Art of the Upper Paleolithic

File:VenusWillendorf.jpg, late Aurignacian (c. 30,000 years old)|220x220px]]

{{further|Paleolithic Europe|Cro-Magnon|Aurignacian|Gravettian|Magdalenian|Venus figurines}}

Art of the European Upper Paleolithic includes rock and cave painting, jewelry,{{cite web|url=http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/086/ant0860642.htm|title=Antiquity – Cambridge Core|work=antiquity.ac.uk}}{{cite journal |first1=Marian |last1=Vanhaeren |first2= Francesco |last2=d'Errico |title=Grave goods from the Saint-Germain-la-Rivière burial: Evidence for social inequality in the Upper Palaeolithic |journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology |volume= 24| issue = 2 |date=June 2005 |pages=117–134 |doi=10.1016/j.jaa.2005.01.001}} drawing, carving, engraving and sculpture in clay, bone, antler,{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=1505622&partid=1&searchText=Ice+Age&fromADBC=ad&toADBC=ad&numpages=10&images=on&orig=%2fresearch%2fsearch_the_collection_database.aspx¤tPage=1%20antler|title=British Museum – perforated baton|work=British Museum}} stone{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=1361964&partid=1&searchText=Ice+Age&fromADBC=ad&toADBC=ad&numpages=10&images=on&orig=%2fresearch%2fsearch_the_collection_database.aspx¤tPage=1|title=British Museum – laurel leaf point|work=British Museum}} and ivory, such as the Venus figurines, and musical instruments such as flutes.

Decoration was also made on functional tools, such as spear throwers, perforated batons and lamps.

Engravings on flat pieces of stones are found in considerable numbers (up to 5,000 at one Spanish site) at sites with the appropriate geology, with the marks sometimes so shallow and faint that the technique involved is closer to drawing – many of these were not spotted by the earliest excavators, and found by later teams in spoil heaps. Painted plaques are less common. It is possible that they were used in rituals, or alternatively heated on a fire and wrapped as personal warmers. Either type of use may account for the many broken examples, often with the fragments dispersed over some distance (up to 30 metres apart at Gönnersdorf). Many sites have large quantities of flat stones apparently used as flooring, with only a minority decorated.Bahn and Vertut, 90–91

Some of the oldest works of art were found in the Swabian Jura, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Venus figurine known as the Venus of Hohle Fels and the Löwenmensch (Lion-Human) statuette of Hohlenstein-Stadel both date to approximately 40,000 years ago.{{cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-venus14-2009may14,0,181830.story |title=Venus figurine sheds light on origins of art by early humans |last=Maugh II |first=Thomas H. |date=14 May 2009 |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=14 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090515010604/http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-venus14-2009may14%2C0%2C181830.story |archive-date=15 May 2009 |url-status=live }} The so-called Adorant from the Geißenklösterle cave dates to about the same time.

Other fine examples of art from the Upper Palaeolithic (broadly 40,000 to 10,000 years ago) include cave painting (such as at Chauvet, Lascaux, Altamira, Cosquer, and Pech Merle), incised / engraved cave art such as at Creswell Crags,{{cite web |last=Pettitt |first=P. |year=2003 |title=Discovery, nature and preliminary thoughts about Britain's first cave art |url=http://capra.group.shef.ac.uk/5/pettitt.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425064551/http://capra.group.shef.ac.uk/5/pettitt.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-25 }} portable art (such as animal carvings and sculptures like the Venus of Willendorf), and open-air art (such as the rock art of the Côa Valley and {{Interlanguage link multi|Mazouco|it}} in Portugal; Domingo García and Siega Verde in Spain; and {{Interlanguage link multi|Fornols-Haut|fr|3=Rocher gravé de Fornols}} in France). There are numerous carved or engraved pieces of bone and ivory, such as the Swimming Reindeer found in France from the Magdalenian period. These include spear throwers, including one shaped like a mammoth,{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=1516193&partid=1&searchText=Ice+Age&fromADBC=ad&toADBC=ad&numpages=10&images=on&orig=%2fresearch%2fsearch_the_collection_database.aspx¤tPage=8|title=British Museum – spear-thrower|work=British Museum}} and many of the type of objects called a bâton de commandement.

