MODULE 8
LESSON 1:
Prehistoric Art:
Paleolithic Origins
Prepared by: Ms. April joy l. de la cruz
The oldest firmly-dated example is a collection of
82,000 year old Nassarius snail shells found in
Morocco that are pierced and covered with red ochre.
• Theoldest known
representational
imagery comes from
the Aurignacian
culture of the
Upper Paleolithic
period.
• Female figure carved out of
mammoth ivory that was
found in six fragments in
the Hohle Fels cave near
Schelklingen in southern
Germany.
• It dates to 35,000 BCE.
• Thecaves at
Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc,
Lascaux, Pech
Merle, and
Altamira contain the
best known
examples of pre-
historic painting and
drawing.
• paintings
discovered in 1994,
in the cave at
Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc
in the Ardèche
valley in France, are
more than 30,000
years old.
ART OF PREHISTORY
STONE AGE
• The Stone Age was a
period of about two
million years which
lasted till the Bronze Age
• During that time, the
humankind came into
existence and reached
the stage of being able
to undertake artistic
activities.
STONE AGE
• Paleolithic
• Mesolithic
• Neolithic
Paleolithic
• i.e. the Early Stone Age
• has lasted for over two
million years and it is
divided into three periods.
• Thedivision of the Stone Age into
the Paleolithic, the Mesolithic and
the Neolithic is based on a
production technique of the stone
tools. It refers to knapped stone
tools (Paleolithic), microliths
(Mesolithic) and smoothed stone
(Neolithic).
Lower Paleolithic is the Homo erectus' era
Middle Paleolithic
is the
Neanderthal
man's era
Upper Paleolithic
is the epoch of the
Cro-Magnon man
Petroglyphs are images of humans, animals and
ornaments engraved (not painted) in the rock
material.
Nadro, Brescia,
Italy
Po-Toi,
Hong Kong
Qobustan, Azerbaijan
8000 BC
SCULPTURE
•is
the art of making
forms and figures in
clay or other materials
or a product of such an
art.
Venus of Hohle Fels, Schelklingen, Germany, 40 000
BC
CAVE PAINTINGS
MEGALITHIC STRUCTURES
• memorial consisting of a
very large stone forming
part of a
prehistoric structure
Carnac, France, 4000 BC
Ggantija, Malta, 3600 BC
CERAMICS
•Aceramic is a material that is
neither metallic nor organic. It
may be crystalline, glassy or both
crystalline and glassy. Ceramics
are typically hard and chemically
non-reactive and can be formed or
densified with heat.
Linear Pottery culture, 5500 BC
Stroke-ornamented ware culture, 6000
BC
