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HUM 2210 Instructor: Paloma Rodriguez

Chapter 1: Prehistory

Class worksheet

1. Key terms. Observe the etymological origin of the following terms and try to figure out their meaning. (Note: “Gk” stands for “Ancient Greek”, the language used to form many scientific words in English)

|líthos (Gk: stone) |mesos (Gk: middle) |palaiós (Gk: old) |

|mega (Gk: big) |néos (Gk: new) |parietes (Latin: walls) |

Paleolithic age: __________________________________________________

Mesolithic age: __________________________________________________

Neolithic age: __________________________________________________

Megalithic monument: __________________________________________________

Parietal art: __________________________________________________

Group/ partner exercises:

Exercise 1: The form of Paleolithic cave paintings.

|Question |Answer/ Comment |

|Are the paintings polychromatic? (Do they use different colors?) | |

| | |

|Consider the perspective: is it frontal or a profile of the animals? | |

|Are the paintings descriptive or narrative? | |

| | |

|Do the animals share orientation and ground line? | |

|Do the images represent single animals or compositions (groups of animals | |

|interacting)? | |

|Were the animals painted at the same time? | |

| | |

|Has the artist used any techniques to add volume, texture, light-shade to the | |

|painting? | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

Exercise 2: The meaning and function of Paleolithic cave paintings

- What types of animals are more frequently represented?

- Why were these animals represented and not others? Is there any relationship between these and the hunting or feeding habits of Paleolithic people?

- There are signs and arrows around some of the animals and cracks made by spears on the rock. Can this help you determine the function of these drawings?

- Do you think these paintings are ornamental? Please note that the most elaborate drawings appear in the inner and most remote parts of the caves.

Exercise 3: Paleolithic sculpture: Female statuettes:

o Realistic or abstract?

o Descriptive, narrative or symbolic?

o Women or goddesses?

o What is their relationship with the society that produced them? Can they be interpreted as representative of the privileged status of Paleolithic women? Consider the following statements taken from your textbook (p. 13):

“ Female figurines vastly outnumber representations of males in the Paleolithic era, which suggest that women played a central role in Paleolithic culture”

“Their preponderance in the imagery of the era suggests that Paleolithic culture may have been matrilineal and matrilocal.”

o If they are goddesses, what appears to be their main attributes and powers?

Exercise 4: Paleolithic vs. Neolithic cave paintings. Rate the paintings according to the following standards:

| | | |

| |Paleolithic |Neolithic |

|+ Realistic | | |

|- Realistic | | |

|+ Color (polychromatic) | | |

|- Color (monochromatic) | | |

|+ Interaction between | | |

|figures | | |

|- Interaction between | | |

|figures | | |

|Descriptive | | |

|Narrative | | |

- Which one of the two paintings is more likely to have a religious function? Which one could serve as a way to record a memorable event?

- What do these paintings tell us about the feeding habits of the Neolithic people?

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