File:9 Bisonte Magdaleniense polícromo.jpg, dated to the Magdalenian.|220x220px]]

The animals depicted are prey sought by the Paleolithic hunters,

such as reindeer,e.g. the Magdalenian Swimming Reindeer (13 ka) found in France

horses,e.g. the Solutrean horse figurine from Vogelherd Cave, {{cite web|url=http://www.ice-age-art.de/anfaenge_der_kunst/vogelherd/pferd.php |title=Wild Horse |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120053950/http://www.ice-age-art.de/anfaenge_der_kunst/vogelherd/pferd.php |archive-date=2013-01-20 }}

bisons,Bison figurine from Vogelherd Cave, {{cite web|url=http://www.ice-age-art.de/anfaenge_der_kunst/vogelherd/bison.php |title=Bison |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120053855/http://www.ice-age-art.de/anfaenge_der_kunst/vogelherd/bison.php |archive-date=2013-01-20 }}

mammoth,{{cite web|url=http://www.ice-age-art.de/anfaenge_der_kunst/vogelherd/mammut.php |title=Mammoth |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120054549/http://www.ice-age-art.de/anfaenge_der_kunst/vogelherd/mammut.php |archive-date=2013-01-20 }}

the woolly rhinoceros,Wooly Rhinoceros from

and birds,{{clarify|date=August 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_2_1d.html|title=The State Hermitage Museum: Collection Highlights|access-date=2012-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120907041538/http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_2_1d.html|archive-date=2012-09-07|url-status=dead}}

as well as apex predators such as

lions{{cite web|url=http://www.ice-age-art.de/anfaenge_der_kunst/vogelherd/loewenkopf.php |title=Lion's Head |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120054545/http://www.ice-age-art.de/anfaenge_der_kunst/vogelherd/loewenkopf.php |archive-date=2013-01-20 }} panthers or leopards,{{cite web|url=http://www.ice-age-art.de/anfaenge_der_kunst/vogelherd/leopard.php |title=Snow Leopard |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121124012/http://www.ice-age-art.de/anfaenge_der_kunst/vogelherd/leopard.php |archive-date=2013-01-21 }}

hyenas and bears.

The human form was represented comparatively rarely (relative to the depiction of animals);

most notable are the Venus figurines (representation of the female form, emphasizing breasts and/or buttocks).{{cite web|url=http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_2_1c.html|title=The State Hermitage Museum: Collection Highlights|access-date=2012-10-23|archive-date=2014-10-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021180433/http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_2_1c.html|url-status=dead}} The Lion-Human statuette of Hohlenstein-Stadel (Aurignacian) is a hybrid creature with a lion's head on a human body. Other possible hybrid figures are the Shaman of Trois-Frères and a "Bison-man" from the same cave system, another "Bison-man" from the Grotte de Gabillou in the Dordogne, and what might be a bird-headed man in the "Shaft of the Dead Man" in the Lascaux caves.

Representation of males are rare prior to incipient Mesolithic.

Mesolithic examples include the "Pin Hole man" of Creswell Crags, Derbyshire.

There is evidence for some craft specialization, and the transport over considerable distances of materials such as stone and, above all marine shells, much used for jewellery and probably decorating clothes. Shells from Mediterranean species have been found at Gönnersdorf, over 1,000 kilometres from the Mediterranean coast. The higher sea levels today mean that the level and nature of coastal settlements in the Upper Paleolithic are now submerged and remain unknown.Bahn and Vertut, 88

File:Hands in Pettakere Cave.jpg, Maros, Sulawesi.]]

