Prehistoric Art

Prehistoric art is of interest not only to Art historians, but also to archeologists and anthropologists. For them Art is the only clue, along with fossils, to understand of early human life and culture.

Because Art, that survived, is the tiniest fraction of what was created over such a long span of time, conclusions and interpretations are theoretical, making THIS Art one of the most speculative arts in Art History.

Prehistoric civilizations (Chinese, Egyptian, Indian, Mesopotamian, Sumerian) developed in Great Rivers Valleys from 30 000 – 15 000 BC.
Stone Age Art style changed with the progression of civilizations development. We can roughly divide it into 3 groups:

• Paleolithic
• Mesolithic
• Neolithic

Bronze Age Art is dramatically different from the Stone Age Art, that’s why it is in a different category.

During the Paleolithic period, humans grouped together in small societies, and subsisted by gathering plants and fishing, hunting or scavenging wild animals.

The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of stone tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools.

Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers; however, due to their nature, these have not been preserved to any great degree.

The Paleolithic was an age of purely hunting and gathering while in the Neolithic domestication of plants and animals had occurred.

Mesolithic period (miggle stone age)is a transitional period: domestication of plants and animals, formation of settled communities.

Some Mesolithic peoples continued with intensive hunting. Others were practicing the initial stages of domestication.

The New Stone Age commenced with the beginning of farming, which produced the “Neolithic Revolution”.
It ended when metal tools became widespread (in the Copper Age or Bronze Age; or, in some geographical regions, in the Iron Age).

The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops and of domesticated animals

The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization.

An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by producing bronze by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere.

Bronze itself is harder and more durable than other metals available at the time, allowing Bronze Age civilizations to gain a technological advantage.