Paleolithic Art Flashcards
Anthropomorph (ism)
The attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Burin
A stone tool common in the Upper Palaeolithic. Usually made of flint, it had a beveled edge that was in particular used to carve and engrave bone.
Chance Resemblance
When an object in the natural world unexpectedly, or unintentionally resembles a different object in the natural world
Composite View
A convention of representation in which part of a figure is shown in profile and another part of the same figure is shown frontally; also called twisted perspective.
Culture
The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group. The characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) are shared by people in a place or time.
Hunter-Gatherer
A member of a nomadic people who live chiefly by hunting and fishing, and harvesting wild food.
Ice Age
The cold period between 110,000 and 10,000 years ago when polar icecaps expanded and the sea level fell by up to 500 feet.
Iconography
Collected visual representations or imagery relating to a particular subject, style, or body of art.
Incise
To cut into a surface with a sharp instrument. Also a method of decoration, especially on metal and pottery.
Medium
The material from which an artwork is made.
Nomadic
People who have no fixed residence but move from place to place usually seasonally and within a well-defined territory.
Paleolithic Art
Also known as the “old stone age”. Is an era lasting about 2.5 million years, when primitive stone implements were used. The artwork was produced from 40,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE that focused either on food hunting scenes, animal carvings, or fertility figurines. Its predominant theme was animals. Is considered to be an attempt, by Stone Age peoples, to gain some sort of control over their environment, whether by magic or ritual.
Petroglyph
A design chiseled or chipped out of a rock surface
Pigment
A substance that imparts black or white or a color to other materials. A powdered substance that is mixed with a liquid in which it is relatively insoluble and used especially to impart color to coating materials (such as paints) or to inks, plastics, and rubber
Relief Sculpture
Any sculptural work which projects from but which belongs to the wall, or another type of background surface, on which it is carved or modeled.
Sculpture in the Round
A type of sculpture in which the figures are presented in complete three-dimensional form and are not attached to a flat background
Paleolithic
The earliest part of the Stone Age, characterized by chipped stone tools. The first known period of human culture, this period actually covers almost all of human history, from the first use of stone tools around 2.5 million years ago to the invention of agriculture around 10,000 years ago.
Pictograph
Rock art produced by painting or drawing an image on a rock surface.
Prehistory
Human history in the period before recorded events, known mainly through archaeological discoveries, study, and research.
Rock Art
Archaeological term for any man-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into petroglyphs [carvings into rock surfaces] and pictographs [paintings onto rock surfaces], although there are further forms, expressions and medium
Venus figurines
Any Upper-Palaeolithic statuette portraying a woman, usually carved in the round. Most have been unearthed in Europe, but others have been found as far away as Siberia and distributed across much of Eurasia.