Cave paintings from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, situated in the caves in the district of Maros, were dated based on Uranium–thorium dating in a 2014 study. The oldest dated image was a hand stencil, which was given a minimum age of 39,900 years. A painting of a babirusa was dated to at least 35.4 ka, placing it among the oldest known figurative depictions worldwide.

M. Aubert et al., "Pleistocene cave art from Sulawesi, Indonesia", Nature volume 514, pages 223–227 (09 October 2014) "using uranium-series dating of coralloid speleothems directly associated with 12 human hand stencils and two figurative animal depictions from seven cave sites in the Maros karsts of Sulawesi, we show that rock art traditions on this Indonesian island are at least compatible in age with the oldest European art. The earliest dated image from Maros, with a minimum age of 39.9 kyr, is now the oldest known hand stencil in the world. In addition, a painting of a babirusa ('pig-deer') made at least 35.4 kyr ago is among the earliest dated figurative depictions worldwide, if not the earliest one. Among the implications, it can now be demonstrated that humans were producing rock art by ~40 kyr ago at opposite ends of the Pleistocene Eurasian world."

A cave at Turobong in South Korea containing human remains has been found to contain carved deer bones and depictions of deer that may be as much as 40,000 years old.Portal, p. 25 Petroglyphs of deer or reindeer found at Sokchang-ri may also date to the Upper Paleolithic. Potsherds in a style reminiscent of early Japanese work have been found at Kosan-ri on Jeju island, which, due to lower sea levels at the time, would have been accessible from Japan.Portal, p. 26

In November 2018, scientists reported the discovery of the oldest known figurative art painting, over 40,000 (perhaps as old as 52,000) years old, of an unknown animal in the cave of Lubang Jeriji Saléh on the Indonesian island of Borneo.{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Zimmer |title=In Cave in Borneo Jungle, Scientists Find Oldest Figurative Painting in the World - A cave drawing in Borneo is at least 40,000 years old, raising intriguing questions about creativity in ancient societies. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/science/oldest-cave-art-borneo.html |date=7 November 2018 |work=The New York Times |access-date=8 November 2018 }}{{cite journal |author=Aubert, M.|display-authors=et al |title=Palaeolithic cave art in Borneo |date=7 November 2018 |journal=Nature |volume=564 |issue=7735 |pages=254–257 |doi=10.1038/s41586-018-0679-9 |pmid=30405242 |bibcode=2018Natur.564..254A |s2cid=53208538 }}

Some Upper Paleolithic artifacts such as the Venus figurines of Mal'ta were found in Southern Siberia, Russia. These figures consist most often of ivory. The figures are about 20,000 years old and stem from the Gravettian.{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Claudine |title=La femme des origines : images de la femme dans la préhistoire occidentale |date=2003 |publisher=Belin-Herscher |isbn=978-2733503362 |page=113}} Most of these statuettes show stylized clothes. Quite often the face is depicted. They were discovered at Mal'ta, at the Angara River, near Lake Baikal in Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia.

The Bhimbetka rock shelters have linear representations in green of humans dancing and hunting.{{cite journal |last1=Dubey-Pathak |first1=Meenakshi |title=Rock art of the Bhimbetka period in India |journal=Adoranten 2014 |date=2014 |url=https://www.rockartscandinavia.com/images/articles/a14pathak.pdf |access-date=13 September 2021 |publisher=Tanums Hällristningsmuseum Underslös}}

File:Bradshaw rock paintings.jpg found in the north-west Kimberley region of Western Australia]]

Gabarnmung, or Nawarla Gabarnmung, is an Aboriginal archaeological and rock art site in south-western Arnhem Land, in the Top End of Australia's Northern Territory. The rock shelter features prehistoric paintings of fish, including the barramundi, wallabies, crocodiles, people and spiritual figures. Most of the paintings are located on the shelter's ceiling, but many are found on the walls and pillars of the site.

The painting on the ceiling has been securely dated to before 27,000 years ago.A slab of painted rock which fell to the floor had ash adhering which was radiocarbon dated at {{val|27631|717|u=years Cal BP}} which indicates that the ceiling must have been painted before this time.

