Primitive art: how man became man - Images. Primitive art. Consolidating new material

The discovery of an ancient rock painting in a cave in Gibraltar, which scientists believe was made by Neanderthals about 39,000 years ago, has become a sensation in the scientific world. If the discovery turns out to be true, then history will have to be rewritten, because it turns out that Neanderthals were not at all primitively stupid savages, as is commonly believed today. In our review of ten unique rock paintings that were found in different times and created a real sensation in the world of science.

1. White Shaman's Rock

This 4,000-year-old ancient rock art is located in the lower Peco River in Texas. The giant image (3.5 m) shows central figure surrounded by other people performing some rituals. It is assumed that the figure of a shaman is depicted in the center, and the picture itself depicts the cult of some forgotten ancient religion.

2. Kakadu Park

Kakadu National Park is one of the most... beautiful places for tourists in Australia. It is especially valued by its rich cultural heritage- The park contains an impressive collection of local Aboriginal art. Some of the rock art at Kakadu (which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site) is almost 20,000 years old.

3. Chauvet Cave

Another UNESCO World Heritage Site is located in the south of France. More than 1000 different images can be found in the Chauvet Cave, most of them are animals and anthropomorphic figures. These are some of the most ancient images known to man: their age dates back to 30,000 – 32,000 years. About 20,000 years ago, the cave was filled with stones and has remained in excellent condition to this day.

4. Cueva de El Castillo

In Spain, the “Castle Cave” or Cueva de El Castillo was recently discovered, on the walls of which the oldest cave paintings in Europe were found, their age is 4,000 years older than all the rock paintings that were previously found in the Old World. Most of the images feature handprints and simple geometric shapes, although there are also images of strange animals. One of the drawings, a simple red disk, was made 40,800 years ago. It is assumed that these paintings were made by Neanderthals.

5. Laas Gaal

Some of the oldest and best-preserved rock paintings on the African continent can be found in Somalia, at the Laas Gaal (Camel Well) cave complex. Despite the fact that their age is “only” 5,000 – 12,000 years, these rock paintings are perfectly preserved. They depict mainly animals and people in ceremonial clothing and various decorations. Unfortunately this one is wonderful cultural site cannot receive World Heritage status because it is located in an area constantly at war.

6. Bhimbetka Cliff Dwellings

The cliff dwellings at Bhimbetka represent some of the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent. In natural rock shelters on the walls there are drawings that are about 30,000 years old. These paintings represent the period of development of civilization from the Mesolithic to the end of prehistoric times. The drawings depict animals and people engaged in daily activities such as hunting, religious ceremonies and, interestingly, dancing.

7. Magura

In Bulgaria, the rock paintings found in the Magura cave are not very old - they are between 4,000 and 8,000 years old. They are interesting because of the material that was used to apply the images - guano (droppings) bat. In addition, the cave itself was formed millions of years ago and other archaeological artifacts have been found in it, such as the bones of extinct animals (for example, the cave bear).

8. Cueva de las Manos

The "Cave of Hands" in Argentina is famous for its extensive collection of prints and images of human hands. This rock painting dates back to 9,000 - 13,000 years. The cave itself (more precisely, the cave system) was used by ancient people 1,500 years ago. Also in Cueva de las Manos you can find various geometric shapes and images of hunting.

9. Altamira Cave

Paintings found in the Altamira cave in Spain are considered a masterpiece ancient culture. The stone paintings from the Upper Paleolithic period (14,000 – 20,000 years old) are in exceptional condition. As in Chauvet Cave, a collapse tightly sealed the entrance to this cave about 13,000 years ago, so the images remained in their original form. In fact, these drawings are so well preserved that when they were first discovered in the 19th century, scientists thought they were fakes. It took a long time until technology made it possible to confirm the authenticity of rock art. Since then, the cave has proven so popular with tourists that it had to be closed in the late 1970s because large amounts of carbon dioxide from visitors' breath began to destroy the paintings.

10. Lascaux Cave

It is by far the best known and most significant collection of rock art in the world. Some of the most beautiful 17,000-year-old paintings in the world can be found in this cave system in France. They are very complex, very carefully made and at the same time perfectly preserved. Unfortunately, the cave was closed more than 50 years ago due to the fact that, under the influence of carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors, the unique images began to collapse. In 1983, a reproduction of part of the cave called Lascaux 2 was discovered.

Of great interest are also. They will be of interest not only to professional historians and art critics, but also to anyone interested in history.

Primitive art developed in primitive society. A primitive society is a period in human history before the invention of writing.

Primitive society since the 19th century. also called prehistoric. But since writing appeared in different nations at different times, the term “prehistoric” is either not applied to many cultures, or its meaning and time boundaries do not coincide with humanity as a whole.
Primitive society is divided into the following periods:
Paleolithic(ancient Stone Age) – 2.4 million-10000 BC e. The Paleolithic is divided into early, middle and late.
Mesolithic(Middle Stone Age) – 10,000-5000 BC. e.
Neolithic(New Stone Age) – 5000-2000 BC. e.
Bronze Age– 3500-800 BC e.
Iron Age– from about 800 BC e.

Fine art of the Paleolithic

During this period, fine art was represented by geoglyphs (images on the surface of the earth), dendroglyphs (images on tree bark) and images on animal skins.

Geoglyphs

Geoglyph is a geometric or figurative pattern applied to the ground, usually over 4 meters long. Many geoglyphs are so large that they can only be seen from the air. The most famous geoglyphs are located in South America - on the Nazca Plateau, in southern Peru. On the plateau, which stretches for more than 50 km from north to south and 5-7 km from west to east, there are about 30 drawings (bird, monkey, spider, flowers, etc.); also about 13 thousand lines and stripes and about 700 geometric shapes(primarily triangles and trapezoids, as well as about a hundred spirals).

Monkey
The drawings were discovered in 1939, when American archaeologist Paul Kosok flew over the plateau in an airplane. Great contribution to research mysterious lines belongs to the German doctor of archeology Maria Reich, who began working on their study in 1941. But she was able to photograph the drawings from the air only in 1947.

Spider
The Nazca Lines have still not been solved; many questions remain: who created them, when, why and how. Many geoglyphs cannot be seen from the ground, so it is assumed that with the help of such patterns the ancient inhabitants of the valley communicated with the deity. In addition to the ritual, the astronomical significance of these lines is also possible.

