1. prehisto
art
ric

2. Timeline
 Stone Age
 Paleolithic Era (2,500,000 – 10,000 BC)
 Lower Paleolithic (2,500,000 – 200,000 BC)
 Middle Paleolithic (200,000 – 40,000 BC)
 Upper Paleolithic (40,000 – 10,000 BC)
 Mesolithic Era 10,000 – 4,000 BC)
 Neolithic Era (4,000 – 2,000 BC)
 Bronze Age (3,300 – 1,200 BC)
 Iron Age (1,300 BC – 200 AD)

3. a hunter-gatherer culture
paleolithic
era

4. Stone Age Art
 Petroglyphs
- cupules, engravings,
drawings, symbols
 Sculpture/Carving
 Cave Painting

5. Venus of Tan-Tan
500,000- 300,000 BC
found in Morocco
2.4 inches long quartzite rock
interpreted as the depiction of the
human form, gender indeterminate and
faceless
lower paleolithic
Venus of
Berekhat Ram
230,000 BC
found at the Berekhat
Ram in Golan Heights
(Syria)
1.4 inches long

6. Cupule and meander petroglyph on a boulder at the Auditorium Cave,
Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh, India; 700,000 – 290,000 BC
lower paleolithic

7. series of beads made from shells;
75,000 BC
middle paleolithic
petroglyph found at the Blombos Cave located in the
limestone cliff, about 100 meters from the sea of the southern
coast of South Africa; 70,000 BC

8. middle paleolithic
La Ferrassie Cupules
approximately 60,000 BC; situated in South West France

9. upper paleolithic
Venus of Hohle Fels (hollow rock) or
Venus of Schelklingen
40,000 – 35,000 BC; found in Schelklingen, Germany;
oldest known figurative art; made of woolly mammoth
tusk; 2.4 inches in height

10. upper paleolithic Swabian Jura Ivory Carvings
found at a plateau in German state of Baden-Wurttemberg
Mammoth Ivory
Figurine
33,000 BCE
oldest figurative carving
1.5 inches long
weighs 7.5 grams

11. upper paleolithic Swabian Jura Ivory Carvings
found at a plateau in German state of Baden-Wurttemberg
Ivory Carving of Horse
33,000 BC in Vogelherd Cave

12. upper paleolithic Swabian Jura Ivory Carvings
found at a plateau in German state of Baden-Wurttemberg
The Lion Man
32,000 BC in the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave
the oldest known anthropomorphic animal
figurine in the world
the first sculpture of a male figure
11.7 inches tall, 2.2 inches wide, and 2.3
inches thick

13. upper paleolithic Chauvet Cave paintings
Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France
30,000 BC; over 300 paintings and engravings; depicted images of lions, mammoths,
rhinoceroses, panther, owl, horses, bison, aurochs, ibex, reindeeer, red deer, musk-
oxen, red ochre hand stencils, handprints

14. upper paleolithic Chauvet Cave paintings…

15. upper paleolithic Chauvet Cave paintings…

16. upper paleolithic Cosquer Cave paintings
near Marseilles, France
25,000 BCE; the entrance to Cosquer cave is situated over 100 feet below sea level;
contains, hand stencils, charcoal drawings and about 100 polychrome paintings of
horses and other animals

17. upper paleolithic Cosquer Cave paintings…

18. upper paleolithic Cosquer Cave paintings…

19. upper paleolithic Cosquer Cave paintings…

20. upper paleolithic Cosquer Cave paintings…

21. upper paleolithic Pech-Merle Cave paintings
Cabrerets, Midi-Pyrénées, France
25,000 BC; painted in charcoal and ochre on limestone; polychrome; second oldest
cave art; contains about 1,300 meters of galleries; contains footprints, tools, food
remains, and other signs of human habitation; famous for “The Dappled Horses”
panel which is 4 meters long

22. upper paleolithic Pech-Merle Cave paintings…

23. upper paleolithic Pech-Merle Cave paintings…

24. upper paleolithic Venus of Brassempouy or “Lady with the Hood”
about 25,000 BC
found in Brassempouy, France
one of the earliest known realistic
representations of a human face
and hairstyle
carved from mammoth ivory
1.4 inches high, 0.9 inches deep, and 0.7
inches wide

25. upper paleolithic
Venus of Laussel
around 25,000 BC
found in Southwestern France
18 inches high
limestone bas-relief painted with
red ochre

26. upper paleolithic
Venus of Willendorf
24,000 – 22,000 BC
found in Lower Austria
4.3 inches long; carved from limestone
and tinted with red ochre

27. upper paleolithic
Venus of Kostenki
23,000 – 21,000 BC
found in Kostenki settlement
in Russia
limestone
about 4 inches in height

28. upper paleolithic Lascaux Cave paintings
Montignac, Dordogne, France
17,000 BC; contains seven decorated chambers with over 2000 painted images;
polychrome (red, yellow, black, brown, and violet); best known for the huge scale of
animal pictures and exceptionally realistic portrayal
The Crossed Bison

29. upper paleolithic Lascaux Cave paintings…
The Great Hall of the Bulls

30. upper paleolithic Lascaux Cave paintings…
Shaft of the
Dead Man

31. upper paleolithic Cave of Altamira paintings
near Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, Spain
15,000 BC; “Sistine Chapel of Paleolithic Art", polychrome

32. upper paleolithic Cave of Altamira paintings…

33. upper paleolithic Cave of Altamira paintings…

35. Things to ponder…
1. What motivated primitive man to create such art?
2. What does it mean to be human?
3. How was the art of the prehistoric period related to society?
Vannessa E. San Juan
Philippine High School for the Arts/Art Studies IV
16 June 2011