Radiocarbon dating of charcoal excavated from the base of the lowest stratigraphic layer of the floor returned a mean age of {{val|45189|1089|u=years Cal BP}} suggesting the oldest date for the earliest human habitation. Faceted and use-striated hematite crayons have been recovered from nearby locations (Malakunanja II and Nauwalabila 1) in strata dated from 45,000 to 60,000 years old which suggests that the Gabarnmung shelter may have been decorated from its inception.{{cite journal|last=Delannoy|first=Jean‑Jacques|title=The social construction of caves and rockshelters: Chauvet Cave (France) and Nawarla Gabarnmang (Australia)|journal=Antiquity|year=2015|volume=87 |issue=335|page=12–29|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00048596|doi-access=free}}.

The Gwion Gwion rock paintings are a unique form of rock art found in Western Australia. They are predominantly human figures drawn in fine detail with accurate anatomical proportioning. They have been dated at over 17,000 years old.Michaelsen, Per Henrik et al. "Australian Ice Age Rock Art May Depict Earth's Oldest Recordings of Shamanistic Rituals." (2000).

File:Stone Age Animal Carving, Hayonim Cave, 28000 BP.jpg, Israel, 28000 BP.]]

Upper Paleolithic sites of the Near East, such as the Hayonim Cave, a cave located in a limestone bluff about 250 meters above modern sea level, in the Upper Galilee, Israel, have wall carvings depicting symbolic shapes and animals, such as a running horse dated to the Levantine Aurignacian circa 28000 BP, and visible in the Israel Museum.{{cite web |title=Hayonim horse |url=https://museums.gov.il/en/items/Pages/ItemCard.aspx?IdItem=ICMS_IMJ_330094 |website=museums.gov.il}}{{cite journal |last1=Bar-Yosef |first1=Ofer |last2=Belfer-Cohen |first2=Anna |title=The Aurignacian at Hayonim Cave |journal=Paléorient |date=1981 |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=35–36 |doi=10.3406/paleo.1981.4296 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/paleo_0153-9345_1981_num_7_2_4296}}'Quantitative Phytolith Study of Hearths from the Natufian and Middle Paleolithic Levels of Hayonim Cave, (Galilee, Israel)' Journal of Archaeological Science 30, pages 461-480., Albert, Rosa M., Ofer Bar-Yosef, Liliane Meignen, and Steve Weiner 2003 [http://archaeology.about.com/od/hterms/g/hayonim_cave.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071122133731/http://archaeology.about.com/od/hterms/g/hayonim_cave.htm|date=2007-11-22}} This is considered as the first art object found within the context of the Levantine Upper Paleolithic.

Petroglyphs of the North African Mesolithic, such as those at Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria, are dated to about 12,000 to 10,000 years old.

File:Apollo-11 stone slab.jpg pictogram like those that would be in Apollo 11 Cave, Namibia]]

The oldest known figurative art from Sub-Saharan Africa are seven stone plaquettes painted with figures of animals found at the Apollo 11 Cave complex in Namibia, and dated to between 27,500 and 22,500 years ago.Coulson, pp. 76–77{{cite book |first1=Ian |last1=Shaw |first2=Robert |last2=Jameson |title=A Dictionary of Archaeology |year=2002 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |page=640 |isbn= 978-0-631-23583-5}}

There is a substantial amount of rock art attributable to the Bushmen (San) found throughout Southern Africa.

Much of this art is recent (as evident from the subject matter depicted, including depictions of wagons and of European settlers wearing hats), but the oldest samples have been tentatively dated to as early as 26,000 years ago.Anne I. Thackeray , "Dating the Rock Art of Southern Africa", New Approaches to Southern African Rock Art

Vol. 4, (Jun., 1983), pp. 21-26.

Matobo National Park, Zimbabwe, has many rock paintings. The oldest examples to 7,000 years ago, possibly as early as 13,000 years ago, while the bulk were likely produced between c. 1,700 and 1,500 years ago.

