Art History I, VMA 112
Study guide and goals for chapter 1
Prehistoric Art in Europe
Following the conclusion of this lesson, you will:
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Appreciate the enormous span of time represented by the prehistoric period (the
longest period in art's history).
Learn of the divisions into which historians have placed the flow of time in the
prehistoric period.
Gain an understanding of the stylistic changes that accompanied the transition from
the Paleolithic to the Neolithic period.
Grasp the fundamentals of the techniques involved in early art production.
Recognize that many of the works of art probably were thought to have some kind of
magical power in the affairs of humanity and the cosmos.
Identify the difference between various upper Paleolithic female sculptures.
Evaluate the standard of living conditions during the Neolithic period.
Compare Neolithic and Upper Paleolithic cave art.
Appreciate Neolithic construction methods including post-and-lintel and corbelling.
Assess the introduction of metalworking to Prehistoric man.
Appraise the term proto-historic as it relates to the work of the Celts.
Assignments:
READ:
 Stokstad, Ch. 1: Prehistoric Art in Europe
 Article: Music Went With Cave Art In Prehistoric Caves.
WRITE:
 See below: Key terms/places/names
Key terms/places/names.
ASSIGNMENT! Please choose any 10 of the terms below and write out definitions
in your notebook. You will find the words in the chapter or in the glossary in the
back of the text. You should have these finished by Wednesday, Feb. 3.
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auroch
Chauvet Cave
Homo sapiens
Homo sapiens sapiens
paleo
lithos
neo
meso
BCE
Neanderthal
Cro-Magnon
memory image
sympathetic magic
Pech-Merle Cave
Lascaux Cave
twisted perspective
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atlatl
shaman
modeling
high relief
flying gallop
ridgepole
wattle and daub
thatch
relative dating
absolute dating
radiometric dating
potassium-argon
dating
thermoluminescence dating
electron spin
resonance
corbelling
corbel vault
Skara Brae
post-and-lintel
megalithic
architecture
dolmen
capstone
cairn
passage grave
Stonehenge
sprang
henge
sarsen
trilithon
mortice-and-tenon
joints
ceramics
kilns
potsherds
alloy
proto-historic
Key images
Wall Painting with Horses, Rhinoceroses, and Aurochs, Chauvet Cave, VallonPont-d’Arc, Ardèche Gorge, France, c. 30,000-28,000 BCE, Paint on limestone (fig. 1-1)
Lion-Human, Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany, c. 30,000-26,000 BCE, Mammoth ivory;
height 11 ⅝” (29.6 cm), Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany (fig. 1-3)
Woman from Willendorf, Austria, c. 24,000 BCE, Limestone; height 4 ⅜” (11 cm),
Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna (fig. 1-4)
Woman from Ostrava Petrkovice, Czech Republic, c. 23,000 BCE, Hematite; height 1
¾” (4.6 cm), Archaeological Institute, Brno, Czech Republic (fig. 1-5)
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Woman from Brassempouy, Grotte du Pape, Brassempouy, Landes, France, Probably
c. 30,000 BCE, Ivory; height 1 ¼” (3.6 cm), Musée de Antiquités Nationales, StGermain-en-Laye, France (fig. 1-6)
Spotted Horses and Human Hands, Pech-Merle Cave, Dordogne, France, Horses
25,000-24,000 BCE; Hands c. 15,000 BCE, Paint on limestone; individual horses are
over 5’ (1.5 cm) in length (fig. 1-7)
Hall of Bulls, Lascaux Cave, Dordogne, France, c. 15,000 BCE, Paint on limestone;
length of the largest auroch 18’ (5.50 m) (fig. 1-8)
Bison, Altamira, Spain, c. 12,500 BCE, Paint on limestone; length approx. 8’ 3” (2.5 m)
(fig. 1-10)
House Interior, Skara Brae (fig. 1-15)
Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, c. 2750-1500 BCE (fig. 1-17)
Figures of a Woman and a Man, Cernavoda, Romania, c. 3500 BCE, Ceramic; height
4 ½” (11.5 cm), National Historical Museum, Bucharest (fig. 1-18)
Horse and Sun Chariot, Trundholm, Denmark, c. 1800-1600 BCE, Bronze; length 23
¼” (59.2 cm), National Museum, Copenhagen (fig. 1-20)
Questions to begin preparing for the Prehistory quiz :
1. Paleolithic humans were nomadic, and Neolithic humans began to live in villages.
How did this affect their art work respectively?
2. How did cave paintings differ from each other throughout the Paleolithic period?
3. Why might Prehistoric humans have painted on cave walls?
4. How did Paleolithic culture differ from Neolithic culture?
5. What were the hypothesized uses for some of the megalithic monuments in Europe?
6. What did the appearance of metals mean to early humans?
7. What types of art did early humans create out of clay?
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