Analogues of Nazca

Palpa plateau on the southern coast of Peru

The Palpa complex is more diverse, both in the complexity of the images and their number, and in the variety of monuments. Palpa is covered with low hills with rugged slopes that turn into mountain ranges. Hills with pictures have almost perfectly smooth tops, as if they were specially leveled before the pictures were applied to them. On the Palpa plateau there are unique drawings, which have no analogues in Nazca. These are geometric figures that clearly carry information encoded in mathematical form.

Giant from the Atacama Desert

The Atacama Desert Giant is a large anthropomorphic geoglyph, the largest prehistoric anthropomorphic figure in the world, 86 m long. The age of the figure is estimated at 9000 years.
This image is located 1370 km from the geoglyphs of the Nazca Desert, on the lonely Cerro Unica mountain in the Atacama Desert (Chile). The image is difficult to identify. This geoglyph can only be seen in full from an airplane. The creators of this image are unknown.

Uffington White Horse

A highly stylized chalk figure, 110m long, created by filling deep trenches with broken chalk on the slope of the 261m limestone White Horse Hill near Uffington in Oxfordshire, England. It is under state protection as the only English geoglyph of prehistoric origin. The creation of the figure dates back to the Early Bronze Age (approximately 10th century BC).
Large drawings also exist in Russia: “Moose” in the Urals, as well as giant images in Altai.

Rock painting

Many rock paintings from the Paleolithic era have survived to this day, mostly in caves. Most of them are found in Europe, as well as in other parts of the world. The oldest known rock painting is, apparently, a scene of a battle of rhinoceroses in the Chauvet Cave, its age is about 32 thousand years.

Image on the wall of the Chauvet cave
The rock paintings are dominated by images of animals, hunting scenes, human figures and scenes of ritual or everyday activities (dances).
All primitive painting was supposedly created in accordance with cults. Many examples of cave painting are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Primitive sculpture

Paleolithic Venus

This name is a general one for many prehistoric figurines of women dating back to the Upper Paleolithic. Figurines are found mainly in Europe, but they are also found far to the east (Malta site in the Irkutsk region).

Venus of Willendorf
These figures are carved from bones, tusks and soft stones. There are also figurines sculpted from clay and fired - one of the oldest examples of ceramics known to science. TO beginning of XXI V. More than a hundred “Venuses” are known, most of which are relatively small in size: from 4 to 25 cm in height.

Megalithic architecture

Megaliths (Greek μέγας - large, λίθος - stone) are prehistoric structures made of large blocks.
Megaliths are common throughout the world, most often in coastal areas. In Europe, they mainly date back to the Bronze Age (3-2 thousand BC). In England there are megaliths from the Neolithic era. There are also megaliths on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, Portugal, parts of France, the west coast of England, Ireland, Denmark, the southern coast of Sweden and Israel. It was widely believed that all megaliths belonged to one global megalithic culture, but modern research refute this assumption.
The purpose of megaliths is not entirely clear. According to some scientists, they served for burials. Other scholars believe that this is an example of communal structures, which required the unification of large masses of people. Some megalithic structures were used to determine the time of astronomical events: solstices and equinoxes. Found in the Nubian Desert megalithic structure, which served for astronomical purposes. This structure is 1000 years older than Stonehenge, which is also considered a kind of prehistoric observatory.

Stonehenge is a megalithic structure in Wiltshire (England). It is a complex of ring and horseshoe-shaped earthen (chalk) and stone structures. Located approximately 130 km from London. It is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world.
There is still no consensus on the purpose of Stonehenge. At different times it was considered either a Druid sanctuary, an ancient observatory, or a burial ground.

Composite dolmen from the Zhane River valley (15 km from Gelendzhik)
Many dolmens are known in Krasnodar region. Dolmens are megalithic tombs of the first half of the 3rd and second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e., related to the dolmen culture of the Middle Bronze Age. Distributed from the Taman Peninsula and further in the mountainous regions of the Krasnodar Territory and Adygea. In the southern part they reach the city of Ochamchira in Abkhazia, and in the north – to the valley of the Laba River. Dolmens were used in the Late Bronze Age and later. In total, about 3000 dolmens are known. Of these, no more than 6% have been studied.
It is sad that these archaeological sites are being destroyed and not preserved. In addition, people far from science create a near-dolmen boom around such objects. Burial grounds become places of constant pilgrimage and even places of residence for an exalted and inadequate public. The media fills various “researchers” with speculation.

He did not recognize himself as a man, but at the same time, he indicates that his consciousness was occupied with completely different images - images of hunting. The animalistic theme in the paintings of primitive hunters is quite natural. The practical significance of the object found emotional reinforcement in the art and mythology of totemism, which explains the origin of the people of a given tribe by birth (or transformation) from a beast.

Materials fine arts allow us to assume that the first impulse to comprehend what is truly human in oneself arises as an awareness of feminine nature and is intuitively felt in relation to a female parent.

Paleolithic Venuses

The first images of humans are the so-called Paleolithic “Venuses”, created in the period of the XXV-XVIII thousand BC. Clay figurines found in many regions of Europe (Czechoslovakia, Italy, France), in the Far East, in Asia - all of them are stylistically very similar to the famous Venus from Willendorf (Lower Austria). Art critics noted the exaggerated signs of gender characteristic of the sculpture (large breasts, bulky belly, possibly indicating pregnancy, heavy wide hips). Absence individual traits(identical proportions, schematically shown limbs, similarity in the depiction of hairstyles, unprocessed faces, sometimes the head is only outlined) indicates that these images emphasized maternal qualities, the generalized features of a woman in her reproductive function. The female body was perceived as a source of life. The emphasized maternal features of the Paleolithic Venuses are a magical guarantee of procreation. In addition, in these small figurines, human features are clearly and naturally reproduced for the first time. In the phylogenetic process of self-knowledge, in contrast to the zoomorphic hypostasis, a person first perceives himself in a female form.

The image of a life-giving woman in primitive art is associated with a pattern of ideas about fertility not only in the human world, but also about the reproduction of animals, about successful fishing and the calendar reproduction of life cycles. The episodic appearance of male characters in Paleolithic painting is included in the same thematic cycle: seasonal fertility in the natural world, the cycle of life and death. Male characters became permanent heroes of art only by the Middle Stone Age (VIII-V millennium BC).

