UNIT 1: Global Prehistory 30,000-500 BCE
UNIT 1: Global Prehistory 30,000-500 BCE
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NEED TO KNOW DATES...
NEED TO KNOW DATES...
Paleolithic Art: 40,000-8,000 B.C.E. in the Near East
"Old Stone Age" 40,000-4,000 B.C.E. in Europe
(Woman of Willendorf, Feline-headed statue, Lascaux Caves, Catal Hoyuk) Hunter-Gatherers, Nomadic
Neolithic Art: 8,000- 3,000 B.C.E. in the Near East
"New Stone Age" 4,000- 2,000 B.C.E. in Europe (Stonehenge)
Cultivated, raised livestock, organized settlements
KEY IDEAS
KEY IDEAS
75,000 BCE: Stick of ochre (a pigment of the earth, brown/yellow) are engraved in Blombos Cave, South Africa, 61,000 years before the Lascaux caves!
Earliest works are cave paintings and portable sculptures
Conjectures are made about the meaning of prehistoric works
No one single function and the purpose can only be guessed
Monuments like Stonehenge show that people were able to build structures made of the post and lintel system.
The need to create is one of the strongest human impulses.
Focus on materials indigenous to the environment/geography
Since context is largely unknown, focus on original location and content
VOCABULARY
VOCABULARY
1. PALEOLITHIC
2. NEOLITHIC
3. SCHEMATIC
4. SHAMAN
5. ABSTRACTION
6. HUNTER-GATHERER
7. RITUAL
8. COSMOS
9. CERAMICS
10. MONOLITHIC
13. ANTHROPOMORPHIC
14. MOTIFS
15. PROFILE
16. SILHOUETTE
17. CONTOUR LINES
18. BAS RELIEF
19. GEOMETRIC
20. STYLIZED
21. STELE
22. SONG
23. INCISE
24. SUBTRACTIVE
25. MEGALITH
26. TRILITHON
27. POST AND LINTEL
Venus of WIllendorf - Vienna c. 28,000-21,000BCE Limestone
CHARACTERISTICS OF PAINTINGS
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 ARCHITECTURE
CHARACTERISTICS OF ARCHITECTURE
Shelters out of large animal bones
Post and lintel systems (most basic type of architecture)
Stonehenge, possibly
CHARACTERISTICS OF SCULPTURE
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
Apollo 11 Stones, Namibia. c. 25,000-23,500 B.C.E. Charcoal on stone
2. Great Hall of Bulls, Lascaux, France. Paleolithic Europe. 15,000-13,000 B.C.E. Rock Painting
smarthistory.org/hall-of-bulls-lascaux/
Cave of Forgotten Dreams - documentary inside the Chavet caves.
4. Running Horned Woman, Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria. 6,000-4,000 B.C.E. Pigment on rock.
https://smarthistory.org/running-horned-woman-tassili-najjer-algeria/
Bushel with ibex motifs 4200--3500 B.C.E. Susa I period, necropolis, Susa, Iran painted terra-cotta
7. Jade Cong, Liangzhu, China. 3300-2200 B.C.E. Carved jade.
Secret of the Jade Cong documentary
8. Stonehenge, Wiltshire, U.K. Neolithic Europe. c. 2500-1600 B.C.E. Sandstone
9. The Ambum Stone, Ambum Valley, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. C. 1500 BCE. Greywacke. Stories from Papua New Guinea
3. Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine. Tequixquiac, central Mexico. 14,000 - 7,000 BCE.
10. Tlatilco female figurine, Central Mexico, site of Tlatilco. 1200-900 B.C.E. Ceramic
11. Terra cotta fragment. Lapita. Soloman Islands, Reef Islands. 1000 B.C.E. Terra cotta
www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lapi/hd_lapi.htm
News report on rising sea levels
5. Beaker with ibex motifs. Heilbrunn Timeline
These are Global Prehistory but will be discussed in other units
6. Anthropomorphic stele
From the Arabian Peninsula
4,000 BCE
Sandstone
smarthistory.org/anthropomorphic-stele/
Smithsonian article over artifacts from the Arabian Peninsula
RESOURCES
RESOURCES
_________________________________________________________
Lascaux Caves: https://archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/fr#/en/02_00.xml, https://vimeo.com/40849516,
Indonesia: Archaeologists find world's oldest animal cave painting
Code hidden in Stone Age art may be the root of human writing- Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23230990-700-in-search-of-the-very-first-coded-symbols/#ixzz6pEnLnD2K
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