Interpretation of prehistoric cave art in Europe

Interpretation of prehistoric cave art in Europe PDF Author: Difrine Madara
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3346056201
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 11

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Book Description
Essay from the year 2019 in the subject Archaeology, grade: A, Kenyatta University, language: English, abstract: This essay offers a critical analysis of various explanations that have been suggested for the meaning of European Paleolithic rock art. Rock or cave art has been recorded in Europe, Americas, Africa, Australia and Asia. In Europe, some of the recorded forms of rock art date back some 36000 years ago. However, archaeological findings show that it is until 18000 years ago that the European rock art flourished. This period is linked to the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (22000-19000 years ago) as climatic conditions began to improve i.e. the most critical point of the Ice Age. Nonetheless, Upper Paleolithic rock art disappeared during the transition period between Paleolithic-Mesolithic (12000 years) as Ice Age environmental conditions faded. After over a century of research on cave art, there still exists no consensus on the meanings of these prehistoric arts. Currently, the widely accepted view on interpretation of the Upper Paleolithic art is that most cave images are manifestations of Shamanic rituals mediated through visionary experience of altered states of consciousness. However, the question on how and why art come it being in Upper Paleolithic during the Ice Age remains largely unanswered. Berghaus argued that there is no single answer to the question but rather several layers of answers highlighting the issues and relationships between art and rituals as well as behavioral, social and cognitive issues within the human evolutionary environment.

Interpretation of prehistoric cave art in Europe

Interpretation of prehistoric cave art in Europe PDF Author: Difrine Madara
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3346056201
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 11

Get Book Here

Book Description
Essay from the year 2019 in the subject Archaeology, grade: A, Kenyatta University, language: English, abstract: This essay offers a critical analysis of various explanations that have been suggested for the meaning of European Paleolithic rock art. Rock or cave art has been recorded in Europe, Americas, Africa, Australia and Asia. In Europe, some of the recorded forms of rock art date back some 36000 years ago. However, archaeological findings show that it is until 18000 years ago that the European rock art flourished. This period is linked to the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (22000-19000 years ago) as climatic conditions began to improve i.e. the most critical point of the Ice Age. Nonetheless, Upper Paleolithic rock art disappeared during the transition period between Paleolithic-Mesolithic (12000 years) as Ice Age environmental conditions faded. After over a century of research on cave art, there still exists no consensus on the meanings of these prehistoric arts. Currently, the widely accepted view on interpretation of the Upper Paleolithic art is that most cave images are manifestations of Shamanic rituals mediated through visionary experience of altered states of consciousness. However, the question on how and why art come it being in Upper Paleolithic during the Ice Age remains largely unanswered. Berghaus argued that there is no single answer to the question but rather several layers of answers highlighting the issues and relationships between art and rituals as well as behavioral, social and cognitive issues within the human evolutionary environment.

Prehistoric Art in Europe

Prehistoric Art in Europe PDF Author: Nancy K. Sandars
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300052862
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
Until around 10,000 BC art in Europe appears to have been in advance of the rest of the world and throws light on the total history of early man. The great masterpieces of cave-painting at Lascaux are well known, and one tradition of early sculpture is from the first surprizingly classical. With the shelter paintings of the Spanish Levant and the clay modelling and painted pottery of eastern Europe in the fourth and third millennia BC fresh artistic problems were tackled. Later still evolved the high technical accomplishment of the metal-workers, and this study concludes with an account of the new departures of Celtic La Tene art of the last four centuries BC.

Cave Paintings and the Human Spirit

Cave Paintings and the Human Spirit PDF Author: David S. Whitley
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615920560
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Whitley, one of the world's leading experts on cave paintings, rewrites the understanding of shamanism and its connection with artistic creativity, myth, and religion by interweaving archaeological evidence with the latest findings of cutting-edge neuroscience.

What Is Paleolithic Art?

What Is Paleolithic Art? PDF Author: Jean Clottes
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022618806X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
The noted archaeologist explores the varieties of prehistoric cave art across the world and offers surprising insights into its purpose and meaning. What drew our Stone Age ancestors into caves to paint in charcoal and red hematite, to watch the likenesses of lions, bison, horses, and aurochs as they flickered by firelight? Was it a creative impulse, a spiritual dawn, a shamanistic conception of the world? In this book, Jean Clottes, one of the most renowned figures in the study of cave paintings, pursues an answer to the “why” of Paleolithic art. Discussing sites and surveys across the world, Clottes offers personal reflections on how we have viewed these paintings in the past, what we learn from looking at them across geographies, and what these paintings may have meant—and what function they may have served—for their artists. Steeped in Clottes’s shamanistic theories of cave painting, What Is Paleolithic Art? travels from well-known Ice Age sites like Chauvet, Altamira, and Lascaux to visits with contemporary aboriginal artists, evoking a continuum between the cave paintings of our prehistoric past and the living rock art of today. Clottes’s work lifts us from the darkness of our Paleolithic origins to reveal surprising insights into how we think, why we create, why we believe, and who we are

The First Signs

The First Signs PDF Author: Genevieve von Petzinger
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476785503
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
"Archaeologist Genevieve von Petzinger looks past the horses, bison, ibex, and faceless humans in the ancient paintings and instead focuses on the abstract geometric images that accompany them. She offers her research on the terse symbols that appear more often than any other kinds of figures--signs that have never really been studied or explained until now"--

