Art of the Upper Paleolithic

Venus of Laussel, an Upper Paleolithic (Aurignacian) carving

The art of the Upper Paleolithic is amongst the oldest art known (sometimes called prehistoric art). Older possible examples include the incised ochre from Blombos Cave. Upper Paleolithic art is found in Aurignacian Europe and the Levant some 40,000 years ago, and on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia at a similar date, suggesting a much older origin perhaps in Africa.^[1] Cave art in Europe continued to the Mesolithic (at the beginnings of the Holocene) about 12,000 years ago. As this corresponds to the final phase of the last glacial period, Upper Paleolithic art is also known as "Ice Age art".

As a notable aspect of what some call the "Upper Paleolithic Revolution",^[2][3] and evidence for behavioral modernity, the appearance of art in part helps us define the Upper Paleolithic itself. Art helps define what makes us human - it is part of what we are or can be (e.g. Steven Mithen, and The Mind in the Cave by David Lewis-Williams). Paleolithic art includes rock and cave painting, jewelry,^[4][5] drawing, carving, engraving and sculpture in: clay, bone, antler,^[6] stone^[7] and ivory, such as the Venus figurines, and musical instruments such as flutes.

Decoration was also made on functional tools, such as spear throwers, perforated batons and lamps.

Common subject matters include the animals that were hunted (e.g. reindeer, horses,^[8] bison,^[9] birds^[10] and mammoth)^[11] and predators and other animals that were not (e.g. lions,^[12] other big cats,^[13] bears and the woolly rhinoceros);^[14] the human form was often expressed - especially female shapes^[15] (they often look either: young, old, or pregnant).^[16] Men are also depicted, such as the 'Pin Hole man'.

Europe and the Levant (Ice Age Art)

The vast majority of Ice Age art will not have survived; apart from work in wood, leather and other very perishable materials, the antler and bone which are very commonly used would normally decay if not buried in dry caves and shelters. There is evidence for some craft specialization, and the transport over considerable distances of materials such as stone and, above all marine shells, much used for jewellery and probably decorating clothes. Shells from Mediterranean species have been found at Gönnersdorf, over 1,000 kilometres from the Mediterranean coast. The higher sea levels today mean that the level and nature of coastal settlements in the Upper Paleolithic are unable to be explored and remain largely mysterious.^[17]

Engravings on flat pieces of stones are found in considerable numbers (up to 5,000 at one Spanish site) at sites with the appropriate geology, with the marks sometimes so shallow and faint that the technique involved is closer to drawing – many of these were not spotted by the earliest excavators, and found by later teams in spoil heaps. Painted plaques are less common. It is possible that they were used in rituals, or alternatively heated on a fire and wrapped as personal warmers. Either type of use may account for the many broken examples, often with the fragments dispersed over some distance (up to 30 metres apart at Gönnersdorf). Many sites have large quantities of flat stones apparently used as flooring, with only a minority decorated.^[18]

Ice Age art can be naturalistic and figurative; it can also be geometric and non-representational. Some of the oldest works of art were found in the Schwäbische Alb, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Venus figurine known as the Venus of Hohle Fels, dates to some 40,000 years ago.^[19] Other fine examples of art from the Upper Palaeolithic (broadly 40,000 to 10,000 years ago) includes: cave painting (such as at Chauvet, Lascaux, Altamira, Cosquer, and Pech Merle), incised / engraved cave art such as at Creswell Crags,^[20] portable art (such as animal carvings and sculptures like the Venus of Willendorf), and open-air art (such as the rock art of the Côa Valley and Mazouco in Portugal; Domingo García and Siega Verde in Spain; and Fornols-Haut in France). There are numerous carved or engraved pieces of bone and ivory, such as the Swimming Reindeer found in France from the Magdalenian period. These include spear throwers, including one shaped like a mammoth,^[21] and many of the type of objects called a bâton de commandement. One of the most famous pieces of portable art from Britain is the Robin Hood Cave Horse from Derbyshire. Other examples include the Kendrick's Cave Decorated Horse Jaw.

Many of the finest examples were featured in the Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind^[22] exhibition at the British Museum in 7 February - 26 May 2013.

Venus of Willendorf

East Asia

Cave paintings from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi were in 2014 found to be 40,000 years old, a similar date to the oldest European cave art, which suggests a much older origin for this type of art, perhaps in Africa.^[23]

A cave at Turobong in South Korea containing human remains has been found to contain carved deer bones and depictions of deer that may be as much as 40,000 years old.^[24] Petroglyphs of deer or reindeer found at Sokchang-ri may also date to the Upper Paleolithic. Potsherds in a style reminiscent of early Japanese work have been found at Kosan-ri on Jeju island, which, due to lower sea levels at the time, would have been accessible from Japan.^[25]

Africa

The oldest African petroglyphs are dated to approximately the Mesolithic and late Upper Paleolithic boundary, about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Zimbabwe's oldest art finds date to at least 10,000 years (dated to sediment layers containing painted rock fragments).^[26] The earliest undisputed African rock art dates back about 10,000 years, apparently originating in the Nile River valley and spread as far west as Mali.

Zoomorphic pictogram on stone slab from the MSA of Apollo 11 Cave

From the Apollo 11 Cave complex in Namibia, seven stone plaquettes painted with figures of animals have been recovered from a horizon dated to between 22,500 and 27,500 years ago.^[26][27]

The Blombos cave in South Africa yielded hatched patterns incised on pieces of ochre dated to as early as 70,000 years ago, which has been classified as "art" in some publications.^[28]

Australia

Bradshaw rock paintings found in the north-west Kimberley region of Western Australia

The Bradshaws are a unique form of rock art found in Western Australia. They are predominantly human figures drawn in fine detail with accurate anatomical proportioning. They have been dated at over 17,000 years old.

Gabarnmung, or Nawarla Gabarnmung, is an Aboriginal archaeological and rock art site in south-western Arnhem Land, in the Top End of Australia’s Northern Territory. The rock shelter features prehistoric paintings of fish, including the barramundi, wallabies, crocodiles, people and spiritual figures. Most of the paintings are located on the shelter's ceiling, but many are found on the walls and pillars of the site. A slab of painted rock which fell to the floor had ash adhering which was radiocarbon dated at 27,631 ±717 years Cal BP which indicates that the ceiling must have been painted before 28,000 years ago.

Radiocarbon dating of charcoal excavated from the base of the lowest stratigraphic layer of the floor returned a mean age of 45,189 ±1089 years Cal BP suggesting the oldest date for the earliest human habitation. Faceted and use-striated hematite crayons have been recovered from nearby locations (Malakunanja II and Nauwalabila 1) in strata dated from 45,000 to 60,000 years old which suggests that the Gabarnmung shelter may have been decorated from its inception.^[29]

Americas

Peru, including an area of the central Andes stretching from Ecuador to northern Chile, shows evidence of human habitation dating to roughly 10,000 BCE.^[30] Early art from the area includes rock paintings in the Toquepala Caves that date to 9500 BCE .^[31] Burial sites in Peru, such as the one at Telarmachay, as old as 8600-7200 BCE, contained evidence of ritual burial, with deposits of red ocher and bead necklaces marking the site.^[32]

See also

• List of Stone Age art
• Cave painting
• Cro-Magnon
• Mask of la Roche-Cotard

Notes

References

Further reading

• Cook, Jill (2013). Ice Age art: the arrival of the modern mind. The British Museum Press. ISBN 978 0 7141 2333 2. 

External links

• EuroPreArt Database of European Prehistoric Art