[https://africanrockart.org/rock-art-gallery/zimbabwe/ Zimbabwe (africanrockart.org)], [https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/306 Unesco World Heritage nr. 306].

Petroglyphs in West Africa, such as those of Bidzar, Cameroon, are dated to after 3,000 years ago.

Rock paintings in the Toquepala Caves in southern Peru are dated at ca. 11,500 years ago.Lavallée, p. 94 Some of the paintings are figurative, notably including a scene of armed men hunting guanaco cameloids. The men are in a posture of attacking the animals with axe, lances, and spear throwers (but not including bow and arrow). The paintings are polychrome, with red made from hematite being the dominant color.{{cite book|author=David S. Whitley|title=Handbook of Rock Art Research|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwWETYxlNRkC&pg=PA712|year=2001|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-0256-7|pages=712–}}.

{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/fieldmuseumofnat53chic/fieldmuseumofnat53chic_djvu.txt|title=Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin|access-date=6 July 2013|publisher=Archive organization}}

Rock art made by the earliest inhabitants of the Amazon region dates to between 11,800 and 12,600 years ago. The animals depicted include some now extinct, such as mastodons and giant sloths.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-55172063|title=Amazon rainforest rock art depicts giant Ice Age creatures|publisher=BBC|date=3 December 2020}}

Early burial sites in Peru, such as the one at Telarmachay dating from about 10 ka onward, contained evidence of ritual burial, with deposits of red ocher and bead necklaces marking the site.Lavallée, p. 115

• Cave painting
• Cro-Magnon
• Kapova Cave
• List of Stone Age art
• Mask of la Roche-Cotard

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book|title=Journey Through the Ice Age|last1=Bahn |first1=Paul G|last2=Vertut|first2=Jean|publisher=University of California Press|year=1997|isbn= 978-0-520-21306-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MvAgeiw5CCQC&q=Mas-d%27Azil&pg=PA96}}
• {{cite book|title=The Emergence of Culture: The Evolution of a Uniquely Human Way of Life|first=Philip G|last=Chase|publisher=Birkhäuser|year=2005|ref=Chase|isbn=978-0-387-30512-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Coulson|first=David|author2=Campbell, Alec|title=African Rock Art|publisher=Harry N. Abrams, Inc|year=2001|isbn=978-0-8109-4363-6}}
• {{cite book|title=The First South Americans|first=Danièle|last=Lavallée|publisher=University of Utah Press|year=1995|others=Bahn, Paul G (trans.)|ref=Lavallee|isbn=978-0-87480-665-6}}
• {{cite book|title=Korea: Art and Archaeology|first=Jane|last=Portal|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=2000|ref=Portal|isbn=978-0-7141-1487-3}}
• {{cite journal|journal=Science|date=2 October 1981|title=Dated Rock Engravings from Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa|volume=214|issue=4516|pages=64–67|doi=10.1126/science.214.4516.64|ref=Thackeray|first1=Anne I.|last1=Thackeray|pmid=17802575|last2=Thackeray|first2=JF|last3=Beaumont|first3=PB|last4=Vogel|first4=JC|bibcode=1981Sci...214...64T|s2cid=29714094|display-authors=etal}}

{{refend}}

• {{cite book|title=Ice Age art: the arrival of the modern mind|first=Jill|last=Cook|publisher=The British Museum Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-7141-2333-2}}

• {{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/ice_age_art.aspx|title=British Museum – Ice Age art: arrival of the modern mind|work=British Museum}}
• [http://www.europreart.net/ EuroPreArt Database of European Prehistoric Art]
• [http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-evolution-timeline-interactive Human Timeline (Interactive)] – Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History (August 2016).
• [http://caveartproject.org/ Image Database Paleolithic art in Northern Spain]

{{Human Evolution}}

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{{portal bar|Evolutionary biology}}

Upper Paleolithic

Category:Upper Paleolithic