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prehistoric art
Art that predates written records. The history of the fine arts painting, engraving, and sculpture begins around 40,000 BC in the Palaeolithic period (Old Stone Age). The oldest known rock engravings are in Australia, but within the next 30,000 years art occurs on every continent. The earliest surviving artefacts in Europe date from approximately 30,00010,000 BC, a period of huntergatherer cultures. Small sculptures are generally of fecund female nudes and relate to the cult of the Mother Goddess; for example, the stone Willendorf Venus (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) about 21,000 BC. The murals of the caves of Lascaux, France, and Altamira, Spain, depict mostly animals. Lascaux cave drawings

Prehistoric Art: New Techniques for Dating

During the Neolithic period (New Stone Age) 10,0002,000 BC, Prehistoric Art settled communities were established, which led to a greater of the Pyrenees technical and aesthetic sophistication in tools, ceramic vessels, jewellery, and human and animal figures. Human figures appear more often in wall paintings, and are skilfully composed into groups. The period 4,0002,000 BC saw the erection of the great megalith monuments, such as those at Carnac, France, and Stonehenge, England, and the production of ceramic pots and figurines with decorative elements that were later to be developed in Celtic art. Palaeolithic cave art French prehistorian Abb Henri Breuil pioneered the study of Palaeolithic art in the first half of the 20th century, making detailed studies in the caves of southern France, northern Spain, Ethiopia, and southern Africa. The paintings and engravings, dating from the Upper Palaeolithic (from about 30,000 BC), are found on the ceilings and walls of deep caves beyond the reach of natural light, and indications of torches and cup-shaped lamps have been seen. The art depicts animals in fresh and vigorous line which is often enriched with rubbed-on pigments of red and yellow ochre, red haematite, manganese, and graphite, and sometimes emphasized by very finely powdered colour blown on through a pipe. Bison, mammoths, horses, auroch (wild cattle), red deer and reindeer, are represented; animals known to be hunted by Upper Palaeolithic humans from dateable bone deposits. Human forms are rarely depicted in this period, and then only as sticklike figures, sometimes wearing masks or pointing arrows at the vital parts of animals, which are frequently drawn pregnant. Prehistoric art was probably associated with hunting magic or ritual, perhaps intended to ensure success in the hunt and fertility of the animals. Drawings sometimes overlie others, suggesting that the act

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of drawing may have been the essence of the ritual magic and not the picture itself. Anthropological comparisons may be useful in attempting to explain the significance of the art for instance, the initiation rituals of hunter-gatherer peoples such as the Aborigines in Australia but direct relationships are problematic. Interpretations have included links with the female cycle, and incorporation of children's marks may be significant. Hand stencils, seen from America to Australia, may be symbolic or signify art in a simple sense. The art has also been seen as early and crude animation, with animals appearing to move in the light of a candle or flickering fire. In France cave art can be found at Lascaux, near Montignac, discovered 1940; Font de Gaume, Dordogne, which contains a remarkable series of bison in polychrome (decoration in many colours); and the Trois Frres cave, northern central Pyrenees, where a figure called 'the Sorcerer', with a human body and the head of a deer, possibly represents a hunting spirit or god. In Spain there are several fine examples of cave art in the province of Santander, including a series of polychrome paintings, particularly of bison, at Altamira, the first of this type of Paleaolithic art to be discovered 1879. Executed in earth colours akin to pastel technique, the murals are of a very high order and appear to have been done in near-impossible conditions, perhaps as a rite of initiation. Sculpture and engraving This is the oldest known art form, dating from the Palaeolithic, and has a wide distribution over many countries. Carvings made by early peoples may variously represent magic protection for the dwelling place; links with a hunting economy and ritual influencing of food supplies; or a gathering place, cult shrine, or religious sanctuary. In Africa, there are rock engravings in the Sahara, for example the Gilf Kebir Plateau, Egypt, which appear to date from between the end of the Palaeolithic period and the present day. In southern Africa the sacred animals of Egypt are represented together with those of central Africa, and it is believed that nomadic hunting cultures were still practising this form of art in the 19th century. Rock art is also seen in Siberia, another location of nomadic activity. Sculpture and engraving may be found alongside the cave paintings of southern France and northern Spain. In the Trois Frres cave, north central Pyrenees, a magnificent series of engravings made on

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the yellow claylike surface skin of a black rock, formed possibly by weathering, produces a cameo effect. In the USA, examples include the 'sun-dagger' and numerous engravings in the rock art at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. In Scandinavia, rock engravings of the Mesolithic period, with naturalistic representations of animals in conjunction with graphic signs, possibly anecdotal, are known on the coast of Norway. In Sweden, north of Gothenburg, are rock carvings from the height of the Bronze Age which include ships, agriculturalists with an oxdrawn plough, and a fight between armed men on horses. Art from the Spanish Levant, dating from the Mesolithic, shows a honey gatherer, dancers, and archers in combat. Other carvings include Bronze Age cup and ring marks found on portable objects and stone monuments, and distributed widely from India to Ireland. Portable art Examples of portable art include the limestone figurine of a corpulent female, the Willendorf Venus, found in Austria, and an ivory plaque from Mal'ta, Siberia, which is worked with pits in spirals, and considered to be calendrical. Copyright Helicon Publishing Ltd 2000. All rights reserved.

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