Course Content
What is Prehistoric Art?
When we talk about Prehistoric, we can think of it as the "Old Stone Age," which is also known as "Prehistoric Times." Because this era is before the invention of writing, documentation, and civilisation, it's also known as "Prehistory" which is the more common choice of phrasing within art history (you will hear both variations throughout this course, but rest assured they both refer to the exact same thing). Google defines Prehistory as "Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems." If you look up "art," Google says it's "the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power." So, when we think of what these people made, such as cave paintings and sculptures, as art, it is safe to call this the earliest form of art. Cave paintings are the most common form of art that people know about from the Paleolithic era. But few people know that they left behind more than just paintings. A lot of art that dates back to the Paleolithic era has sculptures in it, too.
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How do We Date Prehistoric Art?
Where did it All Begin?
Paleolithic Era
The Paleolithic period, which is also called the "Old Stone Age" lasted between two and a half to three million years. For art history, "Paleolithic Art" refers to the Late Upper Paleolithic period, which is when people lived. Approximately 40,000 years ago. Right through to the end of the last ice age, roughly 8,000 years ago. At which point marks the more dominant rise of Homo sapiens and the ability to create not only tools, but art as well.
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Paleolithic Sculptures Pt. 1
Paleolithic Sculptures Pt. 2
Paleolithic Cave Paintings Pt. 1
Paleolithic Cave Paintings Pt. 2
Paleolithic Cave Paintings Pt. 3
Paleolithic Hand Paintings
Mesolithic Era
The Mesolithic era was between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic period (this is when humans lived about 10,000 years ago to about 8,000 years ago). The Mesolithic is the time in the history of the Old World when people used tools. The term Epipaleolithic is often used to refer to the same time period outside of northern Europe. Mesolithic people used small stone tools that were polished and sometimes made with points. They attached them to antlers, bone, or wood to use as spears or arrows.
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Mesolithic Art
Neolithic Era
More people necessitated a shift away from hunting and gathering to the domestication of livestock and farming, sparking what is known as the Neolithic Revolution. The introduction of agriculture, which led to land ownership, and the formation of cities, is undeniably one of the most significant turning points in the history of human civilization. This is known also as the final division of the Stone Age period. A great many myths and folktales contain references to it. However, this happened over time and in different parts of the world at different times. Agriculture began in Palestine and western Iran in the middle of the eighth millennium, later in Egypt; in about the sixth millennium in Greece and the Balkans, early in the fifth millennium in China and also in Central America, but not for another one or two thousand years in northern Europe. To this day, some tribes in Australia and central South America have been able to sustain themselves through hunting and gathering without the need for agriculture. Consequently, the term "Neolithic" is sometimes misused by referring to both the time period and the culture. Even if homesteads were frequently relocated as soon as the land was exhausted by primitive farming methods, more permanent settlements followed the adoption of agriculture.
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Catal Huyuk Pt. 1
Catal Huyuk Pt. 2
Catal Huyuk Pt. 3
Catal Huyuk Pt. 4
Neolithic Architecture
All About Prehistoric Art
About Lesson

84 male and 132 female skeletons were found within the town of Catal Huyuk.

Ochre-filled shells were found in the women’s entombments, as well as obsidian mirrors, coloured beads, and other personal ornaments.

Machetes, arrowheads and sickle blades were among the many weapons that men were buried with despite their lack of personal adornment.

Women and children make up the vast majority of those interred, and there are very few people in their middle years among those who are buried.


Catal Huyuk
Catal Huyuk

Despite the differences in the sizing of houses, they are all constructed using the same rectangular plan. In order to get around, people had to traverse the town’s rooftops, which were stacked one on top of the other.

The houses were built in terraces, which meant that the roofs varied in height as they rose up the slope of the mound. Catal Huyuk ended with a solid blank rather than a street or even a few open spaces between houses. Huyuk’s design and architecture are stereotypical. Fortresses were unnecessary because the shaped mud-brick houses, sometimes reinforced with wooden frames, stood on mud-brick foundations and were uniformly one-story. From a distance, it would have resembled many modern-day New Mexican adobe settlements.

New Mexican adobe settlements
New Mexican adobe settlements

Fortifications of up to 12-foot (3.5-meter) walls and at least one 30-foot (9-meter) tower were in place by around 7500 BC. There are sculptures of human heads in the fortifications, which are even more impressive. It is possible that these were placed on top of graves, where the body was buried and the head was preserved.


Using human skulls, the flesh was restored with tinted plaster, and the eyes were made with seashells. The modelling is astoundingly good, and at times it shows a keen awareness of the subtle differences between skin and bone. Even if it’s just a hunch, it’s possible that this is a deliberate attempt at portraiture, given the subtlety and uniqueness of the features (one even has painted moustache).

The Catal Huyuk artefacts, on the other hand, date from much later.

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