In Mesolithic compositions there is a constant pattern that determines the general style of the images:

• As a rule, these are very dynamic hunting scenes. Note that female Paleolithic images symbolize some ideas, but do not reproduce any plot. The emphasized dynamics of moving figures and the emphasis on the event plan encourages the belief that a person is now aware of himself as an active being. In addition, the hero of Mesolithic art has attributes that characterize meaningful work activity: bows and arrows, boats, chariots.
• In contrast to the naturalistic images of “Venus”, the figures of hunters are depicted very conditionally. Movements are exaggerated, bodies are disproportionate. Female images do not disappear during the Mesolithic era, but they seem to lose their sacred significance. They appear in everyday scenes associated with the extraction of food: rock art from Tassilien-Ajjer and Fezzan in the African Sahara depict women collecting honey, women with cows near huts. Their figures are also conventional and disproportionate; the characters are depicted in action. Gender differences turn out to be insignificant.
• The images of animals preserve the realistic style of the Paleolithic. The schematism of anthropomorphic images in contrast with realistic profile images of animals persists not only in the Neolithic era. Similar features can be observed in the art of the emerging civilizations of Egypt and Crete. Stylistic originality can be explained by dominant semantic images of consciousness. The realism and detail of the depiction of animals indicates special close attention to the object of the hunt.

The different stylistics in the depiction of an animal (realism) and a person (conventionality) may be an indicator that the anthropos of the Middle Stone Age isolated himself from the natural world and contrasted it. He realized that he was different, he overcame his zoomorphism as something inherent to him initially. Material from the site

The tendency to schematize the image of a person is observed in ancient art up to the birth of the styles of large civilizations. This process may reflect a characteristic pattern: the more cultural objects a person surrounds himself with, the less the need to depict his physical appearance. This assumption is confirmed by numerous images of the Bronze Age: petroglyphs of the Central and Central Asia, Altai, Karelia, depicting a man on a chariot, resemble an ornamental pattern in which the eye does not immediately detect the plot. This may mean that a person defines himself not through physical qualities and external properties, but through the objects and attributes of activity and culture created and produced by him.

The conventionality and schematism of the images also indicate that a person is in ancient era represents a tribal, collective being. In the fine arts of the beginning of civilizations, we are everywhere faced with a very generalized image of man. It is enough to recall the geometrized figures in the paintings of ceramic vessels of Homeric Greece, pre-dynastic Egypt, etc. The growth of realistic tendencies is observed only with the intensification of individual manifestations in

Primitive art - the art of the era primitive society. Having emerged in the late Paleolithic around 33 thousand years BC. e., it reflected the views, conditions and lifestyle of primitive hunters (primitive dwellings, cave images of animals, female figurines). Experts believe that the genres of primitive art arose approximately in the following sequence: stone sculpture; rock art; pottery. Neolithic and Chalcolithic farmers and herders developed communal settlements, megaliths, and pile buildings; images began to convey abstract concepts, and the art of ornament developed.

Anthropologists associate the true emergence of art with the appearance of homo sapiens, who is otherwise called Cro-Magnon man. The Cro-Magnons (these people were named after the place where their remains were first found - the Cro-Magnon grotto in the south of France), who appeared from 40 to 35 thousand years ago, were tall people (1.70-1.80 m), slender, strong physique. They had an elongated, narrow skull and a distinct, slightly pointed chin, which gave the lower part of the face a triangular shape. In almost every way they were similar modern man and became famous as excellent hunters. They had well-developed speech, so they could coordinate their actions. They skillfully made all kinds of tools for different occasions: sharp spear tips, stone knives, bone harpoons with teeth, excellent choppers, axes, etc.

The technique of making tools and some of its secrets were passed down from generation to generation (for example, the fact that stone heated over a fire is easier to process after cooling). Excavations at sites of Upper Paleolithic people indicate the development of primitive hunting beliefs and witchcraft among them. They made figurines of wild animals from clay and pierced them with darts, imagining that they were killing real predators. They also left hundreds of carved or painted images of animals on the walls and vaults of caves. Archaeologists have proven that monuments of art appeared immeasurably later than tools—almost a million years.

In ancient times, people used materials at hand for art - stone, wood, bone. Much later, namely in the era of agriculture, he discovered the first artificial material - refractory clay - and began to actively use it for the manufacture of dishes and sculptures. Wandering hunters and gatherers used wicker baskets because they were easier to carry. Pottery is a sign of permanent agricultural settlements.

The first works of primitive fine art belong to the Aurignac culture (Late Paleolithic), named after the Aurignac cave (France). Since that time, female figurines made of stone and bone have become widespread. If the heyday of cave painting came about 10-15 thousand years ago, then the art of miniature sculpture reached a high level much earlier - about 25 thousand years. The so-called “Venuses” belong to this era - figurines of women 10-15 cm high, usually with distinctly massive shapes. Similar “Venuses” have been found in France, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Russia and many other areas of the world. Perhaps they symbolized fertility or were associated with the cult of the female mother: the Cro-Magnons lived according to the laws of matriarchy, and it was through the female line that membership in the clan that revered its ancestor was determined. Scientists consider female sculptures to be the first anthropomorphic, i.e., human-like images.

In both painting and sculpture, primitive man often depicted animals. Addiction primitive man depicting animals is called the zoological or animal style in art, and due to their miniature size, small figures and images of animals are called small-form plastic arts. Animal style is the conventional name for stylized images of animals (or parts thereof) common in ancient art. The animal style arose in the Bronze Age, developed in the Iron Age and in the art of early classical states; its traditions have been preserved in medieval art, V folk art. Initially associated with totemism, images of the sacred beast over time turned into a conventional motif of the ornament.

Primitive painting was a two-dimensional image of an object, and sculpture was a three-dimensional or three-dimensional image. Thus, primitive creators mastered all dimensions existing in contemporary art, but did not master his main achievement - the technique of transferring volume on a plane (by the way, the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, medieval Europeans, Chinese, Arabs and many other peoples did not master it, since the discovery of reverse perspective occurred only in the Renaissance).

