Unit 1 - Global Prehistory Flashcards

1
Q

Apollo 11 Stones: Identifiers

A

Style: Paleolithic
Location: Wonderwerk Cave, Namibia
Date: c. 25,500 BCE

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2
Q

Apollo 11 Stones: Form + Function

A

Form: charcoal on 2 pieces of cave stone, maybe used mineral based pigment bc they found ostrich egg painted
Function: unknown, small enough to fit in hand, taken from place to place?

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3
Q

Apollo 11 Stones: Content

A
  • supernatural, part-animal, part-human creature?
  • originally a feline & human legs added later?
  • therianthrope
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4
Q

Apollo 11 Stones: Context

A
  • found in Hun’s Mnts. of Namibia
  • 7 other tablets that contained animal figures
  • found during the Apollo 11 moon landings
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5
Q

Great Hall of Bulls: Identifiers

A

Style: Paleolithic
Location: Lascaux Caves, France
Date: 15,000 BCE

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6
Q

Great Hall of Bulls: Form

A
  • hall of bulls can hold up to 50 people
  • stone tools
  • holes from tree limb scaffolding
  • organic lines, naturalistic
  • colors of brown red, yellow, white, from ocher
  • twisted perspective
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7
Q

Great Hall of Bulls: Function + Content

A

Function: telling a story, hunting strategy, memorializing their kill, offering imagery for future hunt, importance of survival, used for religious rituals, storytelling and preserving history
Content: animals of importance (bulls, horses, cattle, deer), human vs animals

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8
Q

Great Hall of Bulls: Context

A
  • one of 350 sites
  • discovered in 1940, opened to public in 1948, closed in 1963
  • created over centuries
  • stone age
  • replica built to preserve artwork
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9
Q

Camelid Sacrum in the Shape of a Canine: Identifiers

A

Style: Paleolithic
Location: Central Mexico
Date: 14,000 BCE

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10
Q

Camelid Sacrum in the Shape of a Canine: Form

A
  • made from fossilized remains of sacrum-triangular pelvic bone of a camelid (extinct)
  • sacrum = sacred bone at base of spine
  • camelid- camel, alpaca, llama, etc.
  • holes for eyes, nostrils
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11
Q

Camelid Sacrum in the Shape of a Canine: Function

A
  • unknown but prehistoric artisans drew/painted/sculpted what they saw in their everyday life, so choice to render image of canine makes sense
  • spiritual significance of sacrum, pelvic bone is fulcrum of the body and central to internal organs
  • could be a symbol of fertility or connection to ancestry and posterity/ hunting
  • mask?
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12
Q

Camelid Sacrum in the Shape of a Canine: Context

A
  • lost to scholars for 60 years, privately owned
  • discovered 40 ft below surface in Mexico City by a drainage worker in 1870
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13
Q

Running Horned Woman: Identifiers

A

Style: Neolithic
Location: Algeria
Date: c. 6,000 BCE

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14
Q

Running Horned Woman: Form

A
  • hierarchal scale
  • pigment on rock (pictograph)
  • illusion of movement
  • twisted perspective, woman profile, horns frontal
  • conservation issues: walls often sponged with water to enhance image
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15
Q

Running Horned Woman: Function

A
  • emphasized importance of survival
  • recognition of importance animal and human relationship
  • representation of a deity
  • role and importance of women
  • size = importance
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16
Q

Running Horned Woman: Content

A
  • very remote and difficult to access location, assume figure is important
  • dancing and action and interaction
  • her size and horns indicate importance- largest and most elaborate, hunter gatherers did not typically wear horned helmets, figures in bg are smaller
  • white dots = grain
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17
Q

Running Horned Woman: Context

A
  • found in area with high elevation and unique topography
  • hunter gatherer society
  • thousands of paintings were found in the area
  • found in Algeria, Africa
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18
Q

Beaker with Ibex Motifs: Identifiers

A

Style: Neolithic
Location: Susa (Present Day Iran)
Date: c. 4,200 BCE

19
Q

Beaker with Ibex Motifs: Form

A
  • handmade
  • 1 ft tall, 8 lbs
  • registers- birds, dogs, ibex
  • animals reduced to geometric forms
20
Q

