Upper Paleolithic
The Upper Paleolithic was a period of great transition in the world. This was the height of technical sophistication during the Old Stone Age. The Neanderthals in Europe became edged out and disappeared by 33,000 years ago, and modern humans began to have the world to themselves. Naturally, this will lead to what many have called a time of “creative explosion”. In the Upper Paleolithic, culture emerged as a stronger force than biology. Humans no longer needed to use their physical strength; tools were created and surpassed the physical abilities of human predators. There were many tools created. They were mainly created by stone/blade-based technology. Blades are stone pieces that are twice as long as they are wide, and generally have parallel
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The Cro-Magnon people of Europe regularly decorated their tools and sculpted small pieces of stone, bone, antler, and ivory. Necklaces, bracelets, and decorative pendants were made of bones, teeth, and shells. Cave walls were often painted with naturalistic scenes of animals. Clay was also modeled. From our culture’s perspective, these symbolic and naturalistic representations would be referred to as art. However, that is an ethnocentric projection. For the people who created this art, it was most likely thought of as being something different or more than what we think of as art. Upper Paleolithic European representational art began by 40,000 years ago and became intense 15,000-10,000 years ago. Perhaps the most prominent portable form of art was in the form that is known as Venus figurines. Venus figurines is a term given to a collection of prehistoric statuettes of women made during the Paleolithic Period. They are not portraits, but rather faceless idealized representations of well-fed, healthy, usually pregnant nude women. Because they have exaggerated sexual characteristics, they are thought by most paleoanthropologists to be ritual objects symbolizing female …show more content…
Most of their cave art was made deep inside caves. The majority of the figures are realistic-looking herd animals, many of which are shown either wounded or pregnant. Many paleoanthropologists have suggested that the artists were most likely performing sympathetic hunting and fertility magic. This would have been particularly important when this art was at its peak in sophistication (15,000-10,000 years ago) because at that time, the last Ice Age was winding down and the herds of game animals were dying out or moving away to the north. The color pigments used to decorate the cave paintings were all obtained from locally available minerals. Thus, this explains why the prehistoric color palette used by Paleolithic painters is relatively limited. For paint brushes, they probably used mats, pads, or swabs of moss or
The Cro-Magnon people of Europe regularly decorated their tools and sculpted small pieces of stone, bone, antler, and ivory. Necklaces, bracelets, and decorative pendants were made of bones, teeth, and shells. Cave walls were often painted with naturalistic scenes of animals. Clay was also modeled. From our culture’s perspective, these symbolic and naturalistic representations would be referred to as art. However, that is an ethnocentric projection. For the people who created this art, it was most likely thought of as being something different or more than what we think of as art. Upper Paleolithic European representational art began by 40,000 years ago and became intense 15,000-10,000 years ago. Perhaps the most prominent portable form of art was in the form that is known as Venus figurines. Venus figurines is a term given to a collection of prehistoric statuettes of women made during the Paleolithic Period. They are not portraits, but rather faceless idealized representations of well-fed, healthy, usually pregnant nude women. Because they have exaggerated sexual characteristics, they are thought by most paleoanthropologists to be ritual objects symbolizing female …show more content…
Most of their cave art was made deep inside caves. The majority of the figures are realistic-looking herd animals, many of which are shown either wounded or pregnant. Many paleoanthropologists have suggested that the artists were most likely performing sympathetic hunting and fertility magic. This would have been particularly important when this art was at its peak in sophistication (15,000-10,000 years ago) because at that time, the last Ice Age was winding down and the herds of game animals were dying out or moving away to the north. The color pigments used to decorate the cave paintings were all obtained from locally available minerals. Thus, this explains why the prehistoric color palette used by Paleolithic painters is relatively limited. For paint brushes, they probably used mats, pads, or swabs of moss or