The Old Stone Age Paleo Old Litho Stone

The Old Stone Age Paleo = “Old” Litho = “Stone” in Greek 2. 5 million – 20, 000 B. C. E

Lower Paleolithic (Early Stone Age)2. 5 million-200, 000 B. C. E. Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo ergaster, roamed most of the earth and began making the first stone tools

The Middle Paleolithic ( 200, 000 to 45, 000 years ago) Evolution of: 1. Neanderthals and the first anatomically modern Homo Sapiens. 2. Glimmers of modern behaviors: sophisticated stone tools, caring for the elderly, hunting and gathering and some amount of symbolic or ritual behavior.

The Upper Paleolithic (45, 000 -10, 000 years ago) Modern humans spread all over the planet. Characterized by fully modern behaviors such as creating cave art, hunting, and making a wide range of tools in stone, bone, ivory and antler.

Almost every piece of cave art depicts: 1. Animals: Bison, Mammoths, Ibex, and horses 2. Humans: most often nude women which have been dubbed “Venuses” after the Grecco-Roman Goddess of love and vertility. However, animals were depicted far more often than humans

Some of the earliest paintings to be discovered come from Africa. The oldest African paintings found were portable objects.

Human with Feline Head, 30, 000 – 28, 000 B. C. E Mammoth ivory: One of the oldest sculptures discovered. Found in Germany. This particular statue is almost one foot tall.

The Venus of Willendorf: • • Willendorf, Austria 28, 000 – 25, 000 B. C. E Limestone Approximately four feet tall

Because of the way that the female’s anatomy is exaggerated, many suggest that these sculptures served as fertility images.

The female has no facial features, only the suggestion of curly hair, or as others have suggested, a hat woven from plant fibers.

Angle of View: Animals: The profile view of the animal is the only view where the head, body, limbs, and tail can all be seen. A frontal view would have hidden the majority of these features. Humans: The opposite is true of the human figure. In order to provide the most information Paleolithic artists chose the frontal view to depict humans.

The Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux France

Notice how the Bull is shown from the side, but its horns are shown full on in order to be as descriptive as possible.

Why take the whole cave when you could just take the rock?

Some Paleolithic portable objects even came in the form of stone plaques.

Stone plaques, 23, 000 B. C. E charcoal on stone, found in the Apollo 11 cave in Nambia.

The typical Paleolithic sculptor used the natural contours of the stone wall as the basis for their representations. They carefully used its irregularities, fissures, projections, recessions, and ridges to give the illusion of real presence.

Spotted horse and negative hand imprint, France 22, 000 B. C. E

The Paint was made from minerals or charcoal mixed with spit or animal fat. In cave paintings, the pigments stuck to the wall partially because the pigment became trapped in the porous wall, and partially because the binding media (the spit or fat) dried and adhered the pigment to the wall.

Historians hypothesize that paint was applied with brushing, smearing, dabbing, and spraying techniques. Large areas were covered with fingertips or pads of lichen or moss. Twigs produced drawn or linear marks, while feathers blended areas of color. Brushes made from horsehair were used for paint application and outlining. Paint spraying, accomplished by blowing paint through hollow bones, yielded a finely grained distribution of pigment, similar to an airbrush

Hand Negatives, Lascaux France, 23, 000 B. C. E

One hand was placed on the wall before the artists painted, blew, or spat pigment around it.

Woman Holding a Bison Horn • Laussel, France • 25, 000 – 20, 000 B. C. E • 1’ 6” Tall • Stood in the open air in front of a rock shelter.

Whereas the The Venus of Willendorf was sculpted in the round (meaning it was free standing and could be viewed from all sides) the Laussel Woman is one of the earliest relief sculptures known. Which means that it is fixed to a flat surface.

Man’s first lawn ornaments: The Laussel relief is one of many openair examples of art from the Paleolithic period. The popular notions that early art comes from mysterious dark caverns are false.

The head is once again featureless but the hands have taken on greater importance. The left hand rests on her stomach, whereas the right holds a bison horn whose significance has been debated. Once carved, the Laussel woman was covered in red ochre to add color.

Additive method: While most reliefs were created using the subtractive method where the stone was carved away, a few used the additive method by building up the form by adding clay to the wall.

Clay Bison: • France • 15, 000– 10, 000 B. C. E • About two feet long each Among the largest Paleolithic sculptures known

The clay used to create the two bison was brought from another area in the cave.

Bison with turned head, Reindeer horn, 4” long France, 12, 000 B. C. E

Pregnant Mare, Spain In addition to animals, Paleolithic artists would add symbols and markings like lines and dots.

Some Archeologists suggest they may have been a form of a calendar to count time.

Prehistoric painters used the pigments available in the vicinity. These pigments were the so-called earth pigments, The minerals limonite and hematite created red and yellow ochre and umber. Charcoal from burning sticks made the color known as carbon black. Burnt bones created bone black and white from grounded calcite made lime white.

However, evidence from the cave in Lascaux, France indicates that some cave artists might have traveled as far as 25 miles to obtain iron earth pigments.

The Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux, France