 |
| Paleolithic Art, pintrest, https://www.pinterest.com/explore/paleolithic-art/, 25 September 2017 |
Paleo Art
The topic of the article is about the window on the Stone
Age and about how the chauvet cave was found. The person who discovered the
cave was Jean-Marie Chauvet and some companions. It was discovered in 1994 and
the paintings were made up to 20,000 years ago. The group was spelunking in
southeastern France. The cave was different from Lascaux and Altamira because
the artwork was mostly predators and dangerous species and not prey, some of
the paintings were of bears, lions, rhinos, panthers, and hyenas. Our theory is
that the paintings were done to show that it was an altar for some Paleolithic
ceremony. In the Lascaux cave, four boys were interested in fox’s earth and
they ended up finding the cave. The Cave is in France, it was discovered in
1940, and no one can go in today due to the carbon dioxide we breath in. The
carbon dioxide helps bacteria eat away the paint. The Chauvet cave was found in
France and the paintings in the cave are all paintings of predators and not
prey. There are also paintings of the outside of a handprint. These paintings
were made around 30,000 B.C. The last cave is the Altamira cave found in
Northern Spain. This cave has paintings of large, red horses, positive and
negative handprints, macaroni, and deer. The pigments used to make the paint
were charcoal and oricle from brown and red iron. The paintings are well
preserved because the entrance to the cave was sealed during the Paleolithic
times. The period where the people
painted in the Paleolithic age was from around 36,000 to 12,000 B.C. In class,
we used rocks, different tools, textbooks, and worksheets to learn about the
following information. The two basic types of art were portable art, which was
moved around, and stationary art, which were the cave paintings. The entire
grade painted on rocks with different tools that we made to experience what it
was like to paint in the Paleolithic times. Three theories on why the cave
paintings were made are that they would make memorials for what they had killed
so they could boast about it. Another theory is sympathetic magic, where if you
painted the animal it would come to you in the hunt. The last theory is they
would use the paintings as altars and if someone came into the cave, they would
worship as if it was a god. The first hominids to make cave art were the
Cro-Magons who live during the end of the Paleolithic times. The different
types of cave art are paintings of prey in Lascaux and Altamira caves, but in
the Chauvet cave, there are only paintings of predators. In addition, there is
macaroni art, which is a series of parallel lines made by the Paleolithic
artists running their hands through a wall. Three places where art can be found
are the Chauvet, Lascaux, and Altamira caves in France and Northern Spain. One
piece of Paleolithic art I found interesting was the macaroni art and how it
was just strange, people would do that.
My rock painting experience was a good way to learn what it
was like to make paint and paint with ancient tools like those that they did in
the Paleolithic age. We did it by making the paint with charcoal for black
paint, red dirt for red paint, and a piece of yellow chalk for yellow paint.
Then we mixed the dry paint and put either milk or egg in the dry paint and it
turned into paint we could use. This whole process took about 20 minutes. The
class had to paint one of the ancient paintings from the caves that Mrs. Nixon
had in her room. I learned how hominids would make paint and make paintings all
around the caves. In addition, I learned the types of art there is, the types
of paintings they made, and where they made the paintings. The difficult part
was making the paint because it was hard to mix up the milk or egg with the
powder without the milk or egg spilling out. In addition, it was difficult to
paint with my tool because my brush was not tied tight enough to my stick, so I
had to use the bottom of my stick for a paintbrush. The easy part was getting
to rock and the tool ready for the painting we did because I have rocks sitting
outside my house and the tool was just a stick, a part of a bush, and string
from a Pampas grass bush. I feel that the art I made was not great, but it was
hard to paint in a straight line with the bottom of my stick. The video talked
about how man first got meat by scavenging, getting morrow from bones, and
making tools (experiential archaeology). The early tools were compared to a new
set of teeth to get meat from dead animals. As hominids became more successful
and populations grew, they had to either use their resources better or move.
