Prehistoric Art
Prehistoric Art
In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate cultures (prehistory), beginning somewhere in very late geological history.
Palaeolithic
The earliest possible artwork yet discovered, the Venus of Tan-Tan comes from between 500,000 and 300,000 BCE, during the Middle Acheulean period. Discovered in Morocco, it is about 6 centimeters long and resembles a human figurine. Although this Moroccan artifact may have been created by natural geological processes, it appears to exhibit traces of human tool-work and bears evidence of having been painted; "a greasy substance" on the stone's surface has been shown to contain a mixture of iron and manganese termed ochre, and indicates that it was decorated by someone and used as a figurine, regardless of how it may have been formed. The identity of the artifact as evidence of human artistic expression, however, remains disputed. A more or less comparable object from Israel, the Venus of Berekhat Ram, dated to roughly 250,000 BCE, has elicited similar controversy.
It remains premature, then, to claim with any degree of confidence that art existed before 100,000 years ago.
Blombos Cave Discoveries
In 2002 in Blombos cave, situated in South Africa, stones were discovered engraved with grid or cross-hatch patterns, suggesting to some researchers that early Homo Sapiens were capable of abstraction and production of abstract art or symbolic art. These impressive works date to 70,000 years ago, which makes them about 40,000 years older than the Lascaux -type cave paintings. Other remarkable discoveries form the Blombos cave include shell beads 30,000 years older than previously-known beads. While the datings of the Blombos artifacts are correct, there is no indication that they are indeed actual representations of advanced cognitive behavior similar to the depictional art later in Europe. Several archaeologists including Richard Klein of...
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