Paleolithic & Mesolithic

Art
(2,500,000-10,000 BCE)

Types & Characteristics

 Just Recall DEFINITIONS OF ART

"the expression or application of creative skill and

imagination, often through a visual medium like
painting, or 3-D media like sculpture."
Or
"Types of creative activity like drawing music, literature
and dance."
Or
"Subjects of study mainly concerned with human
culture rather than with scientific or technical subjects."
 Paleolithic Art
• Like we do, Paleolithic people often represented
their world and beliefs through visual images.

• Paleolithic lifestyles depended on hunting and all

time search for food or later on pastoral agriculture.

• Paintings, sculptures, engravings and later pottery

reveal not only a quest for beauty but also complex
social systems and spiritual concepts.
WHY Prehistoric Art was created ?
• Perhaps the cave man wanted to decorate the
cave and chose animals because they were
important to their existence
• to document their hunting expeditions
• Another theory could have been that they
considered this magic to help the hunters.
Perhaps if the artist could capture the image of
the animal, they could capture the animal in a
hunt.
Paleolithic and Mesolithic Art
Types & Characteristics
 Types
Archeologists have identified the following basic types of Stone Age art,
as follows:
• Rock Tools
• Petro glyphs (rock carvings and engravings)
• human ornamentation Tiny shells coated in red clay
• pictographs (pictorial imagery, ideomorphs, ideograms or symbols), a
category that includes cave painting and drawing;
• Paleolithic sculpture (including small totemic statuettes known as
Venus Figurines, various forms of zoomorphic and therianthropic
(hybrid form with human body and animal head, and relief
sculptures)
• megalithic art (petroforms or any other works associated with
arrangements of stones).
• Paleolithic Cartography, Rudimentary Maps
Rock Tools

Recently
identified
oldest
known
bifacial
hand axe,
1.76 million
years old
Rock Tools

Paleolithic
Hand axe,
(500,000-
10,000 BC)

(Flint Stone)
Rock & Flint Tools
Rock Tools

Stone cuter,
a hammer
stone for
knapping
flint
Wooden Tools

THE CLACTON SPEAR

TIP CLACTON-ON-SEA,
ESSEX, UNITED
KINGDOM LOWER
PALEOLITHIC PERIOD
est.300,000 to 450,000
YEARS AGO The
"Clacton spear tip" is
the oldest wooden
artifact ever found in
Britain. Estimates of its
age range from 300,000
to 450,000 years old.
The original spear tip,
made of yew wood, has
warped and shrunk
since its discovery.
 Ivory Tools/Points

16 inches . River in northwest Florida. 11,000 years

 Oldest Bone Flute

Bone flute
Flute carved from bone about 32,000
years ago, found in Dordogne, France. It
is one of the oldest known musical
instruments from western Europe.
Petroglyphs (rock carvings and engravings)
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/Paleolithic/cupules.htm#what

Blombos Cave Engravings,

Just Abstract Marks
incised
on Ochre Stone, around
70,000 BCE.
East of Cape town, South
Africa. The
earliest art of
Sub-Saharan Africa.
It shows Intent
Deliberation and
efforts to execute
Petroglyphs (rock carvings and engravings)
Cupules

Paleolithic Cupules
The oldest cultural
phenomenon,
found throughout
the Paleolithic
world,
the cupule remains
one of the
least understood
types of rock art.
 Petroglyphs (rock carvings and engravings)
Cupules
http://www.academia.edu/4982271/Cupules_-the_oldest_surviving_rock_art_Cupules_-the_oldest_surviving_rock_art

A cupule from
Auditorium Cave,
Bhimbetka, Madhya
Pradesh, India.
290,000 to 700,000
BCE. It seems so
interesting that the
behavior of creating
cupules dates back so far
in the "old world" and
may have persisted into
North America.
 Petroglyphs (rock carvings and engravings)
Cupules
http://www.academia.edu/4982271/Cupules_-the_oldest_surviving_rock_art_Cupules_-the_oldest_surviving_rock_art
Nassarius Snail Oldest Jewelry Found in Morocco Cave
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070607-oldest-beads.html

