Cover image: Cueva de las Manos in Santa Cruz, Argentina. Photo by Maxima20 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Prehistoric Art
Humans have been artists for at least 45,000 years.* Surviving examples of prehistoric artworks like cave paintings and figurines prove that making and using art is essential to who we are as human beings – much more even than written language, which only came around many millennia later. Although we may struggle to understand their meanings, these vivid images painted or etched onto cave walls or fashioned out of stone and bone are fascinating and tangible links to human ancestors from unimaginable long ago. They are surprisingly easy to connect to – often much more so than artworks created substantially closer to our own time. The fact that we still react so powerfully to these ancient examples today should cure anyone of the notion that art is intimidating or only for the initiated.
*In truth, we should probably take that statistic with a healthy grain of salt. Between new discoveries and the uncertainty of dating techniques working this far back, the number changes all the time. But it’s unlikely to get more recent or less impressive. Additionally, artifacts like stones and shells with areas of engraved or painted decoration have been found dating back even earlier – up to 100,000 years old.
Rare, Miraculous, and Mysterious
Very little prehistoric art survives. With dates going as far back as tens of thousands of years, it’s a miracle that anything remains at all, yet prehistoric art has been found in nearly all corners of the globe, though not all of it the same age. Every find is precious and has the potential to completely change what we know about early humans. As durable evidence of symbolic thinking – the ability to contemplate ideas beyond immediate, tangible reality – archaeologists and anthropologists consider art to be a key indicator of fully modern humanity. Other indicators, most notably spoken language, don’t leave many traces in the archaeological record. (To complicate matters, though, there is evidence that Neanderthals also made some art.) Not only did our cave people ancestors have the instinct and ability to make art, but they clearly considered it important enough that they dedicated time and energy to it when their lives must have been daily struggles for survival. Although paleolithic humans probably did not have a concept of “art” comparable to ours, I suspect that they would not at all have agreed with the modern notion that art is merely a luxury divorced from the rest of life.
Characteristics
Despite the diversity of times and places involved, we do see some similarities in the materials and subject matter of prehistoric artworks found all over the world. Prehistoric art tends to be either very small objects (such as statuettes or jewelry) that nomadic early humans could carry around with them or very large works (like cave paintings) installed in sites that people must have returned to regularly. Materials included things like shell, ivory, stone, and natural pigments, presumably alongside more perishable media that haven’t survived. Metal, ceramics, and glass would not come until later.
This art can be abstract or representational; humans, animals, hybrid beings, abstract symbols, and handprints are common subject matter. Some of it is fairly naturalistic, but there is no linear relationship between date and naturalism. This means that, despite what we like to assume, prehistoric art did not get more progressively naturalistic over time. Despite these global similarities, however, we should not assume that the same symbols or art forms had the same meaning everywhere they appear.
It is almost impossible for us to ever truly understand what this art meant to its makers or why they created it. Although prehistoric humans had the same intellectual capacities that we do, we really have no idea how they thought or felt. “Prehistoric” means before writing, so these early people certainly didn’t leave us any records of their beliefs or customs. It’s difficult enough to truly understand the original connotations of artworks made only a few centuries ago. When we’re looking back so many thousands of years, even our most basic ideas about culture, society, religion, gender, and more break down. That these objects just emerge from the mists of time with no keys to their interpretation is both the fascination and the frustration of prehistoric art history. Despite representing rare points of connection to our remote ancestors, we can only guess at their significance and meaning, but their very presence points to something fundamental in the human condition. Being human means being able to understand art. Every single one of us innately has this skill. Celebrate it, enjoy it, and enhance it, but never doubt that it exists within you.
Gain fundamental skills for art lovers – no prior experience necessary.
Resources:
Curtis, Gregory. The Cave Painters, Probing the Mysteries of the World’s First Artists. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
Tedesco, Laura Anne. “Introduction to Prehistoric Art, 20,000–8000 B.C.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (August 2007)
You may also enjoy by 2014 article about prehistoric cave painting for HeadStuff. As you can probably tell, I’ve been fascinated by this topic for quite a while now.