Chapter #1 on Prehistory

Rhinoceroses & Aurochs
Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, Ardeche Gorge, France
c. 30,000-28,000 BCE
Limestone
Form movement using line, shading, color, and contour
Animal essence

Lion-Human
Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany
Now at Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany
c. 30,000-26,000 BCE
Mammoth ivory
Shows ability to think complexly

Woman of Willendorf
Austria
Now at Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna
c. 24,000 BCE
Limestone
Accentuated female features to show health and fertility to ensure clan survival
Originally had red ocher dyed on

Woman from Ostrava Petrkovice
Czech Republic
c. 23,000 BCE
Hematite
Now at Archaeological Institute, Brno, Czech Republic
Shows a more athletic, slim woman, probably walking with a raised hip

Woman from Brassempouy
Grotte du Pape, Brassempouy, Landes, France
c. 30,000 BCE
Ivory
Now at Musee des Antiquites Nationales, St.-Germain-en-Laye, France
Abstract parts of a human head with general sapes and memory image.

Spotted Horses and Human Hands
Pech-Merle Cave, Dordogne , France
Horses: 25,000-24,000 BCE, Hands: c.15,000 BCE
Paint on limestone
Horse head on right follows shape of rock
Dots could be rock marks thrown at horses or just natural representations of the horses' colors.
Hands created by blowing pigment liquid onto hand from mouth.

Hall of Bulls
Lascaux Cave, Dordogne, France
c. 15,000 BCE
Limestone
Use of the wall curvature to suggest space.
Use of twisted perspective=profile animal but horns look as though not in profile.
Animal features emphasized

Bird-Headed Man with Bison
Shaft scene in Lascaux Cave
c. 15,000 BCE
Limestone
Man with a bird head or mask, a bison, and woolly rhino, has an atlatl throwing/hunting device
Shaman? Myth? Why only a stick figure? Animal being hunted?

Bison (wall)
Cave at Altamira, Spain
c. 12,500 BCE
Limestone
The bison are carved out of the wall and accentuated using the wall's contour.
Used red and brown ochers.

Bison (model carving)
Le Tuc d'Audoubert, France
c. 13,000 BCE
Unbaked clay
High relief animals modeled into soft clay
Neck hairs show lifelike qualities

Skara Brae, Interior
Neolithic
31,000-26,000 BCE
Had cooking pots, beds, stone mortars, decorated pottery, and shelves.
Uses corbeling on the sides which go up for a while and then were covered with thatch.
Also has a watertight clay container for live bait for fishing.

Stonehenge
Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England
c. 2750-1500 BCE
Megalith-big rock
Sarsen rock from 23 miles away
Post and lintel with mortise-and-tenon joints (peg-like system to increase stability)
25 ton rocks, 20 ft. tall
Cromleth (circle of stones)

Horse & Sun Chariot
Trundholm-Denmark
c. 1800-1600 BCE
Bronze
National Museum, Copenhagen
Shows possible sun cult of horse carrying sun across the sky
Elaborate/delicate design of horse showing sun-eyes, collar, harness-geometric/linear
Sun=engravings, zigzags, circles, spirals, and loops-continuous/curvilinear/ suggesting sun's movement