Pre historic period.

Introduction
Earth’s beginnings can be traced back 4.5 billion years, but human
evolution only counts for a tiny speck of its history. The Prehistoric
Period—or when there was human life before records documented
human activity—roughly dates from 2.5 million years ago to 1,200
B.C. It is generally categorized in three archaeological periods:
the Stone Age , Bronze Age and Iron Age .
From the invention of tools made for hunting to advances in food
production and agriculture to early examples of art and religion, this
enormous time span—ending roughly 3,200 years ago (dates vary
upon region)—was a period of great transformation.

Stone age.
Divided into three periods: Paleolithic (or Old Stone Age), Mesolithic
(or Middle Stone Age), and Neolithic (or New Stone Age), this era is
marked by the use of tools by our early human ancestors (who
evolved around 300,000 B.C.) and the eventual transformation from
a culture of hunting and gathering to farming and food production.
During this era, early humans shared the planet with a number of
now-extinct hominin relatives, including Neanderthals and
Denisovans.

In the Paleolithic period (roughly 2.5 million years ago to 10,000

B.C.), early humans lived in caves or simple huts or tepees and
were hunters and gatherers. They used basic stone and bone tools,
as well as crude stone axes, for hunting birds and wild animals.
They cooked their prey, including woolly mammoths, deer and bison,
using controlled fire. They also fished and collected berries, fruit and
nuts.

Below is the visual presentation of human activities of paleolithic

period
Characteristic features.
. Hunting and gathering fruits were the main source of livelihood.
. Had started living in groups to keep themselves safe.
. lived in caves and huts made of animal skin to keep themselves
warm,
. Developed some spiritual and religious beliefs. ’’shaman’’
considered as priest in the tribe, the one who used to do spiritual
practices.

. paintings were done on cave walls depicting animals used to be

hunted.
. small sculptures were found of stones and ivory.
paintings being painted on the walls.

sculptures.
. Use of tools made of chiselling sharp stones and animal bones for
hunting.

Art of palaeolithic period.

Ancient humans in the Paleolithic period were also the first to leave
behind art. They used combinations of minerals, ochres, burnt bone
meal and charcoal mixed into water, blood, animal fats and tree
saps to etch humans, animals and signs. They also carved small
figurines from stones, clay, bones and antlers.

The end of this period marked the end of the last Ice Age , which
resulted in the extinction of many large mammals and rising sea
levels and climate change that eventually caused man to migrate.

Origin of art.

There are two simultaneous art movements in Paleolithic art that denote location and discovery,
both beginning in 14,000 BC. There are, of course, older examples of crafts and tools and very
simplistic representations of figures, but these two periods see a higher development.
The Aurignacian-Perigordian includes the Venus of Laussel, a curvy and sensual rock carving of
a long-haired woman found in France, and other more voluptuous Venus statuettes. The Lascaux
caves of France feature paintings of bulls with sophisticated talent.
The Solutreo-Magdalenian period includes the Cave at Altamira, Spain that shows finely detailed
bison and deer with silhouetted hunters in the headdress. The labyrinth-like cave at Rouffignac
shows us what the wooly rhinoceros looked like as well as mammoths and bison. Niaux Cave in
the French Pyrenees is a deep complex that includes an image of a weasel, a set of footprints, and
rock engravings of fish amongst other things.
Painting in the Paleolithic era was done with various tools and mediums. Some artists daubed or
stippled with moss or fur, others used their finger or sticks in the way that we use brushed, and
others used colored rocks, chalks, and charcoal to draw. One innovative technique was to blow
color through a hollow bone or to spray it directly from the mouth.

Fair use of pigments was used to create these painting and artists had a good grasp of creating
depth with shadowing. The cave paintings were not all done at once in any one location but were
done at separate periods in time with respect in space for the earlier pieces of art. Subjects like
those at the caves mentioned above ran mostly to animals of varying types, mainly those that
were hunted. Humans do figure in the art but were not common.

