Paleolithic Changes

Immense changes took place between the Paleolithic and Neolithic time eras. One major change was the evolution of art. During the paleolithic time period, “…humans began making the first consciously manufactured pictorial images” (Kleiner, 16). The art they began creating came in a large variety. “During the Paleolithic period, humankind went beyond the recognition of human and animal forms in the natural environment to the representation of humans and animals (Kleiner, 16). They created portable paintings, sculptures, and figurines. “Art historians are certain, however, that these sculpture were important to those who created them, because manufacturing an ivory figure, especially one a foot tall, was a complicated process (Kleiner, 17). As

time progressed, more art work was discovered in caves, they found paintings and sculptures of animals, such as bison and horses, and even images of naked women were carved out. Once the Neolithic time period began things had began to revolutionize. People went from being hunters and gatherers to herders. They no longer had to spend a majority of their day hunting or gathering food. They learned to grow their own crops, which allowed them more time to do things they enjoyed. Along with having more time on their hands it also meant their permanent settlements would need some sort of protection. “…a stone structure as large as the Jericho tower was a tremendous technological achievement and a testimony to the Neolithic builders’ ability to organize a signification workforce” (Kleiner, 24). They also began to make large-scale sculptures, advancing from the small sculptures made previously. “Whatever their purpose, by their size and sophisticated technique, the Ain Ghazal statutes and busts tower over Paleolithic figurines such as the tiny Venus of Willendorft…” (Kleiner,25). Murals and wall paintings also revolved from singular object paintings into paintings of large groups and a wide variety of differentiating between painting. Another huge change was the architecture. Since, the people created permanent settlements they had time to design and create different architecture pieces. For example, “The megalithic tomb at Newgrange in Ireland, north of Dublin, may date to as early as 3200 BCE and is one of the oldest funerary monuments in Europe” (Kleiner 27). Many changes took place between the two time periods. Art changed from simple, profile pictures of animals to small figurines, which later evolved into large-scale sculptures to detailed paintings telling stories. Lastly, architecture began to take form.
During the Neolithic era they used different techniques to construct buildings.

The first permanent stone fortifications was built in Jericho. They constructed the building using roughly shaped stones laid without mortar (Kleiner, 24). Once Jericho’s inhabitants left their site, a different group of people came to settle there. They used different techniques, “…established a farming community of rectangular mud-brick houses on stone foundations with plastered and painted floors and walls” (Kleiner, 25). The megalithic tomb in Ireland was built in the form of a passage grave. “At Newgrandge, the huge megaliths forming the vaulted passage and the dome are held in place by their own weight without mortar, each stone countering the thrust o neighboring stones. Decorating some of the megaliths are incised spirals and other motifs” (Kleiner, 27). The main chamber used early examples of corralled vaulting and in addition the Newgrandge tomb illuminates sunlight through the passage and the burial chamber during the winter solstice. Nearing the end of the fourth millennium BCE, Neolithic civilization had spread in every diffraction even to small remote areas. “…Hagar Quim is one of many constructed on Malta between 3200 and 2500 BCE” (Kleiner, 27).The builders of Malta constructed the temple by pilling cut stone blocks very carefully in stacked horizontal rows. “To construct the doorways at Hagar Qim, the builders employed the post-and-lintel system in which two upright stones

support a horizontal block. The layout of this and other Neolithic Maltese temples is especially noteworthy ofr the combination of rectilinear and curved from, including multiple apses” (Kleiner, 27-28).
There are many different explanations to why there is art in the Paleolithic caves.

Some say it is because the people believed by painting or engraving the animals on the cave walls put the beast under their control. “Some scholars have even hypothesized that rituals or dances were performed in front of the images and that these rites served to improve the luck the community’s hunters (Kleiner,21). Another explanation is that the animals served as a teaching tool. It allowed them to teach new hunters about the different characteristics each species had that they would encounter. At the other end of the spectrum some experts believe the art in the caves was created in hopes of the species survival. The people in this time period relied on their survival because they depended on them for their food supply and clothes. There are many different theories, but almost all of them have been discredited. To this day, the meaning behind the art work on the cave walls remains a mystery. One may not know exactly why they made the images, but one does know how they created them in the dark caves. “To illuminate the cave walls and ceilings while working, Paleolithic painters lit fires on cave floors and used stone lamps filled with marrow or fat, with a wick, perhaps of moss, as well as simple torches” (Kleiner, 20). In order to draw the paintings, they used many different types of minerals and they used large flat stones as palettes. As for brushes, they used a wide array of objects.

Some Paleolithic painters used twigs and reeds. The variety of different paints and brushes they created is astonishing. As for the paintings, animals were always shown in profile making it unoriginal, in contrast to the brushes and paints they created. “The aim of the earliest painters was to create a convincing image of their subject, a kind of pictorial definition of the animal capturing its very essence, and only the profile view met their needs” (Kleiner, 17). Although one may not know exactly why they created their art in caves, their was a very apparent reason for why they always drew profile pictures of the animals. This allowed them to have a overall definition of what the animal was, allowing no confusion. The profile picture made the animal known by those very characteristics across the board.