In some caves, bas-reliefs carved into the rock, as well as free-standing sculptures of animals, were discovered. Small figurines are known that were carved from soft stone, bone, and mammoth tusks. Main character paleolithic art is a bison. In addition to them, many images of wild aurochs, mammoths and rhinoceroses were found.

Rock paintings and painting are varied in the manner of execution. The relative proportions of the animals depicted (mountain goat, lion, mammoth and bison) were usually not observed - a huge aurochs could be depicted next to a tiny horse. Failure to comply with proportions did not allow the primitive artist to subordinate composition to the laws of perspective (the latter, by the way, was discovered very late - in the 16th century). Movement in cave painting is conveyed through the position of the legs (crossing legs, for example, depicted an animal on the run), tilting the body or turning the head. There are almost no motionless figures.

Archaeologists have never discovered landscape paintings in the Old Stone Age. Why? Perhaps this once again proves the primacy of the religious and the secondary nature of the aesthetic function of culture. Animals were feared and worshiped, trees and plants were only admired.

Both zoological and anthropomorphic images suggested their ritual use. In other words, they performed a cult function. Thus, religion (the veneration of those who were depicted primitive people) and art (the aesthetic form of what was depicted) arose almost simultaneously. Although for some reasons it can be assumed that the first form of reflection of reality arose earlier than the second.

Since images of animals had a magical purpose, the process of creating them was a kind of ritual, therefore such drawings mostly hidden deep in the depths of the cave, in underground passages several hundred meters long, and the height of the vault often does not exceed half a meter. In such places, the Cro-Magnon artist had to work lying on his back in the light of bowls with burning animal fat. However, more often the rock paintings are located in accessible places, at a height of 1.5-2 meters. They are found both on cave ceilings and on vertical walls.

The first discoveries were made in the 19th century in caves in the Pyrenees Mountains. There are more than 7 thousand karst caves in this area. Hundreds of them contain cave paintings created with paint or scratched with stone. Some caves are unique underground galleries (the Altamira cave in Spain is called " Sistine Chapel"primitive art), the artistic merits of which today attract many scientists and tourists. Cave paintings from the Old Stone Age are called wall paintings or cave paintings.

The Altamira Art Gallery stretches over 280 meters in length and consists of many spacious rooms. The stone tools and antlers found there, as well as the figurative images on the bone fragments, were created in the period from 13,000 to 10,000 BC. BC e. According to archaeologists, the cave roof collapsed at the beginning of the new Stone Age. In the most unique part of the cave, the “Hall of Animals,” images of bison, bulls, deer, wild horses and wild boars were found. Some reach a height of 2.2 meters; to look at them in more detail, you have to lie down on the floor. Most of the figures are drawn in brown. The artists skillfully used natural relief protrusions on the rock surface, which enhanced the plastic effect of the images. Along with the figures of animals drawn and engraved in the rock, there are also drawings that vaguely resemble the human body in shape.

In 1895, drawings of primitive man were found in the La Moute cave in France. In 1901, here, in the Le Combatelle cave in the Vézère valley, about 300 images of a mammoth, bison, deer, horse, and bear were discovered. Not far from Le Combatelles in the Font de Gaume cave, archaeologists discovered a whole “ art gallery» - 40 wild horses, 23 mammoths, 17 deer.

When creating cave paintings, primitive man used natural dyes and metal oxides, which he either used in pure form or mixed with water or animal fat. He applied these paints to the stone with his hand or with brushes made of tubular bones with tufts of wild animal hairs at the end, and sometimes he blew colored powder through the tubular bone onto the damp wall of the cave. They not only outlined the outline with paint, but painted over the entire image. To make rock carvings using the deep-cut method, the artist had to use rough cutting tools. Massive stone burins were found at the site of Le Roc de Cerre. The drawings of the Middle and Late Paleolithic are characterized by a more subtle elaboration of the contour, which is conveyed by several shallow lines. Painted drawings and engravings on bones, tusks, horns or stone tiles are made using the same technique.

The Camonica Valley in the Alps, covering 81 kilometers, preserves a collection of rock art from prehistoric times, the most representative and most important that has yet been discovered in Europe. The first “engravings” appeared here, according to experts, 8,000 years ago. Artists carved them using sharp and hard stones. To date, about 170,000 rock paintings have been recorded, but many of them are still awaiting scientific examination.

Thus, primitive art is presented in the following main types: graphics (drawings and silhouettes); painting (images in color, made with mineral paints); sculptures (figures carved from stone or sculpted from clay); decorative arts(stone and bone carving); reliefs and bas-reliefs.

Primitive society(also prehistoric society) - a period in human history before the invention of writing, after which the possibility of historical research based on the study of written sources appears. The term prehistoric came into use in the 19th century. In a broad sense, the word “prehistoric” is applicable to any period before the invention of writing, starting from the beginning of the Universe (about 14 billion years ago), but in a narrow sense - only to the prehistoric past of man. Usually, the context gives indications of which particular “prehistoric” period is being discussed, for example, “prehistoric apes of the Miocene” (23-5.5 million years ago) or “Homo sapiens of the Middle Paleolithic” (300-30 thousand years ago). Since, by definition, there are no written sources about this period left by his contemporaries, information about it is obtained based on data from such sciences as archaeology, ethnology, paleontology, biology, geology, anthropology, archaeoastronomy, palynology.

Since writing appeared among different peoples at different times, the term prehistoric either does not apply to many cultures, or its meaning and time boundaries do not coincide with humanity as a whole. In particular, the periodization of pre-Columbian America does not coincide in stages with Eurasia and Africa (see Mesoamerican chronology, chronology North America, Pre-Columbian chronology of Peru). As sources about the prehistoric times of cultures that until recently were deprived of writing, there can be oral traditions passed down from generation to generation.

Since data about prehistoric times rarely concern individuals and do not even always say anything about ethnic groups, the basic social unit of the prehistoric era of mankind is archaeological culture. All terms and periodizations of this era, such as Neanderthal or Iron Age, are retrospective and largely conventional, and their precise definition is the subject of discussion.