It is thought that the caves may have had ritualistic use, as signs of human habitation are
sometimes absent. Other reasons scholars think these may have been religious or ritualistic sites
are the presence of etched stones, reliefs, and freestanding sculptures near the caves and
sometimes inside them. Other etchings were done on ivory and other animal bones.

Other famous cave sites have been found in France, including those at Grotte Chauvet where very
many paintings have been found dating as far back as 32,000 years. These paintings, and
additionally, stone engravings, are realistic in nature and include various animals that would be
considered exotic in France today such as more rhinoceroses, bears, and lions. German sites from
the same period have produced animals and birds carved from ivory. The oldest cave art
discovered to date is that of a single red dot found in a cave in Spain at El Castillo. It is near more
recent hand stenciling (which is still quite old at 37,000 years) and dates to 40,800 years ago. The
red dot may have been left by Neanderthals, but the dating of the dot coincides with the first
human habitation in Europe.
Cave-Paintings at Altamira

Aurignacian artistic styles also run from France into Western Siberia and it is from these that we
get the Venus of Willendorf, one of the most famous fertility statuettes of the period. She is
characterized by her large, soft body and pendulous chest. This culture also sculpted other human
female figures and some males, as well as animals. The Venus and other female figures are
thought to be goddesses of fertility. The oldest Venus type goddess statue was found in Germany
and maybe as many as 35,000 years old.

Venus of Laussel
Venus of Willendorf
‘Venus’ has been named as goddess of fertility, as fertility had been the factor the artists were
most concerned about, to increase their population to keep themselves more safe.

Paleolithic Art Top Artworks:

 Venus of Laussel
 Venus of Willendorf
 Creswell Crags
 Pech Merle Hand
 Grotte Chavet
 Niaux Cave
 Caves at Lascaux

Chauvet cave
The Chauvet Cave is near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, in the Ardèche département, in
southern France. It became famous in 1994 when Paleolithic artwork was found on the walls.
There were remains of many animals, some which are now extinct. Also some footprints of
animals and humans were found. The cave is one of the most significant prehistoric art sites,
like Lascaux, Altamira, and Cosquer.

The gorges of the Ardèche region have many caves. Many

have geological or archaeological importance. The Chauvet Cave is unusually large. Its
artwork is well preserved and of good quality. It was occupied by humans at two different
times: the Aurignacian and the Gravettian. Most of the artwork dates to the earlier
Aurignacian era (30,000 to 32,000 years ago).
The only traces left of the later occupation during the Gravettian include a child's footprints,
the charred remains of ancient hearths and carbon smoke stains from torches that lit the
caves. It seems nobody had been in it after the child, until it was discovered in 1994.[2] The
footprints are some of the oldest human footprints in existence: they are between 20,000 and
30,000 years old.
The floor of the cave is of a soft material, almost like clay. There are paw prints of cave
bears. There are also large rounded depressions in the floor. These are believed to be
the nests where the bears slept. There are many fossilized bones, including the skulls of cave
bears and the horned skull of an ibex.
There are hundreds of animal paintings there. At least 13 different species, including those
which have rarely or never been found in other ice age paintings are represented. In addition
to commonly hunted animals: horses, cattle, reindeer, etc.. The walls of the Chauvet Cave are
covered with predatory animals: lions, panthers, bears, owls, rhinos and hyenas. Typical of
most cave art, there are no paintings of complete human figures, although there is one
possible, partial "Venus" figure that may represent the legs and genitals of a woman. A
peculiar figure appears to have the lower body of a woman with the upper body of a bison.
There are a few panels of red ochre hand prints and hand stencils made by
spitting pigment over hands pressed against the cave surface. Abstract markings—lines and
dots—are throughout the cave. There are also two unidentifiable images that have a
vaguely butterfly shape to them. This combination of subjects has led experts in pre-
historic art and cultures to believe that there was likely a ritualistic, shamanistic,
or magical aspect to these paintings.
The artists who produced these unique paintings used techniques not often observed in other
cave art. Many of the paintings appear to have been made only after the walls were scraped
clear of debris and concretions. This left a smoother and noticeably lighter area upon which
the artists worked. Similarly, a three dimensional quality is achieved by incising
or etching about the outlines of certain figures. This visually emphasizes some of the animals
and allows torch light to cast shadows about the edges.
Dating’
The cave contains the oldest known cave paintings, based on radiocarbon dating of "black
from drawings, from torch marks and from the floors." Clottes concludes that the "dates fall
into two groups, one around 27,000-26,000 BP and the other around 32,000-30,000 BP." As
of 1999, the dates of 31 samples from the cave had been reported, with the earliest being
32,900±490 BP.

