Birth of primitive art 7: After glacial epoch fine arts

 

＜ a rock art in the Levant, a mother and a child、Ｍinateda, Spain、＞

Eventually, the glacial epoch fine arts that emitted luster had declined.

This decline caused stagnation and new deployment.

We look at this big change easily.

＜　Azilian culture, painted stones and bone tools ＞

At 10000 years ago, the colorful cave paintings and movable fine arts that felt vital force no longer were made.

On the other hand, new movements happened at some places a little distant from France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and northern Spain.

One is the painted stone at 11000 years ago. Figures like characters were drawn with several red lines on the stones.

Although bone tools are also found simultaneously, the ornamented things are not found at all.

Azilian that made these on the south of the Pyrenees (Spain) disappeared within 1000 years.

＜　rock arts in the Levant　＞

                   

From 11000 years ago to 5000 years ago, many rock arts appeared in the Spain southeast part.

These are the small paintings of animal and person that are drawn on lee of rock in ravines only by red.

Although animals is drawn realistically, persons are deformed and formalized, and are also humorous.

The themes are hunting, war, a dance, Sherman, etc.  It has composition that has motion with many persons and animals.

The drawn animals are game animals and domesticated dogs, then insects such as spider and fly, etc.

The figure subjects are more male than the woman. The male take a bow and put on bracelet, a hat, etc. The woman put on a skirt and ribbon.

 

＜　Arctic art、Rock Drawings of Alta　＞

A little late, from 6000 to 2000 years ago, many petroglyphs appeared on rocks near the Northern European (especially Norway) sea and rivers.

Many of petroglyphs are carved with a line or flat surface, and they are applied with red. A large thing is a whale 8 m in length.

Many of the themes are game hunting and fishing scenes and the everyday sight are drawn in the style of a tale on it.

The drawn things are reindeer, deer, seal, whale, salmon and sled, boat.

What of the fine arts changed?

Simplify

The cave painting was lost and turned into rock-art

Human and life scene were thought as important.

＜　air temperature change during the past 160,000 years　＞

What brought about this change?

The glacial epoch finished. :  Air temperature rose abruptly from 15000-year ago, and 10,000 years ago, it became the same as the present. By this, the glacier and the reindeer went away to the north and Europe became a forest and the world of small animals from the ground of snow and ice.

Their life changed suddenly :  They repeated movement in quest of the small animals which do not make a group. It dispersed the previous big group. Preservation of meat became impossibility.  When they took all games, they moved to next place. This was the same as the hunter-gatherers of the forest before civilization.

The agricultural had diffused from the Balkan Peninsula, and spread throughout Europe at the time 5000 years ago.

At last, the brightness of fine arts in Europe had been lost until the Bronze Age comes.

Culture and art were greatly influenced by change of natural environment and a social aggregation.

Ｎext time, we look at prehistory fine arts other than Europe.