defense

Deer hunt, detail of wall painting from Level III,

Çatal Höyük, Turkey

5750 BCE

• variety of poses, subjects, settings
• humans dominating animals: hunting party
• exaggeration of movement, repetition of basic shapes, descriptive details (bow, arrows, definited noses, mouths, hair)
• profile view
• twisted perspective
• brush application!

Landscape with volcanic eruption (?),

detail of a watercolor copy of a wall painting from Level VII, Çatal Höyük, Turkey 6150 BCE

• world's first landscape (natural setting w/o narrative content)
• foreground: town, houses representing Çatal Höyük. Mountaing w/ two peaks. Dots & lines from the cones = volcanic eruptions = Hasan Dag (volcano) 

Aerial view of Stonehedge,

Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England

2550-1600 BCE

• massive rough cut-stones: megaliths (great stones)
• arrangement in circle: cromlech/henge, often surrounded by ditch
• astronomical observatory
• Middle Ages: work of magician Merlin of King Arthur
• accurate solar calendar