GLOBAL Prehistory

Material from Valerie M. Park, gratefully used with permission.
250 List
NEED TO KNOW DATES

PALEOLITHIC: 25,000 BCE

NEOLITHIC: 5,000 BCE

Paleolithic Art:          40,000-8,000 BCE in the Near East
"Old Stone Age"         40,000-4,000 BCE in Europe
(Woman of Willendorf, Feline-headed statue, Lascaux Caves, Catal Hoyuk)
  • Hunter-Gatherers, Nomadic

Neolithic Art:           8,000- 3,000 BCE in the Near East
"New Stone Age"     4,000- 2,000 BCE in Europe
(Stonehenge)
  • Cultivated, raised livestock, organized settlements

KEY IDEAS
  • 75,000 BCE: Stick of ochre (a pigment of the earth, brown/yellow) are engraved in Blombos Cave, South Africa, 61,000 years before the Lascaux caves!
  • Earliest works are cave paintings and portable sculptures
  • Conjectures are made about the meaning of prehistoric works
  • No one single function and the purpose can only be guessed 
  • Monuments like Stonehenge show that people were able to build structures made of the post and lintel system.
  • The need to create is one of the strongest human impulses.
  • Focus on materials indigenous to the environment/geography
  • Since context is largely unknown, focus on original location and content


CHARACTERISTICS OF PAINTINGS
  • Animal figures dominate- usually with a dark outline
  • Humans represented as stick figures, negative handprints
  • Lascaux Caves, 15,000- 13,000 BCE, France
  • Altimira Caves, Spain
CHARACTERISTICS OF  ARCHITECTURE
  • Shelters out of large animal bones
  • Post and lintel systems (most basic type of architecture)
  • Stonehenge, possibly
CHARACTERISTICS OF SCULPTURE
  • All in-the-round sculpture is portable
  • Some human representations have emphasis on certain body parts
  • Carvings on cave walls utilize natural formations in the rock 



UNIT 1 REVIEW
​Good to review, print, study

Global Prehistory AP Curriculum
Essential Knowledge & Notes
Good to review, print, study

​Content Area 1: Global Prehistory 
30,000–500 B.C.E. (11 WORKS) 
  1. 1. Apollo 11 stones. Namibia. c. 25,500–25,300 B.C.E. Charcoal on stone.
  2. 2. Great Hall of the Bulls. Lascaux, France. Paleolithic Europe. 15,000–13,000 B.C.E. Rock painting.
  3. 3. Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine. Tequixquiac, central Mexico. 14,000– 7000 B.C.E. Bone.
  4. 4. Running horned woman. Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria. 6000–4000 B.C.E. Pigment on rock.
  5. 5. Beaker with ibex motifs. Susa, Iran. 4200–3500 B.C.E. Painted terra cotta.
  6. 6. Anthropomorphic stele. Arabian Peninsula. Fourth millennium B.C.E. Sandstone.
  7. 7. Jade cong. Liangzhu, China. 3300–2200 B.C.E. Carved jade.
  8. 8. Stonehenge. Wiltshire, UK. Neolithic Europe. c. 2500–1600 B.C.E. Sandstone.
  9. 9. The Ambum Stone. Ambum Valley, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. c. 1500 B.C.E. Greywacke.
  10. 10. Tlatilco female figurine. Central Mexico, site of Tlatilco. 1200–900 B.C.E. Ceramic.
  11. 11. Terra cotta fragment. Lapita. Solomon Islands, Reef Islands. 1000 B.C.E. Terra cotta (incised). 
VOCABULARY
1. PALEOLITHIC
2. NEOLITHIC
3. SCHEMATIC
4. SHAMAN
5. ABSTRACTION
6. HUNTER-GATHERER
7. RITUAL
8. COSMOS
9. CERAMICS
10. MONOLITHIC
13. ANTHROPOMORPHIC
14. MOTIFS
15. PROFILE
16. SILHOUETTE
17. CONTOUR LINES
18. BAS RELIEF
19. GEOMETRIC
20. STYLIZED
21. STELE
22. SONG
23. INCISE
24. SUBTRACTIVE
25. MEGALITH
26. TRILITHON
27. POST AND LINTEL