Credit Lines
This small figurine from Austria is one of the earliest known depictions of the human body
What is the Venus of Willendorf (ca. 28,000-25,000 BCE, limestone)
The Apollo 11 Stones were created with this material on stone slabs.
What is charcoal and ochre pigment on stone?
The Great Hall of the Bulls shows animals in this type of profile.
What is a composite profile? (twisted perspective)
One theory about the Lascaux cave paintings is that they were used for this purpose related to hunting.
What is sympathetic magic? (to ensure hunting success).
What is a Megalith?
This cave painting in France features overlapping bulls, horses and deer.
What is the Great Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux Cave, France (ca. 15,000-13,000 BCE, pigment on rock)?
This Paleolithic site used natural products to create paint: charcoal, iron ore, plants.
What is the Great Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux, France?
The Venus of Willendorf's enlarged hips, breasts, and belly suggest this function.
What is a fertility symbol/ health and survival?
Some scholars suggest the Camelid Sacrum was a symbol of this vital essence of life.
What is fertility, rebirth, or connection to the spirit world?
This helps researchers understand the relative order of events by analyzing the vertical layering of sediments or cultural deposits.
What is Stratification?
This carved bone resembling a wolf/dog was found in Tequixquiac, Central Mexico.
What is the Camelid sacrum (14,000-7,000 BCE)?
The Ambum Stone from Papua New Guinea was carved using tools made of this harder stone.
What is carved greywacke with stone tools?
The Jade Cong from Liangzhu, China, was buried in tombs and likely symbolized this.
What is spiritual/ ritual power connection to deities or heaven /earth?
The Running Horned Woman may depict this type of figure, showing both human and spiritual qualities.
What is a goddess, deity, or shamanic figure?
"Old Stone Age," a prehistoric era of human history characterized by the use of stone tools and the emergence of art forms like cave paintings, sculptures, and figurines.
What is Paleolithic?
This African rock painting depicts a female figure with horns on her head.
What is the Running Horned Woman, Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria (ca.6000-4000 BCE, pigment on rock)?
The Lapita Terra Cotta Fragments from the Pacific used this methods of decoration.
What is incised patterns and stamping into clay?
The Ambum Stone may have been used in this type of ritual.
What is fertility or shamanistic ritual?
The outer rectangular shape symbolizes the earth and the inner circular whole represents the sky.
What is the Jade Cong?
A symbol or figure with two heads.
What is bicephalic?
This Neolithic site in England has a circle of megaliths aligned with the solstices.
What is Stonehenge (ca. 2500-1600 BCE, sandstone, Wiltshire, UK)?
This prehistoric work was made by arranging stones in concentric circles and post- and- lintel construction.
What is Stonehenge?
The function of Stonehenge aligns with which astronomical event?
What is summer and winter solstices? (solar calendar).
One interpretation of the Ambum Stone is that it represents this animal, valued for fertility and sustenance.
What is an echidna or anteater? (associated with fat, reproduction, and ritual importance).
"New Stone Age," marks the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer life to settled societies based on agriculture and animal domestication.
What is the Neolithic Period?