Art Before History

Humankind seems to have originated in Africa in the very remote past. From that  great continent also comes the earliest evidence of human recognition of abstract images in the natural environment, if not the first examples of what people generally call “art.” In 1925, explorers of a cave at Makapansgat in South Africa discovered bones of Australopithecus, a predecessor of modern human who lived some three million years ago. Associated with the bones was a water worn reddish brown jasperite   pabble that bears an uncanny resemblance to a human face. The nearest known source of this variety of ironstone is 20 mile   away from the cave. One of the early humans who took refuge in the rock shelter at Makapansgat must have noticed the pebble in a streambed and, awestruck by   the  ”face” on the stone, brought it back for safekeeping.

Is the Makapansgat pebble art? In modern times, many artists have created works people universally consider art by removing object from their normal contexts .altering them, and labeling them. In 1917, for example, Marcel Duchamp took a ceramic urinal, set it on its side, called it fountain and declared   his “ready-made ” worthy of exhibition among more conventional artwork . But the artistic environment of the past century cannot be projected in to the remote past. For art historians to declare a found object such as  the  Makapansgat pebble an “artwork,” it must have been modified by human intervention beyond mere selection  and it was not . In fact , evidence indicate that, with few exceptions, it was not until three million years later, around 30,000 BCE, when large parts of northern Europe were still covered with glaciers during the Ice Age, that human intentionally manufactured sculptures and painting . that is when the story of art through the ages really begins.                            

  PALEOLITHIC ART

The several millennia following 30,000 BEC saw a powerful outburst of creativity. The works produced by the people of the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic Period (from the  greek    palco, ”old, ”and  lithos , “stone”) are of an astonishing variety. They range from simple shell necklaces to human and animal forms in ivory  ,clay, and stone to monumental paintings, engravings, and relief sculptures covering the  huge wall surfaces of caves. During the Paleolithic period, humankind went beyond the recognition of human and animal forms in the natural environment to the representation (literally, the presenting again –in different and sub statute form – of something’s observed) of humans and animals. The immensity of this achievement cannot be exaggerated.  

Pebble resembling a human face from Makaspansgat South Africa

ca. 3,000,000 B.C.E. reddish brown jasperite

Approximately 2 3/8 in. wide

Three million years ago someone recognized a face in this pebble and brought it to a rock shelter for safekeeping, but the stone in not an artwork because it was neither manufactured nor modified.

 Africa

 Some of the earliest paintings yet discovered come from Africa, and,Like the treasured pebble in the form of a face found at Makapansgat, the oldest African paintings were portable objects.

Animal Facing left from   the  Apollo 11 Cave Namibia

ca. 23,000 B.C.E charcoal on stone 5 in x 4 3/4 in.

Like most other paintings for thousands of years, this very early example from Africa represents an animal in strict profile so that the head, body, tail, and all four legs are clearly visible.