Neolithic Art and the New Stone Age

Neolithic Art and the New Stone Age After the art of the Mesolithic era, art in the Neolithic age (literally new stone) represents a spree of  innovation. Humans were settling themselves down into agrarian societies, which left them enough spare time to explore some key concepts of civilization- namely, religion, measurement, the rudiments of architecture, and writing and art. Climactic Stability The big geological news of the Neolithic age was that the glaciers of the Northern Hemisphere concluded their long, slow retreat, thus freeing up a lot of real estate and stabilizing the climate. For the first time, humans living everywhere from the sub-tropics to the Northern tundra could count on crops that appeared on schedule, and seasons that could be reliably tracked. This newfound  climatic stability was the one factor that allowed many tribes to abandon their wandering ways and begin to construct more-or-less permanent villages. No longer dependent, since the end of the Mesolithic era, on herd migration for food supplies, peoples of the Neolithic were becoming adept at refining farming techniques and building up domesticated herds of their own animals. With an ever-increasing, steady supply of grain and meat, we humans now had time to ponder the Big Picture and invent some  radical technological advances. Types of Neolithic Art The new arts to emerge from this era were weaving, architecture, megaliths, and increasingly stylized pictographs that were well on their way to becoming writing. The earlier arts of statuary, painting, and pottery stuck (and still remain) with us. The Neolithic era saw many refinements to each. Statuary (primarily statuettes), made a big comeback after having been largely absent during the Mesolithic age. Its Neolithic theme dwelt primarily on the female/fertility, or Mother Goddess imagery (quite in keeping with agriculture). There were still animal statuettes, however, these werent lavished with the detail the goddesses enjoyed. They are often found broken into bits- perhaps indicating that they were used symbolically in hunting rituals. Additionally, sculpture was no longer created strictly by carving. In the Near East, in particular, figurines were now fashioned out of clay and baked. Archaeological digs at Jericho turned up a marvelous human skull (c. 7,000 BC) overlaid with delicate, sculpted plaster features. Painting, in Western Europe and the Near East, left the caves and cliffs for good and became a purely decorative element. The finds of Çatal Hà ¼yà ¼k, an ancient village in modern Turkey, show lovely wall paintings (including the worlds earliest known landscape), dating from c. 6150 BC. As for pottery, it began replacing stone and wood utensils at a rapid pace and also become more highly decorated. Art for Ornamentation Neolithic art was still- almost without exception- created for some functional purpose. There were more images of humans than animals, and the humans looked more identifiably human. It began to be used for ornamentation. In the cases of architecture and megalithic constructions, art was now created in fixed locations. This was significant. Where temples, sanctuaries and stone rings were built, gods and goddesses were provided with known destinations. Additionally, the emergence of tombs provided unmoving resting places for the dearly departed that could be visited- another first. Neolithic Art Around the World At this point, art history typically begins to follow a prescribed course: Iron and bronze are discovered. Ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt arise, make art, and are followed by art in the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome. People then traveled to and settled in what is now Europe for the next thousand years, eventually moving on to the New World- which subsequently shares artistic honors with Europe. This route is commonly known as Western Art, and is often the focus of any art history/art appreciation syllabus. However, the sort of art that has been described in this article as Neolithic (i.e.: Stone age; that of pre-literate peoples who hadnt yet discovered how to smelt metals) continued to flourish in the Americas, Africa, Australia and, in particular, Oceania. In some instances, it was still thriving in the previous (20th) century.