ARH 2050: History of Visual Arts I
Prof. S. Bundrick
29 August 2002
PREHISTORIC ART IN EUROPE & THE NEAR EAST
Paleolithic Period (“Old Stone Age,” ca. 35,000–8000 BC):
Altamira cave, Spain, ca. 12,000–11,000 BC
Caves at Pech-Merle, France, ca. 22,000 BC
Spotted horses and negative hand imprints
Caves at Lascaux, France, ca. 15,000–13,000 BC
Hall of Bulls
“Well scene”
Bison reliefs, cave at Le Tuc d’Audoubert, France,
ca. 15,000–10,000 BC
Horn figure of a bison with turned head, from La Madeleine,
France, ca. 12,000 BC
Ivory figure of a human with feline head, from Hohlenstein-Stadel,
Germany, ca. 30,000–28,000 BC
“Venus” of Willendorf, ca. 28,000–25,000 BC
Head of woman from Brassempouy, France, ca. 22,000 BC
1.9
1.10
1.11
1.13
1.7
1.8
1.3
1.4
Neolithic Period (“New Stone Age,” ca. 6000–3000 BC in Near East;
4000–1500 BC in Europe):
Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, ca. 2750–1500 BC
Jericho (in modern-day Jordan)
Stone tower in settlement wall, ca. 8000-7000 BC
Human skull with restored features, ca. 7000-6000 BC
Catal Hüyük (in modern-day Turkey)
Schematic reconstruction of buildings in Level VI,
ca. 6000-5900 BC
Reconstruction of a shrine, Level VI
Deer hunt, copy of a painting from Level III,
ca. 5750 BC
Landscape with volcanic eruption (?), copy of a painting
from Level VII, ca. 6150 BC
Terms:
megalith/megalithic
Axial Gallery
menhir
Anatolia
trilithon
stratigraphy
lintel
1.19
1.14
1.15
1.16
1.17
1.18
JERICHO NOTES:
Jericho:
-located on the Jordan River—on an “unfailing spring”—site occupied by a small village
as early as the ninth millennium B.C.—underwent “spectacular development” ca. 8000
BC, when new Neolithic town covering about 10 acres built
-mudbrick houses on round or oval stone foundations with roofs of branches covered
with earth
-population in 7500 BC: ca 2000 people
-excavations of Kathleen Kenyon in Jericho: 1952-58
Stone tower, ca. 8000-7000 BC
-need for protection increased as town’s wealth grew and powerful neighbors established
themselves
-by ca 7500 BC: town surrounded by wide rock-cut ditch and five foot thick wall—wall
preserved today to height of ca 13 ft, great circular stone tower (28 ft high) built into the
wall, almost 33ft in diameter at the base—tower has inner stairway leading to its summit
-not enough has been excavated to determine whether tower wsa solitary or if there were
others forming a a “complete defense system”
-important technological achievement—beginnings of monumental architecture—made
using only stone tools
-some scholars interpret the tower not as a means for defense but rather as a means to
divert floodwaters
Skull with restored features, ca. 7000-6000 BC
-original inhabitants abandoned the site ca. 7000 BC
-new settlers arrived in early 7th millennium
-built rectangular mudbrick houses on stone foundations—plastered and painted floors
and walls
-several excavated buildings seem to have served as shrines, settlers fashioned statuettes
of women as goddesses and of animals
-group of human skulls whose features artists “reconstructed” in plaster—inlaid seashells
for eyes and painted hair (one ex has a painted mustache)
-lifelike appearance but should not be regarded as portraits
-skulls detached from bodies and buried separately—must have had special significance
although not clear what—belief in an afterlife?
-mark the beginnings of monumental sculpture in the N.E.