Cave at Altamira
The Cave of Altamira is a cave complex, located near the historic town of Santillana del
Mar in Cantabria, Spain. It is renowned for prehistoric parietal cave art featuring charcoal
drawings and polychrome paintings of contemporary local fauna and human hands. The earliest
paintings were applied during the Upper Paleolithic, around 36,000 years ago. The site was
discovered in 1868 by Modesto Cubillas and subsequently studied by Marcelino Sanz de
Sautuola.
Aside from the striking quality of its polychromatic art, Altamira's fame stems from the fact that its
paintings were the first European cave paintings for which a prehistoric origin was suggested and
promoted. Sautuola published his research with the support of Juan de Vilanova y Piera in 1880,
to initial public acclaim.
However, the publication of Sanz de Sautuola's research quickly led to a bitter public controversy
among experts, some of whom rejected the prehistoric origin of the paintings on the grounds that
prehistoric human beings lacked sufficient ability for abstract thought. The controversy continued
until 1902, by which time reports of similar findings of prehistoric paintings in the Franco-
Cantabrian region had accumulated and the evidence could no longer be rejected.
Location.
Altamira is located in the Franco-Cantabrian region and in 1985 was declared a World Heritage
Site by UNESCO as a key location of the Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern
Spain. The cave can no longer be visited, for conservation reasons, but there are replicas of a
section at the site and elsewhere.

Description

Bison on the roof of the pit.

The cave is approximately 1,000 m (3,300 ft) long[5] and consists of a series of twisting passages
and chambers. The main passage varies from two to six meters in height. The cave was formed
through collapses following early karst phenomena in the calcareous rock of Mount Vispieres.
Archaeological excavations in the cave floor found rich deposits of artifacts from the
Upper Solutrean (c. 18,500 years ago) and Lower Magdalenian (between c. 16,590 and 14,000
years ago). Both periods belong to the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. In the two millennia between
these two occupations, the cave was evidently inhabited only by wild animals.
Human occupants of the site were well-positioned to take advantage of the rich wildlife that
grazed in the valleys of the surrounding mountains as well as the marine life available in nearby
coastal areas. Around 13,000 years ago a rockfall sealed the cave's entrance, preserving its
contents until its eventual discovery, which occurred after a nearby tree fell and disturbed the
fallen rocks.
Like the Lascaux cave, Altamira has three types of art: coloured paintings, black
drawings and rock engravings. As mentioned above, subjects are mostly animals (bison,
boar, deer, horses), although there are eight anthropomorphic figures and a large
amount of geometric signs and symbols.

The paintings are unique for several reasons. First, they are composed of many different
colours (up to three colours in a single animal), more than is common in most other
examples of parietal art. The bisons in particular are depicted in varying shades, making
them appear astonishingly lifelike. Second, the animals - twenty-five of which are
depicted in life-size proportions - are depicted with unusual accuracy. The bisons are
especially well rendered; so too is the red deer. Other animals are also depicted in detail,
down to the texture of their fur and manes. Third, when composing their pictures, the
Magdalenian artists took full advantage of the natural contours, facets and angles of the
rock surface to make the figures as three-dimensional as possible.

