We explain what prehistoric art was, its history and periods. Also, its characteristics and classification.
What is prehistoric art?
Prehistoric art is called all symbolic representations made in prehistory. It covers all recorded works from the first hominids to the time of the invention of writing.
Prehistoric art includes everything from small objects to megalithic constructions (monuments made with large blocks of stone). It is a very broad category that includes manifestations of different types and temporal origin.
Scientists don't have agreement about how old the art is: The earliest evidence was believed to be the engraved bones in Blombos Cave in South Africa (dating back to 75,000 years ago), but recent discoveries suggest the presence of creations for symbolic purposes in the Lower Paleolithic, almost 3 million years ago. years.
There are sites of prehistoric art in caves and places of primitive settlements in Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and America.
Characteristics of prehistoric art
Prehistoric art is extremely diverse and includes not only symbolic creations (drawings, paintings, sculptures, large monuments) but also utensils, constructions and artifacts with specific purposes (domestic, religious, astronomical, funerary, etc.). Some of its features are:
Techniques
In prehistoric art The carving was carried out by percussion, abrasion or polishing. In the case of paintings, the pigment was applied with brushes made of feathers and animal or plant hair. Airbrushing was also used, blowing through a bone or reed, and stenciling, placing a stencil on the surface and applying the pigment to it.
Materials
In prehistoric art they used materials such as wood, flint (very hard and resistant rock), bone, charcoal, ivory and stone. The pigments could be minerals such as hematite, charcoal and ocher, or organic elements such as animal fat, vegetables and blood.
Theme
Prehistoric art is believed to have deep religious meaning since the mythical element has been a fundamental component of the relationship between human beings and their reality.
Human figures of all ages, animals (such as bison, deer, horses and mammoths) and hybrid beings (with characteristics of various animals) were represented in a stylized or schematic manner. Also, although to a lesser extent, landscapes have been found, as well as rituals and hunting scenes.
Abstract and geometric symbols are also frequent mythological animals, hands and the representation of parts of the female body associated with fertility (uteruses and vulvas).
History of prehistoric art
The origin of the first works of art is a highly debated topic and there is still no scientific consensus on the matter.
It is known that the Homo neanderthalensis He collected materials of striking shapes and colors with which he decorated his caves and said goodbye to his dead. Some researchers say that this hominid corresponds to the first known forms of prehistoric art, more than 67,000 years old.
The greatest number of artistic traces were left by the Cro-Magnons. Some paintings, engravings and small sculptures date back 35,000 years.
The traditional theory, based on the study of the first finds of cave paintings in the caves of Altamira (in 1868) and Lascaux (in 1940), places prehistoric art in the Upper Paleolithic, 40,000 years ago.
But more recently it has been proposed that prehistoric art may be much older. Based on the discovery of objects that seem to have been used to make shapes or symbols, some theorists suspect that the first cultural expressions of hominids could date from the Lower Paleolithic.
prehistoric art expanded and diversified as the human species He did it throughout the planet, thus giving rise to very different cultures and civilizations. Each one of them with their own vision of the world and of themselves.
Periods of prehistoric art
Prehistoric art covers three major chronological periods (the same ones into which the Stone Age is subdivided).
- paleolithic art. It is the oldest. It consists mostly of paintings and reliefs made by hand or with stone instruments using rudimentary techniques or using pigments extracted from ground minerals.
- mesolithic art. It represents a transition between the old forms of the Paleolithic and the new ones of the Neolithic. Its best-known record is that of Levantine art, originating in the eastern part of Spain, where ritual scenes were represented using highly stylized figures.
- Neolithic art. During the so-called Neolithic Revolution, man became sedentary and art was transformed with the incorporation of new materials and technical discoveries such as ceramics, the result of baking.
Towards the end of the period, megalithic architecture or art appears, consisting of immense stone constructions of still unknown meaning and purpose, such as the monument stonehenge (England)a circle of menhirs (huge upright stones) with astronomical alignments.
Types of prehistoric art
Depending on the type of support used, prehistoric art is classified into:
megalithic art
Megalithic art includes monuments erected with large stones, such as menhirs (monumental stones inserted vertically into the ground) and dolmens (funerary chambers with a horizontal slab supported by vertical stones).
parietal art
Parietal art is the pictorial art of the rock walls of caves and underground spaces. Includes sculptural reliefs, engravings and cave paintings. Hunting scenes, human figures or signs were usually represented.
The precise function of this art is unknown, but it was particularly common in Europe and North Africa, especially in the region between France and Spain.
furniture art
Mobile art refers to transportable objects, small sculptures and anthropomorphic figurines commonly carved in stone.
The famous Venuses correspond to this classification, representing naked women with breasts and hips in very exaggerated proportions with respect to the rest of the body.
Examples of prehistoric art
Some of the best-known creations of prehistoric art are:
- The cave paintings of the Altamira Cave (Spain). Coming from different human occupations of the caves during the Upper Paleolithic, they show a series of signs and illustrations of animals, such as oxen or antelopes, as well as remains of stones used to grind the pigment with which they were drawn on the walls and ceilings.
- The Venus of Willendorf (Austria). It was carved in stone sometime in the Paleolithic, between 27,500 to 25,000 BC. C. This stone figure found in 1908 in Willendorf, Austria, represents a naked woman, with noticeable and swollen breasts and sex, carved in limestone and painted with red ocher.
- The Venus of Tan-Tan (Morocco). About six centimeters high and possibly 400,000 years old, this vaguely anthropomorphic figure was found in Morocco in 1999, about 15 meters deep in the river sediment of the Draa River. It is a controversial finding, since many scientists think that its resemblance to the human figure could be a consequence of erosion and not a product of the human hand).
- The Menhir of Mollet (Spain). From the late Neolithic, around 3300 to 2200 BC. C., this stone statue 4.9 meters high and 68 centimeters thick was found in Mollet del Vallés, Barcelona, in 2009. It represents a human figure in bas-relief, sometimes completed or replaced by engravings.
- Cave paintings from the Chauvet Cave (France). They date back to about 38,000 years ago and were discovered in 1994 in a very good state of conservation. The cave houses a thousand images of animals and human figures made with great detail and artistic quality.
- Parietal art from the Tito Bustillo Cave (Spain). It includes cave paintings, engravings and sculptures with a variety of themes (animals in motion, negative hands, etc.) and techniques (painting, stenciling) ranging from the Lower Paleolithic to the Neolithic.
References
- Bahn, PG, Franklin, NR, & Matthias Strecker. (2008). Rock art studies. Oxbow.
- Collins, D. (1976). The Human Revolution.
- García-Díez, M. (2020, May 21). The indecipherable origin of the first work of art. The Country. https://elpais.com/
- Pfeiffer, J. E. (1985). The Creative Explosion.
