Drawings of ancient people are easy and beautiful. Types and features of the art of primitive society

The Cro-Magnons, who lived on earth 30 thousand years ago, used simple drawings. But the cave paintings of primitive people cannot be called primitive, since they were created by people with extraordinary artistic talents. Drawings of primitive people in caves are graphic and volumetric images, bas-reliefs on the walls. Many such drawings are known today: in France (southwestern part), Spain (its northwestern part), Italy, even in Russia, Serbia and England, there are single copies.

rock painting and pictures of primitive people are unique and most often resemble a two-dimensional image. At the same time, techniques that help convey volume began to be used only during the Renaissance. Rock art is replete with images of rhinos, bison, mammoths, deer. Also in the drawings there are hunting scenes, people with arrows and spears are depicted. Occasionally there are drawings of fish, plants, insects. The paints with which the drawings are made do not fade and fully convey the original brightness. It is difficult to imagine a person who has no idea what rock paintings are (photos will help you figure this out).

Where did the first people paint?

The hard-to-reach areas of the caves, located a hundred meters from the surface, were a great place for drawing. This is primarily due to the cult significance rock carvings requiring the performance of a certain ritual. Such a rite was drawing. Melted and still hot fat of wild animals, bunches of moss or wool were poured into bowls. Then the artist began to work in the light of stone lamps.

What are the cave paintings called?

The rock carvings of the ancients are called petroglyphs (Greek - to cut a stone). There are drawings made in the form of symbols or symbols. The drawings contain a huge amount of valuable information about the life of representatives ancient population, reveal the traditions and historical events that influenced the ancient man.

Later drawings were made in the form of symbols or symbols. Man initially sought to express thoughts with the help of signs, writing. Painting brought this moment closer, becoming transition period between graphics and writing. The images are called pictograms. For example, on the territory of Armenia, archaeologists have discovered inscriptions resembling all known ancient alphabets. The oldest images found here are over 9,000 years old. The cave paintings of primitive people are pictures created by the first people.

Technique and materials

What motivated people to draw? Just the desire to create beauty or the need to perform and capture a special ritual? It was not so easy to make a rock engraving, especially if the paint was applied into deep cuts that the ancient painter carved with a rough cutting tool. It could be a large stone cutter. Such a tool was discovered at the site of the ancient people of Le Roque de Ser. During the period of the Middle and Late Paleolithic, the technique of performing rock art of primitive people is more subtle. The contours of the engravings were carved several times with shallow lines. Even then, hatching and combined painting were used. There are similar images on the tusks and bones of animals that belong to the same period.

Rock paintings, photo in Altamira Cave

The paint of primitive man is all shades of ocher, which were used as a red dye, charcoal and manganese ore. Chalk and guano were also used bats. Future paint was rubbed with bone or stone. The resulting powder was mixed with animal fat. Ancient people even had prototypes of modern tubes. They kept the paints in the hollow parts of animal bones, both sides of which were sealed with a hardened lump of the same animal fat. There were no other colors, such as green or blue.

Bones or sharp sticks, the ends of which were split, served as a brush for primitive artists. Pieces of wool were also used, which were tied to the bone. They first drew the outline, and then painted over. But there are other pictures as well. For example, a handprint that was splattered with paint through a reed.

Ancient people had no idea about the composition or proportions of the body. They drew large predators and tiny mountain goats in their background. But this did not stop them from creating masterpieces comparable to contemporary view about painting. The accuracy of the transfer of objects and animals is amazing, and the drawings of ancient people in the caves imprinted in stone ancient animals that have long died out. visual effect amplified due to the fact that the image was applied to the ledge of the rock.

What did primitive people draw?

Rock paintings of ancient people are a manifestation of emotional and vivid figurative thinking. Not everyone could create such masterpieces, but only those in whose subconscious mind visual images arose. Those who were overwhelmed vivid images, transferred them to the plane of rocks.

There is an assumption that with the help of rock art, visions were transmitted, a person expressed himself and transmitted the received life experience. But most scientists adhere to the version of the cult significance of the drawings: they were probably created before the hunt. Thus, a person tried to influence the result, to attract the preferred animal during the hunt.

