Apollo 11
Date: c. 25,500-25,300 B.C.
Period/Style: Global Prehistory
Artist or Architect: N/A
Original Location: The Apollo 11 Cave in the Huns Mountains of southwestern Namibia
Material/technique: Charcoal on stone
Function: N/A
Context: Found in the Apollo 11 Cave in the Huns Mountains of southwestern Namibia with unusual precision for ancient rock art. The stones are engraved with geometric line designs and representations of animal.
Descriptive Terms: Stone, charcoal, geometric line designs, animal representations, realistic
Great Hall of the Bulls
Date: 15,000-13,000 B.C.E
Period/Style: Global Prehistory
Artist or Architect: N/A
Patron: Early humans in Lascaux, France
Original Location: Cave walls near Lascaux, France
Material/Technique: Natural rock contours to show volume of the animals
Function: Prehistoric hunters believed that they had control of the animals by painting them on the walls. They also believed the more lifelike the animal was, the more magical power the animal had.
Context: The painting took place in France, and has to do with hunter-gatherer society, concerns with food, survival, and procreation.
Descriptive terms: Profile, contour, limited color, rock walls
Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine
Date: 14,000-7000 B.C.E.
Period/Style: Global Prehistory
Artist or Architect: N/A
Patron: Early humans in Mesoamerica
Original Location: Tequixquiac, central Mexico
Material/Technique: Carving of animal pelvic bones
Function: To house the spiritual essence of a hunted animal, a ceremonial mask
Context: used as a mask, traditionally thought to be simultaneously located in an Otherworld.
Descriptive terms: Carved, bones, rough, spiritual, symbolic
Running horned woman
Date: 6000-4000 B.C.E.
Period/Style: Global Prehistory
Artist or Architect: N/A
Patron: N/A
Original Location: Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria
Material/Technique: Pigment on rock
Function: Some scholars have interpreted the woman as a horned deity instead of a human wearing ceremonial headgear. The meaning of most African rock art remains uncertain.
Context: on the rock walls and displays varied human and animal activities.
Descriptive Terms: Rock wall, pigments, supernatural beings, symbolic
Bushel with ibex motifs
Date: 4200-3500 B.C.E.
Period/Style: Global Prehistory
Artist/Architect: N/A
Patron: Inhabitants of Susa
Original Location: Susa, Iran
Material/technique: Painted terra cotta
Function:Funerary object
Context: Given to the deceased during a secondary burial.
Descriptive Terms: Painted, decorated, large, vase
Anthropomorphic stele
Date: Fourth Millennium B.C.E.
Period/Style: Global Prehistory
Artist/Architect: N/A
Patron:the Nabataeans
Original Location: Arabian Peninsula
Material/Technique: Sandstone
Function: unknown, but associated with religious or burial practices
Context: some are carved in surrounding sandstone cliffs by many Arabian tombs. Earliest known works of art from the Arabian Peninsula
Descriptive Terms: Sandstone, carved, distinctive belted robe and double-bladed sword (may have been unique to this region)
Jade Cong
Date: 3300-2200 B.C.E.
Period/Style: Global Prehistory
Artist/Architect: N/A
Patron: Liangzhu inhabitants
Original Location: Liangzhu, China
Material/technique: Carved Jade
Function: Completely unknown
Context:The principal decoration on cong of the Liangzhu period was the face pattern, which may refer to spirits or deities
Descriptive Terms: Carved, cong, jade, Liangzhu culture
Stonehenge
Date:2500-1600 B.C.E.
Period/Style: Global Prehistory
Artist/Architect: N/A (unknown)
Patron: N/A
Original Location: Wiltshire, UK
Material/Technique: Sandstone
Function:Marker of the midsummer solstice.
Context: worked within the context of existing archaeological knowledge.
Descriptive Terms: Stiff, rigid, stone, simple, mathematical
The Ambum Stone
Date: c. 1500 B.C.E.
Period/Style: Global Prehistory
Artist/Architect: N/A
Patron:N/A
Original Location: Ambum Valley, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea
Material/technique: Greywacke
Function: Considered sacred and credited with supernatural powers by present day people of the region.
Context: Ambum stone has a higher level of figurative qualities than other pestles and may be in a unique class of its own. Discovered in a cave, it is one of the earliest known Pacific works of art.
Descriptive terms: birds, stone, pestles, different depictions
Tlatico female figurine
Date: 1200-900 B.C.E.
Period/Style: Global Prehistory
Artist/Architect: N/A
Patron: N/A
Original Location: Central Mexico, site of Tlatilco
Material/Technique: Ceramic and paint
Function:suggested they are related to women's roles in regards to nature.
Context: The figure is completely nude and revealing an exagerrated contrast in proportions. Tlatico figurines show a fascination with physical deformities.
Descriptive Terms: traces of pigment, exagerrated, fertility, symbolism
Terra cotta fragment
Date: 1000 B.C.E.
Period/Style: Global Prehistory
Artist/Architect: N/A
Patron: N/A
Original Location: Solomon Islands, Reef Islands
Material/Technique: Terra cotta (incised)
Function: piece of pottery used for cooking, serving, and storing
Context: Lapita refers to an ancient Pacific culture that archaeologists believe to be the common ancestor of the contemporary cultures of Polynesia, Micronesia, and some areas of Melanesia. Lapita art is known for ceramics, which have intricate repeating geometric patterns that sometimes include anthropomorphic faces and figures.
Descriptive Terms: Ceramic, pottery, geometric patterns