Beaker with Ibex Motifs: Function + Content

A

Function: Unknown/ funerary? found in burial ground
Content: various animals

21
Q

Anthropomorphic Stele: Identifiers

A

Style: Neolithic
Location: Arabian Peninsula
Date: c. 4,000 BCE

22
Q

Anthropomorphic Stele: Form + Function + Content

A
  • Form: 3 ft. high, geometric forms, flat
  • Function: grave marker
  • Content: face w/ 2 eyes, flattened nose, necklace, 2 chords, wide belt with double bladed dagger
23
Q

Anthropomorphic Stele: Context

A
  • prehistoric Saudi Arabia was fertile & lush
  • domesticated animals, lived in mountainous regions linked to others by caravan trails
  • temporary sites
  • communication between different groups
  • art history for this region does not begin with Islam
24
Q

Jade Cong: Identifiers

A

Style: Neolithic
Location: Liangzhu, China
Date: c. 3,000 BCE

25
Q

Jade Cong: Form

A
  • cong - tube with a circular inner section and squarish outer section
  • Jade
  • Bi - round disks w holes in the center
26
Q

Jade Cong: Function + Content

A

Function: unknown, represent the earth & heavens?, funerary?
Content: Taotie

27
Q

Jade Cong: Context

A
  • neolithic China
  • found near grave sites
  • sometimes broken or burned, indicating a possible funerary purpose
28
Q

Stonehenge: Identifiers

A

Style: Neolithic
Location: United Kingdom
Date: 2,500 BCE

29
Q

Stonehenge: Form

A
  • henge
  • megaliths
  • built in 3 phases
  • post & lintel- 2 or more vertical elements used to support a bridging horizontal one
  • mortise & tenon- a conical projection from one piece fitting into a hole in the next
30
Q

Stonehenge: Function

A
  • evident that the 2nd stage of construction, Stonehenge was used as a burial site - important figures
  • horseshoes of trilithons frames mark both mid-summer solstice and midwinter sunset
31
Q

Stonehenge: Content

A
  • 3 phases
  • concentric circles of huge stones- lintel stones carved to create the curved lines of a circle
  • huge pits dugged which allows stones to stay upright
32
Q

Stonehenge: Context

A
  • 1st phrase started around 3100 BCE concurrent w first dynasties of ancient Egypt, construction continued next 500 years
  • used machinery to get lintel stones on top of post stones
33
Q

The Ambum Stone: Identifiers

A

Style: Neolithic
Location: Papua New Guinea
Date: c. 1,500 BCE

34
Q

The Ambum Stone: Form/Function/Content

A

Form: 8 in. greywacke (sedimentary stone), stylized
Function: mortar and pestle? ward off danger
Content: animal, likely an echidna, possibly a baby echidna

35
Q

The Ambum Stone: Context

A
  • used for rituals up until 1960s by Enga people, supernatural potency
  • 1930s Christian missionaries show up, many embrace new religion
36
Q

Tlatilco Female Figurine: Identifiers

A

Style: Neolithic
Location: Central Mexico
Date: 1,200 BCE

37
Q

Tlatilco Female Figurine: Form

A
  • small scale, 4 inches high
  • ceramic
  • many are doubled faced and women
  • sharp edged eyes nearly closed
  • painted, detailed hairstyles
  • emphasis on waist and hips not on hands of feet
  • made by hand
38
Q

Tlatilco Female Figurine: Function + Content

A

Function: found in tombs, fertile or religious/ double faced shaman
Content: abnormalities suggest access to supernatural, some with details showing social status

39
Q

Tlatilco Female Figurine: Context

A
  • people of Tlatico flourished 2,000-3,000 years before the Aztec came to power in this Valley
  • we cannot learn more about their settlements because it is beneath modern day Mexico city
  • male figures are rare- usually wear costumes and masks
40
Q

Terra Cotta Fragment: Identifiers

A

Style: Neolithic
Location: Solomon Islands
Date: c. 1,000 BCE

41
Q

Terra Cotta Fragment: Form

A
  • hand shaped
  • low open fire (no kiln)
  • incised geometric patterns
  • anthropomorphic face
  • mix of sand and clay
42
Q

Terra Cotta Fragment: Function + Content

A
  • Function: used to serve and store food (bowls)
    Content: repeat of patterns- strict system, as they moved farther across the islands, designs simplified
43
Q

Terra Cotta Fragment: Context

A
  • sophisticated seafarers, traveling from island to island via canoe: diaspora- the dispersion of any people from their original homeland
  • pottery sherds left behind