The disappearance of some animals, climate change led to a serious change in human activity. Now he spent more time raising animals and working the land. There was less time for hunting. This was also reflected in rock art. The drawings were no longer made deep in the cave, but outside. Images of a person were now more and more common. Animals that were domesticated were also depicted in cave engravings (scenes of fox hunting). Schematic drawings spread: triangles, straight or winding lines, a heap of colored spots.

If earlier hunting scenes were most often depicted, now they were also ritual dances, battles, and grazing. There are many such drawings in Spain.

Where can you see rock art?

In France, in the caves of Lascaux and Chauvet, drawings were found that date back to about the 18th-15th millennium BC. e. They depict horses, cows, bulls, bears. In Spain, in the cave of Altamira, hunting scenes are depicted by ancient artists so skillfully that if you look at them with a blazing fire, you get the impression of movement of objects. In Africa, there is a whole complex of caves with rock art. This is Laas-Gaal in Somaliland, and Tassilin-Adjer in Algeria. Rock paintings have also been discovered in Egypt (Plovtsov cave), Bulgaria, Bashkiria, Argentina (Cueva de las Manos cave) and many others.

Objects of art or a primitive reflection of reality?

Between primitive "art" and modern it is impossible to put an equal sign. But, considering ancient images, modern art historians rely on the usual formulations, going far beyond the specifics of primitive art. Today in the world of art there is an author of a work, and there is a consumer. Ancient artists created their creations only because they had the ability to draw and felt the need to display the reality around them or significant events. They had no ideas about art or were blurry, but the images that overwhelmed their consciousness found a way out into the world through their creator, who, most likely, the tribesmen considered endowed with supernatural power.

So what is the difference between rock art and ordinary modern art? The only difference is that the first drawings were made by artists of the Paleolithic era, and a rock was used as a canvas. Of course, the phenomenon of creativity is associated with the interaction of all spiritual forces and the release of emotions in a special way. A person could create something new and important for himself, but the realization of this phenomenon occurred gradually. Cro-Magnon lived in such cultural environment in which there was no division into separate areas of activity. And the ancient people did not have leisure in our understanding, since their life was not divided into strict work and rest. The time when a person did not fight for existence, he devoted to the performance of rituals and other actions important for the well-being of the tribe.

primitive art

Anyone endowed with a great gift - feel the beauty surrounding world, feel harmony lines, admire the variety of shades of colors.

Painting- this is the artist's attitude captured on canvas. If your perception of the surrounding world is reflected in the artist's painting, then you feel an affinity with the works of this master.

Pictures attract attention, fascinate, excite the imagination and dreams, evoke memories of pleasant moments, favorite places and landscapes.

When did they appear first images man-made?

Appeal primitive people to a new type of activity for them - art - one of greatest events in human history. Primitive art reflected the first ideas of man about the world around him, thanks to him knowledge and skills were preserved and transferred, people communicated with each other. In spiritual culture primitive world art began to play the same universal role that a pointed stone played in labor activity.

What prompted a person to think of depicting certain objects? How do you know if body painting was the first step towards creating images, or if a person guessed the familiar silhouette of an animal in a random outline of a stone and, having cut it, gave it a greater resemblance? Or maybe the shadow of an animal or a person served as the basis for the drawing, and the imprint of a hand or a step precedes the sculpture? There is no definite answer to these questions. Ancient people could come up with the idea of depicting objects not in one, but in many ways.
For example, to the number the most ancient images on the walls of caves of the Paleolithic era are also human handprints, and a disorderly weave of wavy lines, pressed into the damp clay with the fingers of the same hand.

The works of art of the early Stone Age, or Paleolithic, are characterized by simplicity of forms and colors. Rock paintings are, as a rule, the contours of the figures of animals., made with bright paint - red or yellow, and occasionally - filled with round spots or completely painted over. Such ""paintings"" were clearly visible in the twilight of the caves, illuminated only by torches or the fire of a smoky fire.

At the initial stage of development primitive fine arts didn't know laws of space and perspective, as well as composition, those. intentional distribution on the plane of individual figures, between which there is necessarily a semantic connection.

Alive and expressive images rises before us life history of primitive man era of the Stone Age, told by him in the rock paintings.