Sea Shell Necklace

Tiny shells coated in red
clay are the oldest known
human
ornamentation, an
international team of
archaeologists recently
announced.
So far, 13 shells dated to
82,000 years ago have
been found in the Grotte
des Pigeons at Taforalt in
eastern Morocco.
Nassarius Snail Oldest Jewelry
 Ancient Shells May Be World's Oldest Bead Jewelry
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060622-jewelry.html

Possibly the
beads were used
to establish group
identity and
indicate where
certain people
belonged. It is
possible that
earlier peoples
The shells were excavated from Mount Carmel in might have
ISRAEL and Algeria, in the 1930s and 1940s. evidence decorated their
for personal decoration by 25,000 years. bodies …
 Pictograph
What is a Pictograph? (Definition and
Characteristics)
In Paleolithic art, the term "pictograph" or
"pictogram" (derived from the Latin
"pictus" meaning painting, and
"graph/gram" meaning drawn or written)
describes an image, sign or symbol which
is created in order to express some idea or
information.
 Pictograph
abstract symbols
• hand stencils (handprints or palm-
prints),
• rock engravings (painted or unpainted),

• cave painting (monochrome or

polychrome).
Pictograph
pictographs, found
Lascaux Caves (c.17,000
BCE)

Dead Man with Bird Head

Pictograph
Hand Stencils Rock
Art
(c.40,000-1,000 BCE)
The world's oldest cave art in the
rock shelter of
El Castillo, Spain.
The Red-Ochre Disk or Large Dot
below the hand stencils is dated
39,000 BCE. The hand stencils are
dated to c.37,300 BCE. See also:
Pictograph
Hand stencil from
Cosquer Cave
(c.25,000 BCE)
Gravettian culture.
National Museum of
Archeology,
Saint-Germain-en-
Laye, France.
 Paleolithic sculpture
Carving of the Stone Age

Ultra-Primitive humanoid objects from the

Lower Paleolithic.

Venus of Berekhat Ram, dated

from
230,000 to 500,000 BCE.
The earliest art outside India.
 Paleolithic sculpture
Carving of the Stone Age
Lion-Human of
Hohlenstein Stadel
c.30,000 BCE
Germany.
An extraordinary
example of
therianthropic art. Ultra-
Primitive
ivory carving

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/Paleolithic/lion-man-
hohlenstein-stadel.htm
Paleolithic sculpture

Dimensions:
height
281 mm,
width 63
mm,
thickness
59 mm.
 Paleolithic sculpture
Carving of the Stone Age

Ultra-Primitive zoomorphic objects

(mammoth) from the Paleolithic age.

Mammoth
from Vogel herd
Cave, Germany
c.25,000 BC
Length: 37 mm;
Weight: 7.5
grams -- Carved
from mammoth
ivory
 Paleolithic sculpture
Carving of the Stone Age

Ultra-Primitive zoomorphic objects

(mammoth) from the Paleolithic age.

Clay Bison,
Tuc d'Audoubert,
Ariege
southwestern
France
- c.15,000 BC
 Paleolithic sculpture
Carving of the Stone Age

Ultra-Primitive humanoid objects from the

Lower Paleolithic.

Venus of Tan-Tan
(200,000-500,000 BCE)
One of the oldest known
works of Paleolithic art.
 Paleolithic sculpture
Paleolithic Venus Figurines (35,000 and 40,000 BCE)
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/Paleolithic/venus-figurines.htm#figurines

Venus of The Venus of Hohle Fels

35,000 and 40,000 years
Germany
Paleolithic sculpture
Carving of the Stone Age
Primitive Relief Sculpture

Relief Sculpture
of Salmon Fish

Abri du Poisson
Rock Shelter
c.23,000 BCE. A
masterpiece of
French
rock art from
the Dordogne.
 Paleolithic sculpture
Carving of the Stone Age
Primitive relief sculpture