The drawings, which include some of the oldest and youngest prehistoric art in the
complex, are outlined in black manganese oxide or charcoal and often smudged for
maximum volume and relief. Subjects include animals and also hybrid figures (humans
with animal heads). Engravings at Altamira appear throughout the cave. Some are
independent works, others are added to paintings either to boost volume or to complete
the composition.

In addition to Altamira's figure painting and figure drawing, the cave also contains a
large amount of abstract art, in the form of signs and symbols, most of which are still
not understood. They include a number of unusual club-shaped images and tectiforms
(images shaped like an upward-pointing wedge or arrow), drawn and engraved in the
most remote part of the cave, which have yet to be deciphered. Lastly, there is a
quantity of finger marks and finger fluting. (Note: For the best examples of finger fluting
in Australia, see: Koonalda Cave Art c.18,000 BCE.)

Art Materials and Methods

In general, one can say that the Altamira cave was slightly easier to paint than the cave
at Lascaux. The ceiling of the main gallery, which hosts most of the paintings in the
complex, is within easy reach and would have been relatively well lit by daylight. But this
is more than offset by the advanced painting techniques shown by Altamira's artists
which, in the opinion of many experts, gives them the edge over their prehistoric
counterparts in France.

Colour is the dominant feature of Altamira's art, although the colour pigments used
would not have differed significantly from those employed in the rest of Cantabria, or in
southwestern France. Here, as elsewhere, artists relied on the same basic prehistoric
colour palette, of black, most shades of red, along with a range of warm colours, from
earth brown to straw yellow. Nearly all were made from natural minerals, which do not
decay. Iron-rich ochre, haematite and goethite produced the reds, yellow and browns,
while manganese made the blacks. Variations in intensity or hue were typically obtained
by diluting the pigment with juices, animal blood or saliva, or by scratching the rock to
create a paler line.

Painting Techniques

At Lascaux, research shows that artists did not employ brushes to apply paint. Instead
they used pads of moss or hair, or even blocks of raw colour. In addition, they developed
a technique of spray-painting using hollowed out bones to blow paint onto the rock
surface.

Artists at Altamira used an identical method of spray painting, which worked as follows.
Two hollow bones are used; one is positioned vertically in a container containing water
mixed with a pigment like ochre; the other is held in the artist's mouth. As the artist
blows air across the top of the upright hollow bone, the reduction in air pressure sucks
the ochre up the vertical hollow bone, after which it is blown onto the rock by the jet of
air from the bone in the mouth of the artist. A hollowed out colour-stained leg bone of a
bird found at Altamira, was dated to approximately 16,000 BCE, proving that Solutrean-
Magdalenian artists were adept at spray painting by this time.

Curiously, unlike at Lascaux, where all the drawing was performed using manganese for
the black outlines, Altamira artists also used charcoal, right up until 12,000 BCE, just
before the cave was sealed by a landslide.

Human occupation was limited to the cave mouth, although paintings were created throughout
the length of the cave. The artists used charcoal and ochre or hematite to create the images,
often diluting these pigments to produce variations in intensity and creating an impression
of chiaroscuro. They also exploited the natural contours of the cave walls to give their subjects a
three-dimensional effect. The Polychrome Ceiling is the most impressive feature of the cave,
depicting a herd of extinct steppe bison (Bison priscus) in different poses, two horses, a
large doe, and possibly a wild boar.

Great hall of polychromes of Altamira, published by M. Sanz de Sautuola in 1880.

Dated to the Magdalenian occupation, these paintings include abstract shapes in addition to
animal subjects. Solutrean paintings include images of horses and goats, as well as handprints
that were created when artists placed their hands on the cave wall and blew pigment over them
to leave a negative image. Numerous other caves in northern Spain contain Paleolithic art, but
none is as complex or well-populated as Altamira.

