Try Magic Notes and save time.Try it free
Try Magic Notes and save timeCrush your year with the magic of personalized studying.Try it free

Art History Final

3.3 (3 reviews)
Get a hint
Apollo 11 Stones
Click the card to flip 👆
1 / 124
1 / 124
Terms in this set (124)
Apollo 11 Stones
- Namibia. c. 25,500-25,300 BCE. Charcoal on Stone.
- South west coast of Africa
- Homo sapians, anatomically modern humans who evolved from an earlier species of hominids
- Unidentified animal form draw resembling a feline in appearance but with human hind legs that were probably added later
- Possibly a therianthrope, part human and part animal
- May suggest a complex system of shamanistic belief
- A site of ritual significance used by many over thousands of years
- Stone offers evidence that Homo sapiens in the Middle Stone Ages were not anatomically modern, but behaviorally modern too
- These early humans possessed the new and unique capacity for modern symbolic thought long before what was previously understood.
- Art mobilier, small scale prehistoric art that is moveable, not unique to Africa
Image: Apollo 11 Stones
The Great Hall of the Bulls
- Lasacaux, France. Paleolithic Europe. 15,000-13,000 BCE. Rock painting.
- Given the large scale of many of the animal images, we can presume that the artist worked deliberately
- Speculated that the images play a role in "hunting magic"
- Suggests that the prehistoric people who used the cave may have believed that a way to overpower their prey involved creating images of it during rituals designed to ensure a successful hunt
- Survival was entirely dependent on successful foraging and hunting
- Another theory suggests that the images communicate narratives
- Most famous of all of the known caves in the region
Image: The Great Hall of the Bulls
Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine
- Tequixquiac, central Mexico. 14.000-7000 BCE. Bone.
- Found at a depth of about 40 feet
- Geography and climate of this area was considerably different in the prehistoric era than it is today
- Sculpture was made from the now fossilized remains of the sacrum of an extinct camelid
- Sacrum = large triangular bone at the base of the spine
- Holes were cut into the end of the bone to represent nostril
- The two circular spaces that represent the nasal cavities were carefully carved and are perfectly symmetrical and were likely shaped by a sharp instrument
- Because the carving was made in a period before writing had developed, it is likely impossible to know what the sculpture meant
- Sacrum was seen as sacred and some Mesoamerican Indian languages named this bone with words referring to sacredness and divine
Image: Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine
Running horned woman
- Tassili. n'Affer, Algeria. 6000-4000 BCE. Pigment on rock
- Algeria is Africa's largest country and most of it falls within the Sahara Desert. Hosts a rich rock art concentration
- Water and sand erosion in Tassili n'Ajjer carved out a landscape of thin passageways, large arches, and high-pillared rocks
- Region has been inhabited since Neolithic times, when the environment was much wetter and sustained a wider extent of flora and fauna
- Images are most often figurative and frequently depict animals, are also many images of human figures, sometimes with accessories such as weaponry or clothing
Image: Running horned woman
Beaker with ibex motifs
- Susa, Iran. 4200-3500 BCE. Painted terra cotta.
- Animal forms and geometric patterns
- People lived in a very fertile river valley
- Around this time they built a temple on a mountain top
- Would burry their dead with pottery
- Before writing, so we have no idea why they would do this
- Handmade, painted clay
- Quite thin
- Perhaps made on a slow wheel
- Circular forms balanced by linear forms balanced by geometric forms
- Mountain goat occupies the largest rectangle
- Not a naturalistic image, his body is reduced to two geometric shapes (triangles)
- Detailed, can see his beard, ears, tails, etc...
- Above him is a pattered band depicting an elongated dog
- Above the dogs are rows of birds
- Geometric elements reflect the shape of the object itself
- Unidentifiable objects like criss-crossed pattern
- Maybe the patterns had meaning
- Maybe the animals were associated with things with fertility
- Pots were found because and excavator was looking for the tomb of David and came across this cemetery
Image: Beaker with ibex motifs

Flickr Creative Commons Images

Some images used in this set are licensed under the Creative Commons through Flickr.com.
Click to see the original works with their full license.