Dance. Painting by Lleid. Spain. With a variety of movements and gestures, a person conveyed his impressions of the world around him, reflecting in them own feelings, mood and state of mind. Frantic jumps, imitation of the habits of an animal, stamping feet, expressive hand gesturescreated the prerequisites for the emergence of dance. There were also martial dances associated with magical rituals, with the belief in victory over the enemy.

<<Каменная газета>> Arizona

Composition in the cave of Lascaux. France. On the walls of the caves you can see mammoths, wild horses, rhinos, bison. Drawing for primitive man was the same "witchcraft" as a spell and ritual dance. “Conjuring” the spirit of the drawn animal by singing and dancing, and then “killing” it, the person seemed to master the power of the animal and “defeat” it before the hunt.

<<Сражающиеся лучники>> Spain

And these are petroglyphs. Hawaii

Paintings on the Tassili-Adjer mountain plateau. Algeria.

Primitive people practiced sympathetic magic - in the form of dancing, singing, or pictures of animals on the walls of caves - to attract herds of animals and ensure the continuation of the family and the safety of livestock. Hunters acted out successful hunting scenes to draw energy into real world. They turned to the Mistress of the Herds, and later to the Horned God, who was depicted with the horns of goats or deer to emphasize his leadership in the herds. The bones of animals were supposed to be buried in the ground so that animals, like people, would be reborn from the womb of Mother Earth.

This cave drawing in the Lascaux region of France from the Paleolithic era

Large animals were the preferred food. And the Paleolithic people, skilled hunters, destroyed most of them. And not just large herbivores. During the Paleolithic, cave bears completely disappeared as a species.

There is another type of rock paintings, which is of a mystical, mysterious nature.

Rock paintings from Australia. Either people, or animals, or maybe not both...

Drawings from West Arnhem, Australia.

Huge figures and a number of little men. And in the lower left corner, something is generally incomprehensible.

And here is a masterpiece from Laskaux, France.

North Africa, Sahara. Tassili. 6 thousand years BC Flying saucers and someone in a space suit. Or maybe it's not a spacesuit.

Rock painting from Australia...

Val Camonica, Italy.

and the next photo is from Azerbaijan, Gobustan region

Gobustan is included in the UNESCO heritage list

Who were those "artists" who managed to convey to remote eras the message of their time? What prompted them to do this? What were the hidden springs and the driving motives that guided them?..Thousands of questions and very few answers...Many of our contemporaries are very fond of being offered to look at history through a magnifying glass.

But is it really all that small?

After all, there were images of the gods

In the north of Upper Egypt is ancient city temples of Abydos. Its origin dates back to prehistoric times. It is known that already in the era of the Old Kingdom (about 2500 BC), the universal deity Osiris enjoyed wide veneration in Abydos. Osiris, on the other hand, was considered a divine teacher who gave the people of the Stone Age diverse knowledge and crafts, and, quite possibly, knowledge about the secrets of the sky. By the way, it was in Abydos that the oldest calendar was found, dating back to the 4th millennium BC. e.

Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome also left a lot of rock evidence that reminds us of their existence. They already had developed writing - their drawings are much more interesting, from the point of view of studying everyday life, than ancient graffiti.

Why is humanity trying to find out what happened millions of years ago, what knowledge ancient civilizations had? We seek the source because we think that by uncovering it, we will know why we exist. Humanity wants to find where is the starting point from which it all began, because it thinks that there, apparently, there is an answer, “what is all this for”, and what will happen in the end ...

After all, the world is so vast, and human brain narrow and limited. The most difficult crossword puzzle of history must be solved gradually, cell by cell...

Prehistoric rock art is the most abundant evidence available of how mankind took the first steps in the field of art, knowledge and culture. It is found in most countries of the world, from the tropics to the Arctic, and in a wide variety of places - from deep caves to mountain heights.

Several tens of millions of rock paintings have already been discovered and artistic motives and more are being opened every year. This solid, durable, cumulative monument of the past is clear evidence that our distant ancestors developed complex social systems.

Some common false claims about the origins of art should have been rejected at their very source. Art, as such, did not appear suddenly, it developed gradually with the enrichment of human experience. By the time the famous cave art in France and Spain the artistic tradition is said to have already been well developed, at least in South Africa, Lebanon, Eastern Europe, India and Australia, and no doubt in many other regions which have yet to be adequately explored.