Lascaux cave.
Lascaux is famous for its Palaeolithic cave paintings, found in a complex of caves in the Dordogne
region of southwestern France, because of their exceptional quality, size, sophistication and
antiquity. Estimated to be up to 20,000 years old, the paintings consist primarily of large animals,
once native to the region. Lascaux is located in the Vézère Valley where many other decorated
caves have been found since the beginning of the 20th century (for example Les Combarelles and
Font-de-Gaume in 1901, Bernifal in 1902). Lascaux is a complex cave with several areas (Hall of
the Bulls, Passage gallery) It was discovered on 12 September 1940 and given statutory historic
monument protection in december of the same year. In 1979, several decorated caves of the
Vézère Valley - including the Lascaux cave - were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list.
But these hauntingly beautiful prehistoric cave paintings are in peril.

Sections have been identified in the cave; the Great Hall of the Bulls, the Lateral Passage, the
Shaft of the Dead Man, the Chamber of Engravings, the Painted Gallery, and the Chamber of
Felines. The cave contains nearly 2,000 figures, which can be grouped into three main categories -
animals, human figures and abstract signs. Most of the major images have been painted onto the
walls using mineral pigments although some designs have also been incised into the stone.

Of the animals, equines predominate . There are 90 paintings of stags. Also represented are cattle,
bison, felines, a bird, a bear, a rhinoceros, and a human. Among the most famous images are four
huge, black bulls or aurochs in the Hall of the Bulls. One of the bulls is 17 feet (5.2 m) long - the
largest animal discovered so far in cave art.

Great Black Bull

Photograph N. Aujoulat (2003) © MCC-CNP
Additionally, the bulls appear to be in motion. There are no images of reindeer, even though that
was the principal source of food for the artists. A painting referred to as 'The Crossed Bison', found
in the chamber called the Nave, is often held as an example of the skill of the Palaeolithic cave
painters. The crossed hind legs show the ability to use perspective. Since the year 2000, Lascaux
has been beset with a fungus, variously blamed on a new air conditioning system that was
installed in the caves, the use of high-powered lights, and the presence of too many visitors. As of
2006, the situation became even graver - the cave saw the growth of black mold. In January
2008, authorities closed the cave for three months, even to scientists and preservationists. A
single individual was allowed to enter the cave for 20 minutes once a week to monitor climatic
conditions.

Cave paintings of Lascaux in France were discovered on this day in 1940.

The Lascaux Cave is famous for its Palaeolithic cave paintings, found in a complex of
caves in southwestern France, because of the exceptional quality, size, sophistication and
antiquity of the cave art.

Mesolithic period
The Mesolithic Period, or Middle Stone Age, is an archaeological term describing
specific cultures that fall between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic Periods. While the
start and end dates of the Mesolithic Period vary by geographical region, it dated
approximately from 10,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE.
The Paleolithic was an age of purely hunting and gathering, but toward the
Mesolithic period the development of agriculture contributed to the rise of permanent
settlements. The later Neolithic period is distinguished by the domestication of plants
and animals. Some Mesolithic people continued with intensive hunting, while others
practiced the initial stages of domestication. Some Mesolithic settlements were
villages of huts , others walled cities.

Characteristic development.

. Taming of dogs.
. Implementation of new techniques for food preserving like drying of meat, salting of
fish.

. Farming was introduced.

Tools.

The type of tool used is a distinguishing factor among these cultures. Mesolithic tools
were generally composite devices manufactured with small chipped stone tools
called microliths and retouched bladelets. The Paleolithic utilized more primitive
stone treatments, and the Neolithic mainly used polished rather than chipped stone
tools.

Backed edge bladelet: Mesolithic tools were generally composite devices manufactured with small
chipped small stone tools called microliths and retouched bladelets.
Art from this period reflects the change to a warmer climate and adaptation to a
relatively sedentary lifestyle, population size, and consumption of plants—all
evidence of the transition to agriculture and eventually the Neolithic period. Still, food
was not always available everywhere, and Mesolithic populations were often forced
to become migrating hunters and settle in rock shelters. It is difficult to find a unique
type of artistic production during the Mesolithic Period, and art forms developed
during the Upper Paleolithic (the latest period of the Paleolithic) were likely
continued. These included cave paintings and engravings, small sculptural artifacts,
and early architecture.