Clashing Ibexes at Roc de Sers. Exceptional Paleolithic Carving from the

Solutrean (17,200 BCE). Roc-de-Sers Cave. Eastern France
 Paleolithic Cave Paintings

Cave paintings are paintings found on cave

walls and ceilings, and especially those of
Paleolithic origin, which date back to some
40,000 years ago in both Asia and
Europe. The exact purpose of the Paleolithic
cave paintings is not known.
Paleolithic Cave Paintings Locations

•North Africa
•Australia
•Europe
•India
•North America
•South America
•Southeast Asia
•East Asia
 Paleolithic Cave Paintings
Materials:
• Pigments / Earth colors and Animal Fat
• Method and application of materials
These minerals were crushed on stone palettes and mixed with
animal fat to moisten them before they were applied with the
fingers, bone spatula, brushes or spray

Subject matter:
• Animal Figure and Birds
• Stick Human Figures
•Silhouette of human hands
Paleolithic Cave Paintings

Cave paintings from the Indonesian island of

Sulawesi are at least 40 thousand years old.
 Paleolithic Cave Paintings

Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for Cave of the Hands) in

the Santa Cruz province in Argentina
13,000 to 9,000 yrs
 Paleolithic Cave Paintings

The Cave of Altamira (c.15,000 BCE)is a cave in Spain famous for its Upper Paleolithic
cave paintings featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and
human hands. It was the first cave, in which Paleolithic cave paintings were discovered
 Paleolithic Cave Paintings

The Cave of Altamira (c.15,000 BCE)is a cave in Spain famous for its Upper Paleolithic
cave paintings featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and
human hands. It was the first cave, in which Paleolithic cave paintings were discovered
 Paleolithic Cave Paintings

The Chauvet Cave, southern France that contains the earliest known and best
preserved figurative cave paintings in the world, as well as other evidence of Upper
Paleolithic life.
 Paleolithic Cave Paintings

The Chauvet Cave, southern France that contains the earliest known and best
preserved figurative cave paintings in the world, as well as other evidence of Upper
Paleolithic life. (HORSES)
 Paleolithic Cave Paintings

Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France

famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. 17000 yrs old
Famous Caves Containing Stone Age Paintings
Europe (France and Spain)
Franco-Cantabrian Paleolithic cave painting is probably more famous than any other tradition of parietal art around the world. Here are the
region's most famous decorated caves.
Cave of El Castillo (39,000 BCE) Puente Viesgo, Spain
Discovered in the complex of the Caves of Monte Castillo, this rock shelter contains the oldest art of any cave in Europe, except for the La
Ferrassie Cave Cupules (c.60,000 BCE).
Fumane Cave (c.35,000 BCE)
Italian Paleolithic cave inhabited by Aurignacian reindeer hunters, in which a number of primitive animal cave paintings were found on
fragments of a collapsed cave wall.
Abri Castanet (c.35,000 BCE)
Dordogne rock shelter containing engraved images of female genitalia and male phalluses, along with ochre paintings of horses and some
abstract symbols.
Altamira Cave (first phase 34,000 BCE) Antillana del Mar, Spain
A club-shaped symbol found in the most remote part of the cave was U/Th dated to 34,000 BCE.
Chauvet Cave (c.30,000 BCE) Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France
Discovered in 1994, Chauvet cave - a showcase of Aurignacian Art - comprises two main parts. In the first, most pictures are red, while in the
second, the animals are mostly black. The most striking images are the Horse Panel and the Panel of Lions and Rhinoceroses. See Chauvet
Cave Paintings.
Grotte des Deux-Ouvertures (Cave of Two Openings)
(c.28,000-26,000 BCE) Ardeche Gorge, near Chauvet Cave
Noted for its rock engravings of animals including more than 50 figures of bulls and mammoths.
Cosquer Cave (c.25,000 BCE), Marseille Coast, France
Discovered by the deep-sea diver Henri Cosquer in 1985, and dating from 25,000 BCE, the entrance to Cosquer cave is situated over 100 feet
below sea level. Its paintings include hand stencils, Placard-type signs, charcoal drawings and about 100 polychrome paintings of horses and
other animals. For details, see: Cosquer Cave Paintings.
Cussac Cave (c.25,000 BCE) Le Buisson-de-Cadouin, Dordogne, France
Discovered in 2000, its painted engravings of bison, horses and mammoths, are similar to the Gravettian art in the Quercy caves of Roucadour
and Pech Merle.
Pech-Merle Cave (c.25,000 BCE) Cabrerets, Midi-Pyrenees, France
Discovered in 1922, Pech-Merle is famous for its dramatic polychrome Dappled Horses, painted in charcoal and ochre on limestone, and its
Placard-type signs. For details, see: Pech-Merle Cave Paintings.
Roucadour Cave Art (c.24,000 BCE)
Similar to imagery discovered at Pech Merle and Cougnac, Roucadour's art consists of hand stencils, engravings and abstract symbols.
Cougnac Cave (first phase, c.23,000 BCE) Gourdon, Lot, France
The cave features Gravettian era animal paintings and strange Placard-type signs.
La Pileta Cave (c.18,000 BCE) Andalucia, Spain
Rock paintings of animals, including a rare drawing of a fish, plus a large variety of abstract signs.
Le Placard Cave (c.17,500 BCE) La Rochefoucauld, France
Renowned for its undeciphered Aviform signs almost identical to those discovered at Cosquer,
Pech-Merle and Cougnac.
Cosquer Cave (second phase 17,000-15,000 BCE) Marseilles, France
A second period of Solutrean painting occurred at Cosquer during the Late Solutrean.
Lascaux Cave (c.17,000-13,000 BCE) Montignac, Dordogne, France
Discovered in 1940, Lascaux contains Solutrean art as well as Magdalenian. The cave complex
has seven decorated chambers with over 2000 painted images, including the awesome Hall of
the Bulls which, despite its name, features mostly horses as well as the male aurochs (wild
cattle) from which its name derives. Contains renowned pictures like the Great Black Bull, the
Unicorn and the Bird Man. For details, see: Lascaux Cave Paintings.
Cave of La Pasiega (c.16,000 BCE) Cuevas de El Castillo, Cantabria, Spain
Discovered in 1911, the cave of La Pasiega consists of one main gallery, some 80 yards in length,
with openings to several secondary galleries. Its cave art consists of over 700 painted images
(roughly 100 deer, 80 horses, 30 ibex, 30 cattle, along with reindeer, mammoth, birds and fish)
including numerous abstract symbols (ideomorphs) and engravings.
Tito Bustillo Cave (14,000 BCE) Asturias, Spain
Noted for its Gallery of the Horses, its cave paintings rank alongside those of El Castillo, Altamira
and the Cave of La Pasiega (16,000 BCE) as important examples of Paleolithic culture on the
Iberian peninsula..
Cougnac Cave Paintings (second phase, 14,000 BCE) Gourdon, Lot, France
Its Magdalenian artworks include a stunning image of a red ibex, deftly rendered so that the
flowstone on the wall suggests hair hanging from its belly, and some unique human-type
figures.
Rouffignac Cave Mammoths (c.14,000-12,000 BCE) Rouffignac, Dordogne
Contains the largest complex of underground passages in the Perigord. Decorations include over
250 engravings and monochrome drawings. Subjects include bison, mammoths, horses, and
woolly rhinoceroses, plus a number of abstract symbols.
La Marche Cave (c.13,000 BCE) Lussac-les-Chateaux, France
Discovered in 1937, archeologists were stunned to find a series of painted engravings of human
heads and faces, some with details of clothes depicted. Authenticated by the French authorities,
but experts remain skeptical about the dating of its paintings.
Niaux Cave (13,000-11,000 BCE) Foix, Haute-Pyrenees, France
One of the most important galleries of Magdalenian art after Lascaux and Font-de-Gaume.
Famous for its Stone Age footprints, its unique picture of a weasel, and other high quality cave
paintings.
Trois Freres Cave (13,000-12,000 BCE) Haute-Pyrenees, France
World famous for the painted engraving of a human-like figure known as the "Sorcerer", with
the features of different animals. Understood to depict a shaman.
Les Combarelles Cave (12,000 BCE) Dordogne, France
Another major site of Magdalenian art, it boasts some 600–800 highly naturalistic drawings of
animals, along with a collection of more than 50 anthropomorphic figures, plus a quantity of
tectiforms.
 Paleolithic Rock Paintings
Rock Paintings
First, due to the warmer climate, Mesolithic
rock art moves from caves to outdoor sites
such as vertical cliffs or sheer faces of
natural rock, often protected from the
elements by outcroppings or overhangs.
These Mesolithic rock paintings have been
discovered in numerous locations across
Spain, Asia, Africa, Australasia and the
Americas.
Paleolithic open air Rock Paintings

