AP Art History: Paleolithic and Neolithic Era's Lecture Notes

Paleolithic Era - 40,000 BCE - 9,000 BCE, From Greek Paleo and Lithos, Hunter and Gatherer society, and nomadic life style

Chauvet Cave Paintings - Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, Ardeche, France - ca. 30,000 - 28,000 B.C.E, Pigment on stone, Layering and overlapping to give depth and show movement, could potentially be a fake due to influence in 20th century on cubists

Venus of Willendorf - Willendorf, Austria, ca. 28,000 - 25,000 B.C.E, limestone, 4 ¼ in high, no decaying carbon, exaggeration of the female body, fertility figure, adipose tissue on the waist, breast, legs, etc.

Carbon Dating - Used to identify how hold something is based on the carbon within the structure or material the art is

Apollo 11 Stones - Namibia, ca. 25,500 - 25,300 B.C.E, Charcoal on stone, Depicts an animal, Named because of recent landing on moon, cave had 100,000 years of habitation

Pech-Merle Cave Paintings - Lot, France, ca. 22,000 B.C.E, pigment on stone, one image depicts a wooly mammoth due to its long drooping hairs, while another image depicts two horses, dotted pattern and dashes may refer to time passing while hand prints were created by the spitting on pigment on the hand in what is referred to as negative image, an outline.

Bison Reliefs - In a cave at Le Tuc d'Audoubert, Ariege, France, ca. 15,000 - 10,000 B.C.E, clay, approx. 2 feet long, parallel lines that represent hair, 3D image

Lascaux Cave Paintings - Lascaux, Dordogne, France, ca. 15,000 - 13,000 B.C.E., pigment on stone, discovered around WW2, Calcium Deposits proved their originality, bulls, cows, horses, stags depicted, profile and frontal view of animals for easier ability to recognize - composite view

Camelid Sacrum in the shape of a canine - Mexico, ca. 14,000 - 7,000 B.C.E, bone, decided that it was specifically carved due to scratches and cut marks in the bone

Altamira Cave Paintings - Santander, Spain, ca. 12,000 - 11,000 B.C.E, pigment on stone, 60 foot long cave with multiple animals on the roof of the cave, mineral deposits proved legitimacy, different positions of Bison and Bulls, no common ground line

Neolithic Era - 8,000 B.C.E - 2,300 B.C.E, From Greek Neo and Lithos, after the end of the previous ice age, domestication of seeds and animals, birth of sedentary societies, birth of small cities

Great Stone Tower of Settlement Wall - Jericho, Israel, ca. 8,000 - 7,000 B.C.E, brick/stone with mortar/mud used to create wall, skilled workforce which indicates stratified society

Human Skulls with Restored Features - Jericho, Israel, ca. 7,000 - 6,000 B.C.E, skulls, plaster, shells, ritually buried, no gender, shells in eye sockets

Running Horned Woman - Algeria, ca. 6,000 - 4,000 B.C.E, Pigment on Rock, humans and animals

Catal Hoyuk - Turkey, ca. 6,000 - 5,900 B.C.E, one of the first settlements, very wealthy due to trade of obsidian, pre-thought settlement, lack of streets, no doors, more stable, buried in the floor of house, some houses thought to be shrines due to decoratives found such as bucranium.

Deer Hunt - Detail of a wall painting from Level 3, Catal Hoyuk, Turkey, ca. 5,750 B.C.E, animals is red while people are black, more fertility figures of seated women

Landscape with Volcanic Eruption - Catal Hoyuk, Turkey ca. 6150 B.C.E, watercolor copy of a wall painting, two mountain in background with depicted ash and things coming out of the spout

Bushel with Ibex motifs - Iran, ca. 4,200 - 3,500 B.C.E, painted terra cotta, handmade, buried with humans or by themselves, may be created by slow pottery wheel, stylized picture of goat from Susa civilization, stylized birds at the top

Anthropomorphic stele - Arabian Peninsula, ca. 4,000 B.C.E, sandstone, low-relief - background and raised area which is uncarved, one of three human-like stele, stele is a tall vertical stone meant to stand up, dressed with necklace, belt, and dagger.

Jade Cong - China, ca. 3,300 - 2,200 B.C.E, carved jade, created by the Yangtze River Civilization, jade is a hard stone to carve, carved by rubbing sand into jade, funerary, possibly literate society

Dolmens - Ireland, Scotland, England, France, post lintel that created passage clave which was a hallway, while dirt was piled on top of it, tumbulis, megalith are huge stones

Stonehenge - Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, ca. 2,550 - 1,600 B.C.E, sarsen and bluestone, most likely religious druid keltic site, massive and heavy stones, inner ring are bluestones, in center is trilithon, which is a three stone construction, menhir is a single standing stone

The Ambum Stone - Papua New Guinea, ca. 1,500 B.C.E, greywacke, used in rituals as spirit stones

Tlatilco female figurine - Mexico, ca. 1,200- 900 B.C.E, ceramic, funerary, female, large hips, pinched waist, 2 heads, bifurcated, 2 mouths, 2 ears, 3 ears, most attention is on the head or face which is stylized, most important part is highly stylized hair, dualistic ideas

Terra Cotta Fragment - Solomon Islands, ca. 1,000 B.C.E, incised terra cotta,