Mesolithic Rock Art

A number of notable Mesolithic rock art sites exist on the Mediterranean coast of
Spain. The art consists of small painted figures of humans and animals, which are
the most advanced and widespread surviving from this period in Europe and possibly
worldwide. Notably, this collection is the largest concentration of such art in Europe.
The human figure is frequently the main theme in painted scenes. When in the same
scene as animals, the human runs towards them. Hunting scenes are the most
common, but there are also scenes of battle and dancing, and possibly agricultural
tasks and managing domesticated animals. In some scenes gathering honey is
shown, most famously at Cuevas de la Araña en Bicorp.

The Man of Bicorp: The Man of Bicorp holding onto lianas to gather honey from a beehive as depicted on
an 8000-year-old cave painting near Valencia, Spain.
The painting known as The Dancers of Cogul is a good example of the depiction of
movement in static art. In this scene, nine women are depicted, something new in art
of this region, some painted in black and others in red. They are shown dancing
around a male figure with abnormally large phallus, a figure that was rare if not
absent in Paleolithic art. Along with humans, several animals, including a dead deer
or buck impaled by an arrow or atlatl, are depicted.

Dance of the Cogul: El Cogul, Catalonia, Spain.

The native Mesolithic populations were slow in assimilating the agricultural way of
life, starting solely with the use of ceramics . It took a thousand years into the
Neolithic period before they adopted animal husbandry (which became especially
important to them) and plant cultivation. When they eventually developed interest in
the more fertile areas utilized by the late Danubian cultures, they compelled the
Danubian farmers to fortify their settlements.
Another characteristic of Mesolithic rock painting concerned subject matter. Whereas
Paleolithic cave paintings and engravings mostly depicted animals, Mesolithic painters
and engravers tended to focus on humans - usually groups of humans engaged in
hunting, dancing and various other rituals, as well as everyday activities. The painting
technique varied - both in the painting tools adopted (feathers, reeds, pads/brushes)
and the colour pigments used: for more, see: Prehistoric colour palette - but generally
representation was non-naturalistic and highly stylized. The humans looked more like
stick-figures or matchstick men. In fact, many of the men and women in Mesolithic rock
paintings look more like pictographs or petrograms than pictures. Other figures seen in
Mesolithic tribal art include various anthropomorphic hybrid figures, as well as X-ray
style figures characteristic of aboriginal rock art of the late Stone Age. For more, see the
pictographs among Ubirr Rock Art (c.30,000 BCE but unconfirmed) and Kimberley Rock
Art (c.30,000 BCE also unconfirmed).

Not all Mesolithic rock paintings and petroglyphs were executed at open air sites. Artists
continued to decorate caves that provided essential shelter or were established places of
residence. The Mesolithic rock engravings at Wonderwerk Cave (8,200 BCE), for
example, were done in a cave that had been inhabited by humans for some 2 million
years. The stencilled hand paintings (8,000 BCE) in the Kalimantan Caves and Gua Ham
Masri II Cave (8,000 BCE) in Indonesia, were created in rock shelters in the middle of
inhospitable jungle terrain. Note also the Fern Cave hand stencils (from 10,000 BCE) in
North Queensland, Australia. See also: Oceanic Art.

The most famous example of Mesolithic cave painting is surely the Argentinian Cueva de
las Manos (Cave of Hands) in the valley of the Pinturas River, Patagonia, which contains
a host of hand stencils and handprints, carbon-dated to 7,300 BCE. Other images
include prehistoric abstract signs like geometric shapes and zigzag motifs.