The reason hominids started to dominate the world was because of fire. Fire
helped the hominids in many ways and some of them are that fire was a source of
light, another is that they were protected from predators while they were
sleeping, also it would keep them warm when it was cold. The reasons hominids
developed bipedalism is because they could carry things, less than 40 percent
of the sun hits you, and you cool off faster. Problems of bipedalism are that
we have bad orthopedic problems and childbirth becomes more painful. Some
reasons hominids began to create languages is because they could warn of
danger, ask questions or give commands, communicate, they were able to teach,
they were able to learn, they could talk about their feelings, or the seasons,
and the afterlife, they could also work out relationships with different
species of human. The Neanderthals were the next species of human before the
Cro-Magnons. They were somewhat like humans in the way they looked except their
bones were bigger and stronger which means they were built to be in close
quarters with animals. That means they got injured, so the must have had a
tribe doctor. Also the Neanderthals buried their dead which means they cared
for their people differently than the people before them. Lastly, a theory to
their extinction is that they did not have enough children as the Cro-Magnons
so they ended up just dying off. The Cro-Magnons took over the Neanderthals and
were the first to show creative and symbolic creations. In addition, they made
different tools that were revolutionary, but specific tools came with specific
jobs, that means there were most likely specialists for different jobs. What
the people did in the video was experiential archaeology and inferences. We
learned how we think they made tools, fire, statues, and beads. In addition, we
learned what Anthropologist believe happened 3 million years ago with all the
different species of humans.
 |
| civilization, Ancient Origins, http://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/field/image/Greatest-Discovery-Never-Made_0.jpg, October 9 2017 |
Cities were Important in the development of a
civilization because that was sort of the start of the civilization age. There
are five characteristics of a civilization that define what a civilization is,
number one is the advanced cities which is a center of trade for a large area
and some examples are Ur and Uruk. The story of how advanced cities developed
into a civilization is that they were already civilizations, but you had to
have some kind of trading going on in the city for it to really be called a
civilization. Number 2 is the specialized workers and the definition for that
is the development of skills in a specific kind of work, some examples are
traders, priests, and potters. These things developed into cities because some
people had surpluses of grain, others had surpluses of meat, and others had
surpluses of pottery so they traded the things they made for things you needed.
Number 3 is complex institutions and the definition for that is the
organization of a city through laws, religion, and trading, some examples are
government, schools, and religion. Complex institutions developed into a part
of civilization because of the organization with the passage of laws, schools,
and religion. These things gave the people somewhat of a schedule which leads
to organization. Number 4 is record keeping and the definition for that is a
way to remember what we did in the past, some examples are calendars, rituals,
and passage of laws. This developed into a civilization because we could follow
rules and rituals and communicate with others. Number five is advanced
technology and the definition is tools or weapons used to solve a problem, some
examples are ox drawn plow, copper ax, fashion tools, and weapons. This
developed into a civilization because we made farming tools, we could make
weapons for militaries, and we could make weapons for hunting which were all a
big part of cities in the civilization age.
 |
| neolithic clothes, gizmodo, https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--WDYX0ktS--/c_fill,fl_progressive,g_north,h_264,q_80,w_470/qjauh7dy0qsuj5jb8zb1.jpg, October 9 2017 |
The biggest factor that led to the Neolithic Era was the
ending of the Ice Age and the melting of the glaciers. Another reason was that
we did not have to be nomads anymore because there was fertile land to farm and
grow plants. The last reason is that we started to trade our different products
that we made to get things we needed in return. History was changed forever
after this because now we have very many farms that we get food from to
survive. Also it is not cold year round so we can grow things and hunt all the
time without it being too cold. Another things is that we now make all
different types of metal tools thanks to the people in the Neolithic Era. One
way history changed is that we can get tattoos because the Neolithic people did
it to help with body aches and pains. Lastly, history changed because of
clothes they made and how people are still wearing clothes today as a source of
warmth and protection from the cold.
