Made
between 20,000 and 8000 years ago, the Vallon-Pont d'Arc and
Lascaux cave paintings in France are among the earliest known
art. Vallon-Pont d'Arc inlcudes more than 200 black and red
wall paintings using ochre (an iron based mineral varying colour
from yellow to red). Pictures include horses, rhinos, lions,
bison, wild ox, bears, a panther, an owl, ibex, reindeer, plus
now extinct mammoths and megaloceros.
This carving from France, made of reindeer antler, is up to
15,000 years old. The artist shows a bison lying down, with
head turned back, grooming itself with its tongue. The mark
of a great artist is often knowing when to stop. Here just enough
carving has been done, in combination with the natural shape
of the antler, to give a very real view of a bison. The artist
was also obviously a good observer. Here we see a peaceful view
of a bison at rest engaged in a contented activity. Anyone who
has grown up in the country and has watched cattle in a field
will have seen just this kind of thing many times. To this artist,
this bison was not just something to be hunted--a steak on four
legs!--but he or she was able to appreciate an animal, that
almost always was on the alert against predators, enjoying an
all too brief time of pure enjoyment. The ability to give a
deeper meaning to the everyday happenings in life is the mark
of a true artist. Even 15,000 years later, we today could not
have taught this artist anything he did not already know.
The Lepenski Vir site on the Danube River, from 5000 BC, show
the Old Stone Age hunter-gatherer people were now living in
permanent settlements composed of one or more extended families.
These were the forerunner of towns and cities as we would know
them. About 200 to 300 people would have lived here. The "houses"
resembled tents built from skins stretched over wood uprights.
But they were laid out along ordered streets, and this shows
some form of centralized planning was used. The Lepenski Vir
people also made stone sculptures.
Lepenski
Vir
25
years ago / 50 years ago / 80
years ago / 125 years ago /
150 years ago
250 years ago / 400
years ago / 700 years ago /
1,200 years ago
1,500 years ago / 2,000
years ago / 3,000 years ago
/ 4,000 years ago / 5,000
years ago / 10,000 years ago
