anatoly's art history: the stone age part i
TRANSCRIPT
about 3.5 million years, ending between6000-2000 BCE
Anatoly "Tony" Vanetik
The Stone Age
The Stone Agebackground
Anatoly "Tony" Vanetik
While the Roman Empire lasted quite some time, it doesn’t quite
compare to the duration of the Stone Age, typically recognized as
lasting almost 3.5 million years, ending around 2500 BCE.
It encompasses an Ice Age, the new stone age and the first
permanent human settlements, as we switched from our nomadic
ways to more permanent abodes.
The Stone AgeCave paintings-What did they use?
Anatoly "Tony" Vanetik
By far, the most popular and wellknown pieces of Stone Age art are
the cave paintings that are still being discovered after millennia of
being lost, buried or hidden.
Ground minerals, bones, charcoal and other naturally occurring
materials were used as pigment, ground and often blown onto the
surface of a cave wall.
The Stone AgeCave paintings-The purpose
Decoration?
The exact purpose of the paintings is still hotly debated. Like some of
the art we’ve grown accustomed to seeing today, cave art was once
thought to be used as a means of simple decoration, the same way
you might hang a picture on the wall of your living room to create a
welcoming environment to guests.
These areas were determined to not have been longterm habitats
for cavemen and women, and therefore were unlikely to have been
used for decoration.
Nope.
Anatoly "Tony" Vanetik
The Stone AgeCave paintings-The purpose
Summoning animals?
Some claim that the purpose was to summon animals; they may
have believed that by painting buffalo or deer on the walls, more
buffalo or deer would begin appearing, creating more potential food
for the hunters of the tribes.
Clearly, divine intervention played a large part in the paintings.
Anatoly "Tony" Vanetik
The Stone AgeCave paintings-The purpose
Communication?
A leading theory on the purpose of the paintings wasn’t that they
were necessarily to summon animals or a result of shaman trances,
but simply to communicate.
Cave paintings that featured horses, buffalo and spears being thrown
could simply have been to tell a story of an epic hunting battle, warn
others of predators that were seen lurking nearby, and to exchange
ideas and thoughts.
Anatoly "Tony" Vanetik
