Transcript Paleolithic/Neolithic Periods

Paleolithic Age vs.
Neolithic Age
Nomads turned Farmers
Paleolithic Age
• Old Stone Age
– 2 million BC to 10,000 BC
• People were nomadic
• Lived in clans of 20-30 people
• Men hunted/fished, women gathered wild
fruits/nuts/roots
• People depended entirely on their
environment for their survival –especially
the climate
Paleolithic Age…
• Made simple tools and weapons out of the
materials at hand
– Stone, bone, wood
• Developed a spoken (oral) language
• Invented clothing (wrapped animal skins
around their bodies) to protect themselves
from the environment
• Lived in caves & built fires
Paleolithic Age & Cave Art
• Found all over Europe, Asia, Australia & Africa
• Painted deer, horses, buffalo, bulls, cows, &
stick-figure people. Beginning 35K to 40,000
years ago. Depiction of humans begin 30K –
35,000 ago.
• Lie deep in the caves. Why?
• Main colors were red & black, with a little yellow,
maroon & violet.
– Paint was made out of materials ground into animal
fats.
• The following pictures are from a Cave in
Lascaux, France:
Bison
Stag & Reindeer
Great Hall of Bulls
Bull, Red & Brown Horses
Red Bull
Swimming Stags
Two Bulls
Horse
Group of
Bull, Horses,
Stags
Five Horses & a Cow
Caves in Argentina
Caves in Indonesia
Cave Art Australia
Australia
Cave Art…
• Recap:
1) What type of materials did early man use
to paint on the walls of caves?
2) What colors were used the most in their
cave art?
3) In what part of the world is most cave art
found?
Cave Art…
• Explore & Analyze:
4) Which was your favorite painting? Why?
5) How realistic or abstract are the paintings
of early man? What could this tell us
about them? Why do you think early man
chose the subjects (i.e. the objects of the
paintings) they did for their
painting/drawings?
Religion in the Paleolithic Age
• Cave Art
– Was it religious?
• Small stone statues of pregnant women
– Mother Earth figure, Fertility, Survival?
• Burying dead
• Animism
– Belief that the world was full of spirits and
forces that might reside in animals, objects or
dreams
Lower Paleolithic
2.5 million – 200,000 BCE
Upper Paleolithic
• 18 miniature
sculptures found
between 40,000 –
8,000 BCE
• Venus figurines or
miniatures
Lion Man of Hohlenstien Stadel
• 38,000
• Germany
• Oldest sculpture of
animal/human
• bone
Venus of Gelenberg
• 30,000
• Austria
• Earliest female
figurine
• stone
Venus of Dolni Vestonice
•
•
•
•
29,000
Czech Repulic
Fertility sculpure
Clay (baked at low
temperatures)
Venus of Willendorf
• 25,000
• Germany
• Fertility female
sculpture
• bone
Venus of Monpazier
• 25,000
• France
• Fertility female
sculpture
• rock
Venus Moravany
• 22000
• Slovakia
• Fertility female
sculpture
• Mammoth tusk
• 21,000
• Russia
• Fertility female
sculpture
• Mammoth tusk
Venus of Monruz & Engan
• 13,000 – 10,000 BCE
• Switzerland &
Germany
• Female figurine
• Black jet
Venus of Brassempouy
• 23,000 BCE
• SW France
• Miniature human
depiction
• Ivory
Europe’s Venus Figurines
Mesolithic Age
• Middle Stone Age
– 10,000 to 7,000 BC
• Groups of people started to settle & stay in
one place, but not permanently
Neolithic Age
• New Stone Age
– Started about 7,000 BC
• Learned how to farm, which allowed them
to stay in one place
– Slash & Burn agriculture
•
•
•
•
Built permanent villages
Developed advanced tools
Domesticated plants & animals
Pottery & Weaving Skills
Neolithic Age…
• Neolithic Agricultural Revolution (the
change from hunting and gathering to
farming)
• Led to a growth in population
– Which led to the decline in women’s status, as
men controlled family, economic & political life
• Led to trade & accumulation of wealth
• Led to the development of new technology
– Calendars, plow, arrowhead, ax heads
Stonehenge
An
archeological
 An
Archeological
site in
England built
during the
Neolithic Age
(finished in
the Bronze
Age)
Aleppo & Jericho
Aleppo and
Jericho are
examples of
early cities in
the Fertile
Crescent
studied by
Archaeologists.
Catalhoyuk
• Catalhoyuk is an
example of a
Neolithic
settlement
currently under
excavation in
Anatolia (Turkey).
Paleolithic vs. Neolithic
• Food: Hunting and
gathering
• Dwellings: Caves,
nomadic people
• Technology: Digging
sticks, spears, axes, &
spoken language
• Religion & Art: Cave
paintings, religious
statues, belief in afterlife
• Food: Farming,
domesticated animals
• Dwellings: Permanent
villages, stone houses
• Technology: Stone tools,
polished ax heads,
arrowheads, weaving
cloth, calendar, wheel
• Religion & Art: Jewelry,
buried dead in earthen
tombs