Primitive art- art of the era of primitive society. Having emerged in the late Paleolithic around 33 thousand years BC. e., it reflected the views, conditions and lifestyle of primitive hunters (primitive dwellings, cave images of animals, female figurines). Experts believe that the genres of primitive art arose approximately in the following sequence: stone sculpture; rock art; pottery. Neolithic and Chalcolithic farmers and herders developed communal settlements, megaliths, and pile buildings; images began to convey abstract concepts, and the art of ornament developed.

Anthropologists associate the true emergence of art with the appearance of homo sapiens, who is otherwise called Cro-Magnon man. Cro-Magnons (these people were named after the place where their remains were first found - the Cro-Magnon grotto in the south of France), who appeared from 40 to 35 thousand years ago, were tall people (1.70-1.80 m), slender, strong physique. They had an elongated, narrow skull and a distinct, slightly pointed chin, which gave the lower part of the face a triangular shape. In almost every way they resembled modern humans and became famous as excellent hunters. They had well-developed speech, so they could coordinate their actions. They skillfully made all kinds of tools for different occasions: sharp spear tips, stone knives, bone harpoons with teeth, excellent choppers, axes, etc.

The technique of making tools and some of its secrets were passed down from generation to generation (for example, the fact that stone heated over a fire is easier to process after cooling). Excavations at sites of Upper Paleolithic people indicate the development of primitive hunting beliefs and witchcraft among them. They made figurines of wild animals from clay and pierced them with darts, imagining that they were killing real predators. They also left hundreds of carved or painted images of animals on the walls and vaults of caves. Archaeologists have proven that monuments of art appeared immeasurably later than tools - almost a million years.

In ancient times, people used materials at hand for art - stone, wood, bone. Much later, namely in the era of agriculture, he discovered the first artificial material - refractory clay - and began to actively use it for the manufacture of dishes and sculptures. Wandering hunters and gatherers used wicker baskets because they were easier to carry. Pottery is a sign of permanent agricultural settlements.

The first works of primitive fine art belong to the Aurignac culture (Late Paleolithic), named after the Aurignac cave (France). Since that time, female figurines made of stone and bone have become widespread. If the heyday of cave painting came about 10-15 thousand years ago, then the art of miniature sculpture reached a high level much earlier - about 25 thousand years. The so-called “Venuses” belong to this era - figurines of women 10-15 cm high, usually with distinctly massive shapes. Similar “Venuses” have been found in France, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Russia and many other areas of the world. Perhaps they symbolized fertility or were associated with the cult of the female mother: the Cro-Magnons lived according to the laws of matriarchy, and it was through the female line that membership in the clan that revered its ancestor was determined. Scientists consider female sculptures to be the first anthropomorphic, i.e., human-like images.

In both painting and sculpture, primitive man often depicted animals. The tendency of primitive man to depict animals is called the zoological or animal style in art, and for their diminutiveness, small figures and images of animals were called plastics of small forms. Animal style is the conventional name for stylized images of animals (or parts thereof) common in ancient art. The animal style arose in the Bronze Age, developed in the Iron Age and in the art of early classical states; its traditions were preserved in medieval art and folk art. Initially associated with totemism, images of the sacred beast over time turned into a conventional motif of the ornament.

Primitive painting was a two-dimensional image of an object, and sculpture was a three-dimensional or three-dimensional image. Thus, primitive creators mastered all the dimensions that exist in modern art, but did not master its main achievement - the technique of transferring volume on a plane (by the way, the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, medieval Europeans, Chinese, Arabs and many other peoples did not master it, because the discovery of reverse perspective occurred only during the Renaissance).

In some caves, bas-reliefs carved into the rock, as well as free-standing sculptures of animals, were discovered. Small figurines are known that were carved from soft stone, bone, and mammoth tusks. The main character of Paleolithic art is the bison. In addition to them, many images of wild aurochs, mammoths and rhinoceroses were found.

Rock drawings and paintings are varied in the manner of execution. The relative proportions of the animals depicted (mountain goat, lion, mammoth and bison) were usually not observed - a huge aurochs could be depicted next to a tiny horse. Failure to comply with proportions did not allow the primitive artist to subordinate composition to the laws of perspective (the latter, by the way, was discovered very late - in the 16th century). Movement in cave painting is conveyed through the position of the legs (crossing legs, for example, depicted an animal on the run), tilting the body or turning the head. There are almost no motionless figures.

Archaeologists have never discovered landscape paintings in the Old Stone Age. Why? Perhaps this once again proves the primacy of the religious and the secondary nature of the aesthetic function of culture. Animals were feared and worshiped, trees and plants were only admired.

Both zoological and anthropomorphic images suggested their ritual use. In other words, they performed a cult function. Thus, religion (the veneration of those whom primitive people depicted) and art (the aesthetic form of what was depicted) arose almost simultaneously. Although for some reasons it can be assumed that the first form of reflection of reality arose earlier than the second.

Since images of animals had a magical purpose, the process of creating them was a kind of ritual, so such drawings are mostly hidden deep in the depths of the cave, in underground passages several hundred meters long, and the height of the vault often does not exceed half a meter. In such places, the Cro-Magnon artist had to work lying on his back in the light of bowls with burning animal fat. However, more often the rock paintings are located in accessible places, at a height of 1.5-2 meters. They are found both on cave ceilings and on vertical walls.

The first discoveries were made in the 19th century in caves in the Pyrenees Mountains. There are more than 7 thousand karst caves in this area. Hundreds of them contain cave paintings created with paint or scratched with stone. Some caves are unique underground galleries (the Altamira Cave in Spain is called the “Sistine Chapel” of primitive art), the artistic merits of which attract many scientists and tourists today. Cave paintings from the Old Stone Age are called wall paintings or cave paintings.

The Altamira Art Gallery stretches over 280 meters in length and consists of many spacious rooms. The stone tools and antlers found there, as well as the figurative images on bone fragments, were created in the period from 13,000 to 10,000 BC. BC e. According to archaeologists, the cave roof collapsed at the beginning of the new Stone Age. In the most unique part of the cave - the “Animal Hall” - images of bison, bulls, deer, wild horses and wild boars were found. Some reach a height of 2.2 meters; to look at them in more detail, you have to lie down on the floor. Most of the figures are drawn in brown. The artists skillfully used natural relief protrusions on the rock surface, which enhanced the plastic effect of the images. Along with the figures of animals drawn and engraved in the rock, there are also drawings that vaguely resemble the human body in shape.

