Unit I Review: Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic


1.00 This map displays the major Paleolithic cave painting sites in France and northern Spain, the so-called "Franco-Cantabrian" area where the vast majority of such sites are located.

 

2.00 Likely used for sympathetic magical purposes, the male and female reindeer shown here are typical of Paleolithic cave paintings in their realism, use of mineral pigments, and location within the recesses of caves.

 

3.00 Nicknamed "the Chinese Horse," this is one of the finest examples of cave painting found at the French site of Lascaux.

 

4.00 Current interpretations cite this Lascaux painting as an image of a shaman and bison. The rudimentary form of the "human" representation contrasts with the more realistic images of animals in Paleolithic art. Because of the quantity and quality of its images, Lascaux has been dubbed the Sistine Chapel of Paleolithic painting.

 

5.00 The "Wounded Bison" of Altamira shows twisted perspective in the treatment of the horns (that is, the horns are shown more frontally than the head in order to emphasize this dangerous part of the animal). Altamira is one of several Paleolithic sites whose variety of painting styles and varying kinds of associated artifacts suggest it was a gathering place for bands of Paleolithic hunters from different geographical areas. Such gatherings probably facilitated trade, joint initiation ceremonies, and exchanges of females to keep bands free of inbreeding.

 

6.00 Hundreds of such "Venus" figures have been found in Paleolithic contexts. They likely represent the principle of earth fecundity rather than serving to increase human fertility.

 

7.00 The Mesolithic style is more planar (flatter appearing) than Paleolithic; the animals are smaller; and the paintings were located on rock shelter surfaces where they could be seen by everyone passing by. Art of the Mesolithic seems to have served more of a commemorative or narrative purpose than a ritual/ceremonial one.

A distinguishing feature of Mesolithic painting is the proliferation of images of men. They are often shown fighting one another, as in this example, and hold a new type of weapon, the bow and arrow.

8.00 This painting of a hind, stag and goat not only displays the silhouette emphasis seen in Mesolithic painting, but also the smaller game now hunted by Mesolithic man.

 

9.00 The Neolithic, or food producing, Revolution started relatively late in England, around 4000 B.C. One of its great monuments is Stonehenge, believed to be a kind of ancient "computer" used to track the movements of the sun and moon. The circular arrangement of the great monoliths of Stonehenge mark it as a cromlech, a circular ritual structure.

 

10.00 The area of the ancient Near East was far more precocious than England in developing domesticated plants and animals. In some sites, like Jericho (this slide), there is evidence for agriculture by 8000 B.C. or before. The Neolithic Revolution, by current guesses, likely started somewhere in this region.

Overmodeled skulls like this one from Jericho were used as part of the people's ancestral cult. The skulls apparently were used as "soul traps" for the spirit of the deceased. Shrines to the Mother Goddess and evidence of massive city walls and permanent domestic architecture were also found at Jericho by 7000 B.C.. Jericho is one of a handful of important sites showing the transition from a wandering way of life to a fully settled, and ultimately, urban civilization.

11.00 Catal Huyuk in Anatolia (Turkey), like Jericho, shows a long sequence of occupations which lead into a fully Neolithic, urban style of life. This slide shows the interior of a shrine at the site replete with paintings and sculptures of bulls.

 

12.00 This and the next slide show a hunting scene from a shrine wall at Catal Huyuk. In general appearance, both images seem stylistically Mesolithic. However, the presence of protective leopard skins around the waists of these hunters distinguishes them from Mesolithic men. The leopard was a sacred and powerful animal at this site; its image is associated with the "Mistress of the Animals" and is found in several Catal Huyuk shrines.

 

13.00 A hunter with a leopard skin wrapped around his waist; this is a detail of the previous slide.

 

14.00 The "Mistress of the Animals" was found in the grain bin of a Catal Huyuk shrine. She seems to be a tripartite goddess associated with human, animal, and plant fertility. In her fecund forms she resembles the ancient "Venus" figures of the Paleolithic period, like the Venus of Willendorf.