Ceremonial Figure, from the Late Tassel Bradshaw Group,

Kimberley, Western Australia. C. 15500
 Paleolithic sculpture
Carving of the Stone Age
Venus figurines or Mother Goddesses
Portable Art

"Venus figurines" is an umbrella term for

hundreds of Paleolithic statuettes of
women portrayed with similar physical
attributes. These figurines were carved
from soft stone (such as steatite, calcite or
limestone), bone or ivory, or formed with
clay and fired.
Subject: Fertility
Paleolithic Venus figurines
Paleolithic Venus figurines
 Paleolithic sculpture
Paleolithic Venus Figurines (30,000-20,000 BCE)

Venus of Gagarino
(c.20,000 BCE)
Among the oldest art of Russia.
 Paleolithic sculpture
Paleolithic Venus Figurines (30,000-20,000 BCE)

Venus of Dolni Vestonice ,

(26,000 BCE)
First known work of ceramic art.
See: Oldest Stone Age Art.
Czech Republic
 Paleolithic sculpture
Paleolithic Venus Figurines (30,000-20,000 BCE)

Venus of Lespugue, (23,000 BCE).

To see how Venus Figurines fit into the evolution of
Stone Age art, see:
Paleolithic Art Timeline.

France
 Paleolithic sculpture
Paleolithic Venus Figurines (30,000-20,000 BCE)

Venus of
Willendorf
24,000 BC– 22,000 BC
limestone,
Austria
 Paleolithic sculpture
Paleolithic Venus Figurines (30,000-20,000 BCE)

The Venus of
Brassempouy
Circa 23,000 BCE

One of the Earliest

Known Realistic
Representations of a
Human Face
Carving in ivory
France
 Paleolithic sculpture
Paleolithic Mother Goddesses (30,000-20,000 BCE)

Venus of Laussel, France

(23,000 BCE)
Bas-relief sculpture. Also
known as
"Venus with a Horn",
it is the only
Venus to be considered
cave art, as it is not
portable.
France
Paleolithic sculpture
Paleolithic Mother Goddesses

Mother
Goddess of
6000 BC
Catal Huyuk,
Turkey
 Paleolithic Megalithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Megalithic art refers to the use of large stones
as an artistic medium

•It includes High / Low Relief Sculpture, Rock Engraving and

Architecture
•Its fixed and not portable such as pottery, types of ivory carving
or wood carving, and so on…
Paleolithic Megalithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Megalithic Carving and Engraving

Low Relief Sculpture

of Bull, Fox and Crane
(9100-8800 BCE)
Pillar 2 from
Enclosure A
(Layer III) Gobekli
Tepe. Turkey
Paleolithic Megalithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Megalithic Carving and Engraving