Periodization

Now science is changing its opinion about the age of the earth and the time frame is changing, but we will study according to the generally accepted names of periods.

1. Stone Age

• Ancient Stone Age - Paleolithic. ... up to 10 thousand BC
• Middle Stone Age - Mesolithic. 10 – 6 thousand BC
• New Stone Age - Neolithic. From 6th to 2nd thousand BC

Paleolithic

Tools were made of stone; hence the name of the era - the Stone Age.

1. Ancient or Lower Paleolithic. up to 150 thousand BC
2. Middle Paleolithic. 150 – 35 thousand BC
3. Upper or Late Paleolithic. 35 – 10 thousand BC

• Aurignac-Solutrean period. 35 – 20 thousand BC
• Madeleine period. 20 – 10 thousand BC The period received this name from the name of the La Madeleine cave, where paintings dating back to this time were found.

The most early works Primitive art dates back to the late Paleolithic. 35 – 10 thousand BC

Scientists are inclined to believe that naturalistic art and the depiction of schematic signs and geometric figures arose simultaneously.

The first drawings from the Paleolithic period (ancient Stone Age, 35–10 thousand BC) were discovered at the end of the 19th century. Spanish amateur archaeologist Count Marcelino de Sautuola three kilometers from his family estate, in the Altamira cave.

It happened like this: “the archaeologist decided to explore a cave in Spain and took his little daughter with him. Suddenly she shouted: “Bulls, bulls!” The father laughed, but when he raised his head, he saw huge painted figures of bison on the ceiling of the cave. Some of the bison were depicted standing still, others rushing at the enemy with inclined horns. At first, scientists did not believe that primitive people could create such works of art. It was only 20 years later that numerous works of primitive art were discovered in other places and the authenticity of cave paintings was recognized.”

Paleolithic painting

Altamira Cave. Spain.

Late Paleolithic (Madeleine era 20 - 10 thousand years BC).
On the vault of the Altamira cave chamber there is a whole herd of large bison located close to each other.

Wonderful polychrome images contain black and all shades of ocher, rich colors, applied somewhere densely and monochromatically, and somewhere with halftones and transitions from one color to another. A thick paint layer up to several cm. In total, 23 figures are depicted on the vault, if you do not take into account those of which only outlines have been preserved.

Altamira Cave Image

The caves were illuminated with lamps and reproduced from memory. Not primitivism, but the highest degree of stylization. When the cave was opened, it was believed that this was an imitation of hunting - the magical meaning of the image. But today there are versions that the goal was art. The beast was necessary for man, but he was terrible and difficult to catch.

Beautiful brown shades. Tense stop of the beast. They used the natural relief of the stone and depicted it on the convexity of the wall.

Cave of Font de Gaume. France

Late Paleolithic.

Silhouette images, deliberate distortion, and exaggeration of proportions are typical. On the walls and vaults of the small halls of the Font-de-Gaume cave there are at least about 80 drawings, mostly bison, two undisputed figures of mammoths and even a wolf.

Grazing deer. Font de Gaume. France. Late Paleolithic.
Perspective image of horns. Deer at this time (the end of the Madeleine era) replaced other animals.

Fragment. Buffalo. Font de Gaume. France. Late Paleolithic.
The hump and crest on the head are emphasized. The overlap of one image with another is a polypsest. Detailed study. Decorative solution for the tail.

Lascaux Cave

It so happened that it was the children, and quite accidentally, who found the most interesting cave paintings in Europe:
“In September 1940, near the town of Montignac, in the southwest of France, four high school students set off on an archaeological expedition they had planned. In place of a tree that had long been uprooted, there was a hole in the ground that aroused their curiosity. There were rumors that this was the entrance to a dungeon leading to a nearby medieval castle.
There was another smaller hole inside. One of the guys threw a stone at it and, judging by the sound of the fall, concluded that it was quite deep. He widened the hole, crawled inside, almost fell, lit a flashlight, gasped and called others. From the walls of the cave in which they found themselves, some huge animals were looking at them, breathing with such confident power, sometimes seeming ready to turn into rage, that they felt terrified. And at the same time, the power of these animal images was so majestic and convincing that they felt as if they were in some kind of magical kingdom.”

Late Paleolithic (Madeleine era, 18 - 15 thousand years BC).
Called the primitive Sistine Chapel. Consists of several large rooms: rotunda; main gallery; passage; apse.

Colorful images on the calcareous white surface of the cave. The proportions are greatly exaggerated: large necks and bellies. Contour and silhouette drawings. Clear images without aliasing. Large quantity male and female signs (rectangle and many dots).

Kapova Cave

KAPOVA CAVE - to the South. m Ural, on the river. White. Formed in limestones and dolomites. The corridors and grottoes are located on two floors. The total length is over 2 km. On the walls are Late Paleolithic paintings of mammoths and rhinoceroses.

The numbers on the diagram indicate the places where the images were found: 1 - wolf, 2 - cave bear, 3 - lion, 4 - horses.

Paleolithic sculpture

Art of small forms or mobile art (small plastic art)

An integral part of the art of the Paleolithic era consists of objects that are commonly called “small plastic”. These are three types of objects:

1. Figurines and other three-dimensional products carved from soft stone or other materials (horn, mammoth tusk).
2. Flattened objects with engravings and paintings.
3. Reliefs in caves, grottoes and under natural canopies.

The relief was embossed with a deep outline or the background around the image was cramped.

Deer crossing the river.
Fragment. Bone carving. Lorte. Hautes-Pyrenees department, France. Upper Paleolithic, Magdalenian period.

One of the first finds, called small sculptures, was a bone plate from the Chaffo grotto with images of two fallow deer: A deer swimming across a river. Lorte. France

Everyone knows a wonderful one French writer Prosper Merimee, the author of the fascinating novel “The Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX,” “Carmen” and other romantic stories, but few people know that he served as an inspector for the protection of historical monuments. It was he who handed over this record in 1833 to the historical museum of Cluny, which was just being organized in the center of Paris. It is now kept in the Museum of National Antiquities (Saint-Germain en Lay).