The Dawn of European Art

The Dawn of European Art PDF Author: André Leroi-Gourhan
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521244596
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description


Rock Art Of Kentucky

Rock Art Of Kentucky PDF Author: Fred E. CoyJr.
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813158389
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Rock Art of Kentucky is the first comprehensive documentation of the fragile remnants of Kentucky's prehistoric Native American rock art sites. Found in twenty-two of Kentucky's counties, these sites pan a period of more than three thousand years. The most frequent design elements in Kentucky rock art are engravings of the footprints of birds, quadrupeds, and humans. Other design elements include anthropomorphs, mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and abstract and geometric figures. Included in the book are stunning illustrations of the sixty confirmed sites and ten destroyed or questionable sites. In the thirty some years during which this information was collected, there has been an alarming deterioration of many of the sites. Ancient carvings have been destroyed by graffiti or have lost extensive detail because of climatic or environmental conditions, such as acid rain. Although all the Kentucky sites are officially listed on the National register of Historic Places, several no long exist or are at present inaccessible. In addition to making data available for the first time to the national and international archaeological community for further comparative and interpretive studies, Rock Art of Kentucky is also for nonspecialists interested in prehistoric Kentucky and Native American studies.

Cave Art

Cave Art PDF Author: Jean Clottes
Publisher: Phaidon Press
ISBN: 9780714857237
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The discovery of pre-historic decorated caves in western Europe transformed the way we think about the development of art. The earliest known evidence of human artistic endeavor, the awe-inspiring paintings, dramatic engravings and small, delicate sculptures of animals and humans found in these caves still hold a unique power and fascination, more than a century after they were first discovered. In this book, internationally renowned expert on prehistoric art Jean Clottes explores the origins of art and creativity. He takes the reader on a guided tour of 85 caves and rock shelters, many of which are not open to the public, revealing the extraordinary beauty of the works of art within them. Cave Art features more than 300 works from the Paleolithic period, made between 35,000 and 11,000 years ago, presented in geographical and chronological order.This comprehensive, accessible introduction to prehistoric art includes such spectacular works as the famous horses of Lascaux, the buffalo in the Altamira cave in Spain and the ivory carving of a woman's face found at Brassempouy in the south of France, as well as examples from less well-known sites. A wonderful range of animals is presented, from cave bears to reindeer, as well as mysterious abstract signs and schematic representations of human beings. Examples of portable art and sculpture are also included. While most of the caves described in the book are European, Cave Art also includes examples of open-air rock art made after the last ice age at sites around the world. With an unparalleled selection of images, Cave Art offers a unique guided tour of the earliest expressions of human creativity. Each work in Cave Art is illustrated by a color photograph, and accompanied by a clear, vivid explanatory text. A concise introduction tells the story of the discovery of the caves, and gives a clear outline of current knowledge, research and debate on the subject of prehistoric art. The book also includes a chronology, maps of the main caves and sites, a glossary and a list of sites that can be visited.

A Cosmos in Stone

A Cosmos in Stone PDF Author: David J. Lewis-Williams
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 0759116717
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
J. David Lewis-Williams is world renowned for his work on the rock art of Southern Africa. In this volume, Lewis-Williams describes the key steps in his evolving journey to understand these images painted on stone. He describes the development of technical methods of interpreting rock paintings of the 1970s, shows how a growing understanding of San mythology, cosmology, and ethnography helped decode the complex paintings, and traces the development of neuropsychological models for understanding the relationship between belief systems and rock art. The author then applies his theories to the famous rock paintings of prehistoric Western Europe in an attempt to develop a comprehensive theory of rock art. For students of rock art, archaeology, ethnography, comparative religion, and art history, Lewis-Williams' book will be a provocative read and an important reference.

European Landscapes of Rock-Art

European Landscapes of Rock-Art PDF Author: Christopher Chippindale
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134517335
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Rock-art - the ancient images which still scatter the rocky landscapes of Europe - is a singular kind of archaeological evidence. Fixed in place, it does not move about as artefacts as trade objects do. Enigmatic in its meaning, it uniquely offers a direct record of how prehistoric Europeans saw and envisioned their own worlds. European Landscapes of Rock-Art provides a number of case studies, covering arange of European locations including Ireland, Italy, Scandinavia, Scotland and Spain, which collectively address the chronology and geography of rock-art as well as providing an essential series of methodologies for future debate. Each author provides a synthesis that focuses on landscape as an essential part of rock-art construction. From the paintings and carved images of prehistoric Scandinavia to Second World War grafitti on the German Reichstag, this volume looks beyond the art to the society that made it. The papers in this volume also challenge the traditional views of how rock-art is recorded. Throughout, there is an emphasis on informal and informed methodologies. The authors skilfully discuss subjectivity and its relationship with landscape since personal experience, from prehistoric times to the present day, plays an essential role in the interpretation of art itself. The emphasis is on location, on the intentionality of the artist, and on the needs of the audience. This exciting volume is a crucial addition to rock-art literature and landscape archaeology. It will provide new material for a lively and greatly debated subject and as such will be essential for academics, non-academics and commentators of rock art in general.