SAMPLE Arts of the Western World

Chapter 3: Prehistoric Era (290,000–5,000 BCE) Overview This chapter will trace the earliest examples of visual art from more than 40,000 years ago or even before recorded history began ( prehistory ). It will cover how early humans attempted to control their surroundings by, for example, painting lifelike animals on the walls of caves as seen in Paleolithic art. After which, we’ll discuss mesolithic and neolithic artworks to see how art representations changed throughout prehistory. Objectives

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

● State the key artworks per prehistoric era ● Discuss the speculations of why experts think these artworks were created

A. Paleolithic Era Art (40,000–10,000 BCE)

Stone Age art This era includes a range of visual and symbolic forms created by humans during the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods . Archeologists have classified Stone Age art into four basic types, which are petroglyphs, pictographs, prehistoric sculpture, and megalithic art. These art forms were either applied to immovable rock surfaces, known as parietal art or were portable and called mobiliary art. A brief explanation of each category of Stone Age art: ● Petroglyphs are one of the earliest forms of Stone Age art and refer to the cupules, rock carvings, and engravings made on rocks, boulders, or cave walls. These works of art were

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