Later, a cultural layer of the Upper Paleolithic era was discovered in the Chaffo Grotto. But then, just as it was with the painting of the Altamira cave, and with other visual monuments of the Paleolithic era, no one could believe that this art was older than ancient Egyptian. Therefore, such engravings were considered examples of Celtic art (V-IV centuries BC). Only in late XIX c., again, like cave paintings, they were recognized as the most ancient after they were found in the Paleolithic cultural layer.

The figurines of women are very interesting. Most of these figurines are small in size: from 4 to 17 cm. They were made from stone or mammoth tusks. Their most noticeable distinguishing feature is their exaggerated “plumpiness”; they depict women with overweight figures.

Venus with a cup. France
"Venus with a Cup." Bas-relief. France. Upper (Late) Paleolithic.
Goddess of the Ice Age. The canon of the image is that the figure is inscribed in a rhombus, and the stomach and chest are in a circle.

Almost everyone who has studied Paleolithic female figurines, with varying degrees of detail, explains them as cult objects, amulets, idols, etc., reflecting the idea of ​​motherhood and fertility.

In Siberia, in the Baikal region, a whole series of original figurines of a completely different stylistic appearance was found. Along with the same overweight figures of naked women as in Europe, there are figurines of slender, elongated proportions and, unlike European ones, they are depicted dressed in thick, most likely fur clothes, similar to “overalls”.

These are finds from the Buret sites on the Angara and Malta rivers.

Mesolithic

(Middle Stone Age) 10 - 6 thousand BC

After the glaciers melted, the familiar fauna disappeared. Nature becomes more pliable to humans. People become nomads. With a change in lifestyle, a person’s view of the world becomes broader. He is not interested in an individual animal or a random discovery of cereals, but active work people, thanks to which they find whole herds of animals, and fields or forests rich in fruits. This is how the art of multi-figure composition arose in the Mesolithic, in which it was no longer the beast, but man, who played the dominant role.

Changes in the field of art:

• The main characters of the image are not an individual animal, but people in some kind of action.
• The task is not in a believable, accurate depiction of individual figures, but in conveying action and movement.
• Multi-figure hunts are often depicted, scenes of honey collection, and cult dances appear.
• The character of the image changes - instead of realistic and polychrome, it becomes schematic and silhouetted.
• Local colors are used - red or black.

A honey collector from a hive, surrounded by a swarm of bees. Spain. Mesolithic.

Almost everywhere where planar or three-dimensional images of the Upper Paleolithic era were discovered, in artistic activity people of the subsequent Mesolithic era seemed to be experiencing a pause. Perhaps this period is still poorly studied, perhaps the images made not in caves, but in the open air, were washed away by rain and snow over time. Perhaps among the petroglyphs, which are very difficult to date accurately, there are those dating back to this time, but we do not yet know how to recognize them. It is significant that small plastic objects are extremely rare during excavations of Mesolithic settlements.

Of the Mesolithic monuments, literally a few can be named: Stone Tomb in Ukraine, Kobystan in Azerbaijan, Zaraut-Sai in Uzbekistan, Shakhty in Tajikistan and Bhimpetka in India.

In addition to rock paintings, petroglyphs appeared in the Mesolithic era. Petroglyphs are carved, carved or scratched rock images. When carving a design, ancient artists used a sharp tool to knock down the upper, darker part of the rock, and therefore the images stand out noticeably against the background of the rock.

In the south of Ukraine, in the steppe there is a rocky hill made of sandstone rocks. As a result of severe weathering, several grottoes and canopies were formed on its slopes. In these grottoes and on other planes of the hill, numerous carved and scratched images have been known for a long time. In most cases they are difficult to read. Sometimes images of animals are guessed - bulls, goats. Scientists attribute these images of bulls to the Mesolithic era.

Stone grave. South of Ukraine. General view and petroglyphs. Mesolithic.

South of Baku, between the southeastern slope of the Greater Caucasus Range and the shores of the Caspian Sea, there is a small Gobustan plain (country of ravines) with hills in the form of table mountains composed of limestone and other sedimentary rocks. On the rocks of these mountains there are many petroglyphs of different periods. Most of them were discovered in 1939. Large (more than 1 m) images of female and male figures made with deep carved lines received the greatest interest and fame.
There are many images of animals: bulls, predators and even reptiles and insects.

Kobystan (Gobustan). Azerbaijan (territory of the former USSR). Mesolithic.

Grotto Zaraut-Qamar

In the mountains of Uzbekistan, at an altitude of about 2000 m above sea level, there is a monument widely known not only among archaeological specialists - the Zaraut-Kamar grotto. The painted images were discovered in 1939 by local hunter I.F. Lamaev.

The painting in the grotto is made with ocher different shades(from red-brown to lilac) and represents four groups of images, which involve anthropomorphic figures and bulls.
Here is the group in which most researchers see bull hunting. Among the anthropomorphic figures surrounding the bull, i.e. There are two types of “hunters”: figures in clothes that flare out at the bottom, without bows, and “tailed” figures with raised and drawn bows. This scene can be interpreted as a real hunt by disguised hunters, and as a kind of myth.

The painting in the Shakhty grotto is probably the oldest in Central Asia.
“I don’t know what the word Shakhty means,” writes V.A. Ranov. Perhaps it comes from the Pamir word “shakht”, which means rock.”

In the northern part of Central India, huge cliffs with many caves, grottoes and canopies stretch along river valleys. A lot of rock carvings have been preserved in these natural shelters. Among them, the location of Bhimbetka (Bhimpetka) stands out. Apparently these picturesque images date back to the Mesolithic. True, we should not forget about the unevenness in the development of cultures different regions. The Mesolithic of India may be 2-3 millennia older than in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Hunting scene. Spain.
Some scenes of driven hunts with archers in the paintings of the Spanish and African cycles are, as it were, the embodiment of the movement itself, taken to the limit, concentrated in a stormy whirlwind.

Neolithic

(New Stone Age) from 6 to 2 thousand BC.

Neolithic - New Stone Age, the last stage of the Stone Age.

The entry into the Neolithic coincides with the transition of culture from an appropriating (hunters and gatherers) to a producing (farming and/or cattle breeding) type of economy. This transition is called the Neolithic Revolution. The end of the Neolithic dates back to the time of the appearance of metal tools and weapons, that is, the beginning of the Copper, Bronze or Iron Age.

