AFRICAN ROCK ART

INTRODUCTION TO PREHISTORIC ART (20,000 - 8,000 B.C.E.)

To describe the global origins of humans' artistic achievement, upon which the succeeding history of art may be laid, is an encyclopedic enterprise.

The Metropolitan Museum's Timeline of Art History, covering the period roughly from 20,000 to 8000 B.C., provides a series of introductory essays about particular archaeological sites and artworks that illustrate some of the earliest endeavors in human creativity. The account of the origins of art is a
very long one marked less by change than consistency.

The first human artistic representations, markings with ground red ocher, seem to have occurred
about 100,000 B.C. in African rock art.

This chronology may be more an artifact of the limitations of archaeological evidence than a true picture of when humans first created art. However, with new technologies, research methods, and archaeological discoveries, we are able to view the history of human artistic achievement in a greater focus than ever before.

Art, as the product of human creativity and imagination, includes poetry, music, dance, and the material arts such as painting, sculpture, drawing, pottery, and bodily adornment.

The objects and archaeological sites presented in the Museum's Timeline of Art History for the time period 20,000–8000 B.C. illustrate diverse examples of prehistoric art from across the globe. All were created in the period before the invention of formal writing, and when human populations were migrating and expanding across the world.

By 20,000 B.C., humans had settled on every continent except Antarctica.

The earliest human occupation occurs in Africa, and it is there that we assume art to have originated. African rock art from Apollo 11 and Wonderwerk Caves contain examples of geometric and animal representations engraved and painted on stone.

In Europe, the record of Paleolithic art is beautifully illustrated with the magnificent painted caves of Lascaux and Chauvet, both in France. Scores of painted caves exist in western Europe, mostly in France and Spain, and hundreds of sculptures and engravings depicting humans, animals, and fantastic creatures have been found across Europe and Asia alike.

Rock art in Australia represents the longest continuously practiced artistic tradition in the world. The site of Ubirr in northern Australia contains exceptional examples of Aboriginal rock art repainted for millennia beginning perhaps as early as 40,000 B.C. The earliest known rock art in Australia predates European painted caves by as much as 10,000 years.