THINKING ABOUT ORIGINS THINKING ABOUT ORIGINS OF MAN AND CULTUREOF MAN AND CULTURE

PART IIIPART III

Belén Pena

HUMAN EVOLUTIONHUMAN EVOLUTION REVIEWREVIEW

CULTURAL TRENDS & CULTURAL TRENDS & HUMAN EVOLUTIONHUMAN EVOLUTION

PALAEOLITHICPALAEOLITHICTHE OLD STONE AGETHE OLD STONE AGE

SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONSOCIAL ORGANIZATION

• Hunter-gatherer analogy– Small group, low population density,

nomadism, kinship groups

• Migration– North America was the last colonized by

hominids.– Beringia (land bridge) between Russia and

Alaska– Asian origin of Native Americans– 30,000 to 12,000 years B.P. was first migration

UPPER PALAEOLITHIC, UPPER PALAEOLITHIC, Hotbed of CultureHotbed of Culture

• 40 – 10k yBP

• Shelters– 15,000 yBP Ukraine– Some made with mammoth bones– Wood, leather working; carpentry

• Tools– From cores to blades– Specialization– Composite tools– Bow and arrow

• Domestication of dogs

• Gathering rather than hunting became the mainstay of human economies.

Top: Straw Hut

Left: Mammoth bone hut

Bottom: Tool progression

EUROPEAN UPPER EUROPEAN UPPER PALEOLITHICPALEOLITHIC

Chatelperronian 40-35 kya mix of Middle & Upper Paleolithic

Aurignacian 34-30 kya split-based points

Solutrian 22-18 kya bi-facial points on blades

Magdalenian 18-11 kya harpoons with barbs

Perigorian 32-22 kya blades

ARCHAIC ARCHAIC H. sapiensH. sapiens ART ART

• Cave Art

– Traces of art found in beads, carvings, and paintings

– Cave paintings in Spain and southern France showed a marked degree of skill

• Mobiliar Art . Female figurines

– 27,000 to 22,000 years B.P.

– Called “venuses,” these figurines depicted women with large breasts and broad hips

• Perhaps it was an example of an ideal type, or perhaps an expression of a desire for fertility

CAVE PAINTINGSCAVE PAINTINGSARCHAIC ARCHAIC H. sapiensH. sapiens CULTURE CULTURE

• Cave paintings– Mostly animals on bare walls– Subjects were animals favored for

their meat and skins– Human figures were rarely drawn

due to taboos and fears that it would somehow harm others

Cave paintings from 20,000 years ago at Vallon-Pont-d’Arc in southern France (left) and from Lascaux, in southwest France

ALTAMIRA ALTAMIRA CAVECAVE

SPAINSPAIN

1st discovered 1868 1st Paleolithic

rupestrian (made of/written

on rock) art “discovery”

Gallery of Bulls found in 1879 (left)

1868 – a hunter followed his dog along a hill (near Altamira) on the northern Spanish Coast…

Maria de Sautuola, 1879daughter of Marcelino Sanz de Sautola

“¡Toros pintados!”

Marcelino Sanz de SautolaMarcelino Sanz de Sautola

1880

"Breves apuntes sobre algunos objetos prehistóricos de la provincia de

Santander"

“Brief notes about some prehistoric objects of the Santander province”

ALTAMIRA CAVE, SPAINALTAMIRA CAVE, SPAIN The Sistine Chapel of Prehistory, 15 kyaThe Sistine Chapel of Prehistory, 15 kya

While Aurignacian cultural period is represented, most Altamira paintings represent the later, Solutrean and Magdalenian periods.

Altamira Cave, Spain Altamira Cave, Spain The Sistine Chapel of Prehistory, 15 kyaThe Sistine Chapel of Prehistory, 15 kya

Critics of de Sautola’s interpretations:

Altamira paintings were,

“the expression of a mediocre student of the modern school…”

More discoveries later

led to professional apologies

One of the

World’s Artistic

Archaeological

Wonders

17 kya

LASCAUX CAVELASCAUX CAVE

Lascaux Cave Landscape

southwestern France

near the Vézère River

Lascaux CaveLascaux Cave

A Teenage Discovery in 1940

Painted GalleryPainted Gallery

Painted Gallery

Entrance (stag)

Painted Gallery

back wall (bison)

Great Hall of the BullsGreat Hall of the Bulls

Great Hall of the BullsGreat Hall of the Bulls

Main GalleryMain Gallery

Black Cow Panel & quadrangular signs

Main Gallery’s end & shaftMain Gallery’s end & shaft

Scene of Dead Man, Scene of Dead Man,

Shaft of the Dead ManShaft of the Dead Man

Sandstone oil lamp

Painting techniquesPainting techniques

Painting techniquesPainting techniques

A l g e r i a

MOBILIARY ARTMOBILIARY ART

• Modelling, carving, engraving

MOBILIARY ARTMOBILIARY ART

MOBILIARY ARTMOBILIARY ART

Algeria Algeria

Tassili N'Ajjer mountain range in the Sahara Desert

“Crying Cows”

Sandstone rock

Shelter

(may be 6 kyold)

Also, panels with extinct giant buffalo…

AlgeriaAlgeria

Apollo Cave, Hun

Mountains,

26-28 kyaAmong the oldest dated paintings in

the world

NamibiaNamibia

26-28 kya

Rock Art,

Namibia

Rock art sites in southern and Rock art sites in southern and sub-Saharan Africasub-Saharan Africa

6 ky-old rock engraving extinct giant buffalo) central South

Africa

approx 1 meter long