Prehistoric Art
Art in Focus
Chapter 6
Terms to Know
 Megalith
 Post
and Lintel
Carnac Stones
French village of Carnac, in Brittany
Stonehenge
Wiltshire, England
Prehistoric Art in Western Europe
Stages of prehistoric civilization
1. Old Stone Age – Paleolithic
30,000-10,000 BC
2. Middle Stone Age – Mesolithic
10,000-5,000 BC
3. New Stone Age – Neolithic
5,000 BC-
Use of hunting rituals and artwork:
Cave painting was limited almost
exclusively to animals. Why?
Some believe that cave paintings were
part of magic rituals before the hunt.
What kinds of rituals do we use today?
How were cave paintings
discovered?
 Lascaux
 Altimira
It was discovered by four boys in 1940 somewhat
accidentally. They found a large hole near a tree that had
fallen on a hill overlooking Montignac in France. In 1955 the
first signs of deterioration appeared on the cave paintings.
Carbon dioxide from visitors’ breath was discovered to be
the cause the cave was closed. It remains closed but a
replica of the cave located nearby is open to the public.
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/
In 1875 he heard about a cave in
Altamira meadow. When he visited it,
he saw shells, bones and some
drawings that attracted his attention.
Shortly afterwards, in 1879, while he
was digging in Altamira Cave, his nine
year old daughter Maria wandered a
little further inside. There she saw what
she thought were the paintings of
oxen. Sautuola recognized the figures
at once; they were not oxen, but
bison. His daughter’s discovery of the
paintings in the cave in 1879 was the
first discovery of Paleolithic cave art,
and the cave is of one of the most
spectacular sites in the world.
These sites have been protected from many of the
elements that otherwise would have caused erosion
and damage. They may not be a vibrant as they
once were but you can still see the amazing artwork
of these prehistoric people because the paintings
have been safe, deep inside caves for thousands of
years.
Some of the materials used for
pigment include:
 Clay
 Soft
stone
 Fat
 Blood
 Crushed
plants and berries
 Ashes
Can you think of anything else that may have been used?
Some of the materials used to apply
the pigment to cave walls include:
 Fingers
 Reed
 Plants
 Sticks
 Fur
Can you think of anything else that may have been used?
Most of these cave paintings are large in
size. Between five to seven feet in length.
The subject matter of the cave paintings is
limited almost exclusively to animals, mostly
deer, bison, boar, wild horses, etc. Why?
Many experts believe that the earliest known paintings were
created nearly 30,000 years ago. How do we know this?
Dating Prehistoric Art
 One
way is to date the artifact based
on the age of the surrounding layers
of earth.
 Another way is through radiocarbon
dating.
http://id-archserve.ucsb.edu/Anth3/Courseware/Chronology/08_Radiocarbon_Dating.html
Eventually prehistoric builders
made their way outside their
caves and began building more
comfortable shelters. They built
small communities and eventually
the hunters replaced their
weapons with farming tools.
Art of the Fertile Crescent
Civilizations developed in a few great river
valleys where deposits of rich soil
produced abundant harvests. (Remember
that hunting communities were slowly
making the transition to farming.) One of
these river valleys extended about 170
miles north of the Persian Gulf, between
the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, this area
became know as the Fertile Crescent.
The Sumerians
Sometime before 4500 B.C. a people
from the east known as Sumerians
abandoned their wandering, tentdwelling lifestyle and settled in
Mesopotamia. The region they
settled was called Sumer.
Ziggurats
A ziggurat is a stepped mountain
made of brick covered earth.
As a towering symbolic mountain, the
ziggurat satisfied the desire to create a
monument that appeared to span the space
between earth and heaven. The most well
known ziggurat, which incidentally no longer
exists, is the Tower of Babel. However, there
are many impressive ruins of other ziggurats.
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/ziggurats/story/sto_set.html
Sumerians as Artists
Archeologists have unearthed evidence of
a rich and flourishing civilization.
 Much evidence comes from ancient
cemeteries and burial sites filled with
jewelry, chariots (believe it or not!),
headdresses, sculptures, and musical
instruments.
 We can’t tell if they were the first to
establish a written language, however it is
the oldest known to us.

Stylus
To draw their picture like
writing they used clay
tablets and a writing
instrument called a stylus.
It was probably made
from a reed and had a
three-cornered end. It
could produce triangular
forms, wedges, and
straight lines.
Cuneiform
The Sumerians were
probably the first to develop
a writing system composed
of wedge –shaped
characters called cuneiform.
Babylonian Civilization
Around 1800 B.C. after centuries of war
between various Mesopotamian city-states,
the Babylonians under the rule of King
Hammurabi, gained control of Mesopotamia.
King Hammurabi is famous
for his code of conduct
he published to unify legal
practices in his empire.
He had the code
engraved on a stele,
which is an inscribed
stone pillar, and placed it
in a public area for all to
see. No one could say
they didn’t know the law!
http://www.abu.nb.ca/ecm/topics/arch2.htm
Persian Empire





Nebuchadnezzar was a successor of
Hammurabi’s, he rekindled Babylonian
supremacy and increased the empire.
Tradition tells us that Nebuchadnezzar, after a
long reign marked by conquest and properity,
suffered from insanity. It is said he thought he
was an animal, walked on all four, and ate grass.
He died in 562 B.C. and within 30 years his
empire was in shambles.
A new people took over. They were mistakenly
called Persians after a territory known as Parsa,
or Persis. (They called themselves Irani.)
In 539 B.C. they advanced on Mesopotamia
Persian Art
Persian art found it’s highest accomplishment in architecture and
relief sculpture. We can see this best at Persepolis in modern Iran.
It was built on a stone platform with magnificent rooms and
wooden ceilings supported by huge columns. The most important
room was the Audience Hall where the king would formally greet
important visitors. This great hall contained 100 columns 65 feet
high. Nothing remains of it today but a few columns and the
outlines of the general floor plan.