Mesolithic Sculpture

The Mesolithic era also featured plastic art, although the Paleolithic liking for Venus
figurines was not maintained. Mesolithic artists tended to produce mainly relief
sculpture, such as the animal reliefs at Gobekli Tepe, although they also carved a small
amount of free standing sculpture, like the anthropomorphic figurines discovered at
Nevali Cori and Gobekli Tepe, dating to the eighth and ninth millennia BCE. In addition it
seems likely that, with the regrowth of forests across Europe after the Ice Age, wood
carving was also practiced widely - see, in particular, the delicate Shigir Idol (7,500 BCE,
Yekaterinburg Museum, Middle Urals, Russia) - although few exemplars have survived.

Mesolithic Decorative Crafts

As the number and size of Mesolithic settlements began to grow, so did the demand for
personal and domestic decorative art, including adornments like bracelets and necklaces,
as well as decorative engravings on functional objects like paddles and weapons.
Ceramic art was also developed, notably by the Jomon culture - the first highpoint
of Japanese Art - whose sophisticated pots have been dated to the 11th millennium BCE.
Their clay vessels were decorated with patterns made by impressing the wet clay body
with cord and sticks. Chinese pottery, fired on bonfires and decorated by stamping, was
also a feature of the period at Xianrendong in Jiangxi province, and at other sites along
the Yellow and Yangtze river valleys. It is also fair to assume that both face
painting and body painting continued to be practiced.
Ceramic Mesolithic
In North-Eastern Europe, Siberia, and certain southern European and North African sites, a
"ceramic Mesolithic" can be distinguished between c. 9,000 to 5,850 BP. Russian archaeologists
prefer to describe such pottery-making cultures as Neolithic, even though farming is absent. This
pottery-making Mesolithic culture can be found peripheral to the sedentary Neolithic cultures. It
created a distinctive type of pottery, with point or knob base and flared rims, manufactured by
methods not used by the Neolithic farmers. Though each area of Mesolithic ceramic developed
an individual style, common features suggest a single point of origin. The earliest manifestation
of this type of pottery may be in the region around Lake Baikal in Siberia.

Pottery with re-construction repairs found in Xianrendong cave,

dating to 20,000–10,000 years ago.

Neolithic period
Finally, during the Neolithic period (roughly 8,000 B.C. to 3,000
B.C.), ancient humans switched from hunter/gatherer mode to
agriculture and food production. They domesticated animals and
cultivated cereal grains. They used polished hand axes, adzes for
ploughing and tilling the land and started to settle in the plains.
Advancements were made not only in tools but also in farming,
home construction and art, including pottery, sewing and weaving.

Important factors.
. Humans begin to live in complex house structures.
. First examples of monumental sculptures were seen in this period.
. Traces of developing their own calender.
 Plastered human skulls

Plastered skull, Tell es-Sultan, Jericho, c. 9000 BC in the British

Museum

Material Plaster and bone

Created 9000–6000 BC

Present location Levant

The Neolithic period is important because it is when we first find good evidence for religious and
cultural practices, particularly those relating to burial customs. In Jericho, as well as placing the
deceased under the floors of homes, the people also engaged in another unique mortuary
practice. In some cases their skulls were removed and covered with plaster in order to create
very life-like faces, complete with shells inset for eyes and paint to imitate hair and moustaches.
The flesh and jawbones were removed from the skulls in order to model the plaster over the
bone and the physical traits of the faces seem specific to individuals, suggesting that these
decorated skulls were portraits of the deceased. The subtle modelling used to create the life-like
flesh is impressive in itself, but even more so given the very early date of these artefacts.
Evidence suggests that the skulls were then displayed or stored with other plaster skulls.
Neolithic Art

In general, the more settled and better-resourced the region, the more art it produces.
So it was with Neolithic art, which branched out in several different directions. And
although most ancient art remained essentially functional in nature, there was a greater
focus on ornamentation and decoration. For instance, jade carving - one of the great
specialities of Chinese art - first appeared during the era of Neolithic culture, as
does Chinese lacquerware and porcelain. See: Chinese Art Timeline (18,000 BCE -
present.)

