The Old Stone Age
Paleo = “Old”
Litho = “Stone” in Greek
2.5 million – 20,000 B.C.E
Lower Paleolithic (Early Stone Age)2.5
million-200,000 B.C.E.
Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus
and Homo ergaster, roamed most of the earth and
began making the first stone tools
The Middle Paleolithic ( 200,000 to 45,000 years ago)
Evolution of:
1. Neanderthals and the first anatomically modern Homo
Sapiens Sapiens.
2. Glimmers of modern behaviors: sophisticated stone
tools, caring for the elderly, hunting and gathering and
some amount of symbolic or ritual behavior.
The Upper Paleolithic (45,000-10,000 years ago)
Modern humans spread all over the planet.
Characterized by fully modern behaviors
such as creating cave art, hunting, and
making a wide range of tools in stone, bone,
ivory and antler.
Almost every piece of cave art
depicts:
1. Animals: Bison, Mammoths, Ibex, and
horses
2. Humans: most often nude women which
have been dubbed “Venuses” after the
Grecco-Roman Goddess of love and
vertility.
However, animals were depicted far more
often than humans
Some of the earliest paintings to
be discovered come from Africa.
The oldest African paintings
found were portable objects.
Human with Feline
Head, 30,000 –
28,000 B.C.E
Mammoth ivory:
One of the oldest
sculptures
discovered. Found
in Germany.This
particular statue is
almost one foot tall.
The Venus of
Willendorf:
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Willendorf, Austria
28,000 – 25,000 B.C.E
Limestone
Approximately four feet
tall
Because of the way
that the female’s
anatomy is
exaggerated, many
suggest that these
sculptures served
as fertility images.
The female has no
facial features,
only the
suggestion of
curly hair, or as
others have
suggested, a hat
woven from plant
fibers.
Angle of View:
Animals: The profile view of the animal is
the only view where the head, body, limbs,
and tail can all be seen. A frontal view
would have hidden the majority of these
features.
Humans: The opposite is true of the human
figure. In order to provide the most
information Paleolithic artists chose the
frontal view to depict humans.
The Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux
France
Notice how the Bull is shown from
the side, but its horns are shown
full on in order to be as
descriptive as possible.
Why take the whole cave when you
could just take the rock?
Some Paleolithic portable
objects even came in the
form of stone plaques.
Stone plaques, 23,000 B.C.E charcoal on stone,
found in the Apollo 11 cave in Nambia.
The typical Paleolithic sculptor
used the natural contours of
the stone wall as the basis for
their representations. They
carefully used its irregularities,
fissures, projections,
recessions, and ridges to give
the illusion of real presence.
Spotted horse and negative hand imprint, France
22,000 B.C.E
The Paint was made from minerals or
charcoal mixed with spit or animal fat. In
cave paintings, the pigments stuck to the
wall partially because the pigment became
trapped in the porous wall, and partially
because the binding media (the spit or fat)
dried and adhered the pigment to the wall.
Historians hypothesize that paint was
applied with brushing, smearing, dabbing,
and spraying techniques. Large areas
were covered with fingertips or pads of
lichen or moss. Twigs produced drawn or
linear marks, while feathers blended areas
of color. Brushes made from horsehair
were used for paint application and
outlining. Paint spraying, accomplished by
blowing paint through hollow bones,
yielded a finely grained distribution of
pigment, similar to an airbrush
Hand Negatives, Lascaux France, 23,000
B.C.E
One hand was placed on the wall before the
artists painted, blew, or spat pigment
around it.
Woman Holding a
Bison Horn
• Laussel, France
• 25,000 – 20,000
B.C.E
• 1’6” Tall
• Stood in the
open air in front
of a rock shelter.
Whereas the The
Venus of Willendorf
was sculpted in the
round (meaning it was
free standing and
could be viewed from
all sides) the Laussel
Woman is one of the
earliest relief
sculptures known.
Which means that it is
fixed to a flat surface.
Man’s first lawn
ornaments:
The Laussel relief is
one of many openair examples of art
from the Paleolithic
period. The popular
notions that early art
comes from
mysterious dark
caverns are false.
The head is once again
featureless but the
hands have taken on
greater importance.
The left hand rests on
her stomach, whereas
the right holds a bison
horn whose
significance has been
debated. Once carved,
the Laussel woman
was covered in red
ochre to add color.
Additive method:
While most reliefs were created
using the subtractive method
where the stone was carved
away, a few used the additive
method by building up the form by
adding clay to the wall.
Clay Bison:
• France
• 15,000– 10,000
B.C.E
• About two feet
long each
Among the largest Paleolithic sculptures known
The clay used to create the two bison was
brought from another area in the cave.
Bison with turned head, Reindeer horn, 4” long
France, 12,000 B.C.E
Pregnant Mare,
Spain
In addition to
animals,
Paleolithic
artists would
add symbols
and markings
like lines and
dots.
Some
Archeologists
suggest they
may have
been a form
of a calendar
to count time.
Prehistoric painters used the pigments
available in the vicinity. These pigments
were the so-called earth pigments, The
minerals limonite and hematite created red
and yellow ochre and umber. Charcoal
from burning sticks made the color known
as carbon black. Burnt bones created
bone black and white from grounded
calcite made lime white.
However, evidence from
the cave in Lascaux,
France indicates that
some cave artists might
have traveled as far as
25 miles to obtain iron
earth pigments.
The Hall of the
Bulls, Lascaux,
France