High Relief Sculpture

of Crocodile
Layer III,
Gobekli Tepe.
South east Turkey

A masterpiece
of Mesolithic art.
(c.9000 BCE)
Paleolithic Megalithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Megalithic Carving and Engraving

Rock
engraving/carvi
ng of a prone
antelope, at Tin
Taghirt,
Tassili n'Ajjer.
Algeria, North
Africa.
8,000-7,000 BCE
Perfect example
of Mesolithic
rock art.
Paleolithic Megalithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Megalithic Carving and Engraving

Rock
engraving/carvi
ng of a Cow, at
Tin Taghirt,
Tassili n'Ajjer.
Algeria, North
Africa.
8,000-7,000 BCE
Perfect example
of Mesolithic
rock art.
Paleolithic Megalithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Megalithic Architecture

located in the
Burren,
County Clare,
Ireland. It dates
back to the
Neolithic period,
probably between
4200 BC and
2900 BC
Dolmen (c.4000
BCE)
Paleolithic Megalithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Megalithic Architecture

Another Dolmen
This is thought to be
a burial chamber. It
has a 40 ton cap
stone on the top. It is
dated 4000BC. This
was originally
located in the 19th
century
France
Paleolithic Megalithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Megalithic Architecture

Stonehenge
Stone Circle (2,600
BCE)
Wiltshire, England
One of the world's
most famous
examples of
Neolithic art.
Paleolithic Megalithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Megalithic Architecture

Stonehenge
Stone Circle (2,600
BCE)
Wiltshire, England
One of the world's
most famous
examples of
Neolithic art.
Paleolithic Megalithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Megalithic Architecture and dwellings

t’s not the only old

house of interest
northeastern Cornwall,
England  More than
200 Bronze Age
settlements, of 4,000-
year-old round houses,
have been identified by
archaeologists.
 Paleolithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Sculpture in ceramics

masterpieces of Neolithic art The Thinker and sitting woman of

Neolithic Hamangia, culture. Romania (c. 5250-4550 BC)
 Paleolithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Neolithic ceramics

The Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, also known as Cucuteni culture (from Romanian), 

Trypillian culture (from Ukrainian) or Tripolye culture (from Russian), is a Neolithic–Eneolithic
archaeological culture which existed from approximately 4800 to 3000 BC
Ukrainian Eastren Europe
Paleolithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Stone Carving
The 9,000-year-old
mask was found in the
Judean desert. Israel

The 22.8-centimetre
mask,
which is being sold by a
New York collector, is
expected to fetch up to
$US600,000 at auction
in June.
Paleolithic Art
(c.9000-2000 BCE)
Paleolithic Cartography
 List of Paleolithic Maps
http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/cartography.htm

• Paleolithic maps Museum Country Pavlov map (24000-25000 BC)

Archaeological museum, Dolni Vestonice Czech republic
• Mezherich map (11000-12000 BC) Museum of natural history, Kiev
Ukraine
• Maikop map (2000-3000 BC) Eremitage, St. Petersburg Russia
• Catal Huyuk (6,000 BC) Museum of Anatolia Civilisations, Ankara. Turkey
• Gold plate of Moordorf (1500 BC) Niedersachsisches Landesmuseum,
Hannover Germany
• Nebra map (1400 BC) Landesmuseum fur Vorgeschichte, Halle/Saale
Germany
• Petroglyphs (1000-1500 BC) Archeological monument „Stone Grave“,
Melitopol. Ukraine
• Nippur map (1500 BC) Hilprecht-Collection of middle-east antiquities,
Jena university. Germany
• World map of Babylon (500 BC) British Museum, London Great Britain.
Required to present
G1. detailed over view on Neolithic shift to agriculture, lifestyle, inc.
art, craft, pottery and tools
G2. detailed overview on permanent settlements and architecture
of upper Neolithic era
G3. detailed overview on Neolithic settlements of Jericho and
Catal Huyuk, all inclusive
G4. detailed overview evolution of religion, culture and society in
Neolithic era
G5. detailed over view on stone age female figurines and mother
goddesses