Different cultures entered this period of development at different times. In the Middle East, the Neolithic began around 9.5 thousand years ago. BC e. In Denmark, the Neolithic dates back to the 18th century. BC, and among the indigenous population of New Zealand - the Maori - the Neolithic existed back in the 18th century. AD: Before the arrival of Europeans, Maori used polished stone axes. Some peoples of America and Oceania have still not completely transitioned from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.

The Neolithic, like other periods of the primitive era, is not a specific chronological period in the history of mankind as a whole, but characterizes only cultural characteristics of certain peoples.

Achievements and activities

1. New features public life people:
— The transition from matriarchy to patriarchy.
— At the end of the era, in some places (Foreign Asia, Egypt, India), a new formation of class society emerged, that is, social stratification began, the transition from a clan-communal system to a class society.
— At this time, cities begin to be built. Jericho is considered one of the most ancient cities.
— Some cities were well fortified, which indicates the existence of organized wars at that time.
— Armies and professional warriors began to appear.
— We can quite say that the beginning of the formation of ancient civilizations is associated with the Neolithic era.

2. The division of labor and the formation of technologies began:
— The main thing is that simple gathering and hunting as the main sources of food are gradually being replaced by agriculture and cattle breeding.
The Neolithic is called the “age of polished stone.” In this era, stone tools were not just chipped, but already sawed, ground, drilled, and sharpened.
— Among the most important tools in the Neolithic is the axe, previously unknown.
- spinning and weaving are developing.

Images of animals begin to appear in the design of household utensils.

Ax in the shape of a moose head. Polished stone. Neolithic. Historical Museum. Stockholm.

A wooden ladle from the Gorbunovsky peat bog near Nizhny Tagil. Neolithic. State Historical Museum.

For the Neolithic forest zone, fishing became one of the leading types of economy. Active fishing contributed to the creation of certain reserves, which, combined with hunting animals, made it possible to live in one place all year round. The transition to a sedentary lifestyle led to the appearance of ceramics. The appearance of ceramics is one of the main signs of the Neolithic era.

The village of Catal Huyuk (Eastern Türkiye) is one of the places where the most ancient examples of ceramics were found.

Ceramics of Çatalhöyük. Neolithic.

Women's ceramic figurines

Monuments of Neolithic painting and petroglyphs are extremely numerous and scattered over vast territories.
Clusters of them are found almost everywhere in Africa, eastern Spain, in the territory former USSR- in Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, on Lake Onega, near the White Sea and in Siberia.
Neolithic rock art is similar to Mesolithic, but the subject matter becomes more varied.

For approximately three hundred years, the attention of scientists has been captivated by a rock known as the Tomsk Pisanitsa. “Pisanitsa” are images painted with mineral paint or carved on the smooth surface of walls in Siberia. Back in 1675, one of the brave Russian travelers, whose name, unfortunately, remained unknown, wrote down:

“Before reaching the fortress (Verkhnetomsk fortress), on the edges of the Tom River there lies a large and high stone, and on it are written animals, and cattle, and birds, and all sorts of similar things...”

Real scientific interest in this monument arose already in the 18th century, when, by order of Peter I, an expedition was sent to Siberia to study its history and geography. The result of the expedition was the first images of Tomsk writing published in Europe by the Swedish captain Stralenberg, who participated in the trip. These images were not an exact copy Tomsk pisanitsa, and conveyed only the most general outlines of the rocks and the placement of drawings on it, but their value lies in the fact that on them you can see drawings that have not survived to this day.

Images of Tomsk writing made by the Swedish boy K. Shulman, who traveled with Stralenberg across Siberia.

For hunters, the main source of subsistence was deer and elk. Gradually, these animals began to acquire mythical features - the elk was the “master of the taiga” along with the bear.
The image of a moose belongs to the Tomsk Pisanitsa main role: Shapes are repeated many times.
The proportions and shapes of the animal’s body are absolutely faithfully conveyed: its long massive body, a hump on the back, a heavy large head, a characteristic protrusion on the forehead, a swollen upper lip, bulging nostrils, thin legs with cloven hooves.
Some drawings show transverse stripes on the neck and body of moose.

Moose. Tomsk writing. Siberia. Neolithic.

...On the border between the Sahara and Fezzan, on the territory of Algeria, in a mountainous area called Tassili-Ajjer, bare rocks rise in rows. Nowadays this region is dried up by the desert wind, scorched by the sun and almost nothing grows in it. However, the Sahara used to have green meadows...

Bushmen rock art. Neolithic.

— Sharpness and precision of drawing, grace and elegance.
— Harmonic combination of shapes and tones, the beauty of people and animals depicted with a good knowledge of anatomy.
— Swiftness of gestures and movements.

The small plastic arts of the Neolithic, like painting, acquire new subjects.

"The Man Playing the Lute." Marble (from Keros, Cyclades, Greece). Neolithic. National Archaeological Museum. Athens.

The schematism inherent in Neolithic painting, which replaced Paleolithic realism, also penetrated into small plastic art.

Schematic image of a woman. Cave relief. Neolithic. Croisard. Department of the Marne. France.

Relief with a symbolic image from Castelluccio (Sicily). Limestone. OK. 1800-1400 BC National Archaeological Museum. Syracuse.

Mesolithic and Neolithic rock paintings It is not always possible to draw an exact line between them. But this art is very different from typically Paleolithic:

— Realism, which accurately captures the image of the beast as a target, as a cherished goal, is replaced by a broader view of the world, the depiction of multi-figure compositions.
— There appears a desire for harmonious generalization, stylization and, most importantly, for the transmission of movement, for dynamism.
— In the Paleolithic there was monumentality and inviolability of the image. Here there is liveliness, free imagination.
— In human images, a desire for grace appears (for example, if you compare the Paleolithic “Venuses” and the Mesolithic image of a woman collecting honey, or Neolithic Bushman dancers).

Small plastic:

— New stories are appearing.
— Greater mastery of execution and mastery of the craft and material.

Achievements

Paleolithic
— Lower Paleolithic
> > taming fire, stone tools
— Middle Paleolithic
>> exit from Africa
— Upper Paleolithic
> > sling

Mesolithic
– microliths, onions, canoes

Neolithic
— Early Neolithic
> > agriculture, cattle breeding
— Late Neolithic
>> ceramics