The Paleolithic Period

The Paleolithic Period

The Paleolithic Period
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4/23/12
Art 211 History of Art I

Prehistoric art is “as its name would suggest” the oldest art created by people. Prehistoric art refers to art that has been created before written history. The Stone Age is the age before history, ranging from over 2 million years ago to around 2000 BCE the Stone Age I categorized in three major periods; The Paleolithic, The Mesolithic, and The Neolithic Period. Throughout the era of the Stone Age art began to evolve and the Paleolithic Period is where it all began.
During the Paleolithic Period; which started around 2 million years and ended around 10,000 BCE, humans did not have settlements or learn agriculture. During the Paleolithic era humans were hunter gathers who would collect fruits and berries and hunt fish and animals; however, to kill animals that were bigger than them and to fish humans began to develop the closest thing to art; Very primitive tools made from stone, bone or wood which is what gave the Stone Age the name of stone age. It wasn’t until around 1.65 million years ago that humans began to make sophisticated stone tools such as Hand axes.
It was not until the later years; around 30,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE of the Paleolithic Era (the Upper Paleolithic Period) that art actually began. The most common known pieces of art from this time were Venus figurines and cave paintings. Venus figurines were small figurines that were carried around by the people of the time, the figurines usually possessed an unusual posture that included very a very large body and hips with their hands resting above there breast with their elbows to the side. The most famous Venus figurine is the Venus of Willendorf which was discovered by Josef Szombathy in 1908.

The earliest cave painting has been dated back to around 32,000 years ago. Not much is known about cave painting because of how newly discovered they are. The first cave painting was discovered in 1879 by a little girl who was exploring with...

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