Portable Art

With greater settlement in villages and other small communities, rock painting begins to
be replaced by more portable art. Discoveries in Catal Huyuk, an ancient village in Asia
Minor (modern Turkey) include beautiful murals (including the world's first landscape
painting), dating from 6,100 BCE. Artworks become progressively ornamented with
precious metals (eg. copper is first used in Mesopotamia, while more advanced
metallurgy is discovered in South-East Europe). Free standing sculpture,
in stone and wood begins to be seen, as well as bronze statuettes (notably by the Indus
Valley Civilization, one of the early engines of painting and sculpture in India), primitive
jewellery and decorative designs on a variety of artifacts.

Ceramics

However, the major medium of Neolithic civilization was ceramic pottery, the finest
examples of which (mostly featuring geometric designs or animal/plant motifs) were
produced around the region of Mesopotamia (Iran, Iraq) and the eastern Mediterranean.

Neolithic art, except among the hunter-fishers of the taiga, was

geometric and not representational. It is best illustrated by the
decoration of pottery. Pots, which were always handmade, were
painted in southeastern Europe, southern Italy, and Sicily;
elsewhere they were adorned with incised, impressed, or stamped
patterns. Many designs are skeuomorphic—i.e., they enhance the
pot’s similarity to vessels of basketry, skin, or other material. But on
the loesslands of central Europe and the Ukraine and in the
Balkans, spirals and meanders were favourite motifs.
carved entrance stone
Carved entrance stone to a Neolithic chamber tomb (c. 3200 BCE) at Newgrange, County Meath,
Ireland. Length 3.2 m.

Courtesy of M.J. O'Kelly

Narrative depiction
Important Sculpture.
Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük

Seated Woman of Çatal Höyük: the head is a restoration, Museum of Anatolian Civilizations[1]

The Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük (also Çatal Höyük) is a baked-clay, nude

female form, seated between feline-headed arm-rests. It is generally thought to
depict a corpulent and fertile Mother Goddess in the process of giving birth while
seated on her throne, which has two hand rests in the form of feline (lioness,
leopard, or panther) heads in a Mistress of Animals motif. The statuette, one of
several iconographically similar ones found at the site, is associated to other
corpulent prehistoric goddess figures,[4] of which the most famous is the Venus of
Willendorf.
It is a neolithic sculpture shaped by an unknown artist, and was completed in
approximately 6000 BC. It was unearthed by archaeologist James Mellaart in 1961
at Çatalhöyük, Turkey. When it was found, its head and hand rest of the right side
were missing. The current head and the hand rest are modern replacements. The
sculpture is at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, Turkey.
Çatalhöyük

"Çatalhüyük" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Çatalhüyük, Ceyhan.\

Type Settlement

History

Founded Approximately 7100 BC

Abandoned Approximately 5700 BC

Periods Neolithic to Chalcolithic

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Official name Neolithic Site of Çatalhöyük

Type Cultural
 Criteria iii, iv

Designated 2012 (36th session)

Reference no. 1405

State Party Turkey

Region Southern Europe and Western Asia

Çatalhöyük was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-

city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately
7100 BC to 5700 BC, and flourished around 7000 BC. In July 2012, it
was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Çatalhöyük is located overlooking the Konya Plain, southeast of the
present-day city of Konya (ancient Iconium) in Turkey, approximately
140 km (87 mi) from the twin-coned volcano of Mount Hasan. The
eastern settlement forms a mound which would have risen about 20 m
(66 ft) above the plain at the time of the latest Neolithic occupation.
There is also a smaller settlement mound to the west and
a Byzantine settlement a few hundred meters to the east. The prehistoric
mound settlements were abandoned before the Bronze Age. A channel
of the Çarşamba River once flowed between the two mounds, and the
settlement was built on alluvial clay which may have been favorable for
early agriculture.