When did people first decide to generalize reality? This is an interesting question for art historians and archaeologists, but it is also of broad interest, given that the idea of cultural primacy has an impact on the formation of ideas about racial, ethnic and national value, even fantasy. For example, the claim that art originated in the caves of Western Europe becomes an incentive to create myths about European cultural superiority. Secondly, the origins of art should be considered closely connected with the emergence of other purely human qualities: the ability to create abstract ideas and symbols, to communicate at the highest level, to develop an idea of \u200b\u200bthemselves. Apart from prehistoric art, we have no real evidence from which to infer the existence of such abilities.

THE BEGINNINGS OF ART

Artistic creativity was considered a model of "impractical" behavior, that is, behavior that seemed to be devoid of a practical goal. The oldest clear archaeological evidence of this is the use of ocher or red iron ore (hematite), a red mineral dye removed and used by people several hundred thousand years ago. These ancient people also collected crystals and patterned fossils, colorful and unusual shape gravel. They began to distinguish between ordinary, everyday objects and unusual, exotic ones. Obviously, they developed ideas about a world in which objects could be distributed on different classes. Evidence first appears in South Africa, then in Asia, and finally in Europe.

The oldest known rock painting was made in India two or three hundred thousand years ago. It consists of bowl-shaped depressions and a sinuous line chiselled into the sandstone of the cave. Around the same time, simple linear signs were made on various kinds of portable objects (bones, teeth, tusks and stones) found at the sites of the sites of primitive man. Sets of carved lines collected in a bundle first appear in central and eastern Europe, they acquire a certain improvement, which makes it possible to recognize individual motifs: scribbles, crosses, arcs and sets of parallel lines.

This period, which archaeologists call the Middle Paleolithic (somewhere between 35,000 and 150,000 years ago), was decisive for the development of human mental and cognitive abilities. It was also the time when people acquired seafaring skills and detachments of colonists could make transitions up to 180 km. Regular maritime navigation, obviously, required the improvement of the communication system, that is, the language.

People of this era also mined ocher and flint in several world regions. They started building big joint houses from bones and put stone walls inside the caves. And most importantly, they created art. In Australia, some samples of rock art appeared 60,000 years ago, that is, in the era of the settlement of the continent by people. In hundreds of places there are objects that are believed to be of more ancient origin than the art of Western Europe. But during this era, rock art also appears in Europe. Its oldest example of those that are known to us - a system of nineteen cup-like signs in a cave in France, carved on a stone rock slab, covered the place of a child's burial.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this era is the cultural unanimity that prevailed in the then world in all regions of settlement. Despite the differences in tools, no doubt due to differences in the environment, cultural behavior was remarkably stable. The use of ocher and an expressively uniform set of geometric markings testify to the existence of a universal artistic language between archaic Homo sapiens, including European Neanderthals and others known to us from fossils.

Arranged in a circle curly images(sculptures) first appear in Israel (about 250-300 thousand years ago), in the form of modified natural forms, then in Siberia and central Europe (about 30-35 thousand years ago), and only then in Western Europe. About 30,000 years ago, rock art was enriched by intricate finger-cuts on the soft surface of caves in Australia and Europe, and stencil images of palms in France. Two-dimensional images of objects began to appear. The oldest examples, created approximately 32,000 years ago, come from France, followed by South African drawings (Namibia).

About 20,000 years ago (very recently in terms of human history), significant differences begin to form between cultures. Late Paleolithic people in Western Europe began fine traditions, both in the sculptural and graphic arts of ritual and decorative consumption. About 15,000 years ago, this tradition led to such famous masterpieces as the painting in the caves of Altamira (Spain) and Lescaut (France), as well as the appearance of thousands of elaborately carved figures from stone, tusks, bone, clay and other materials. It was a time of the finest multi-colored works of cave art, drawn or minted by a certain hand of master craftsmen. However, the development of graphic traditions in other regions was not easy.

in asian form geometric art evolved into very perfect systems, some reminiscent of official records, others mnemonic emblems, peculiar texts intended to refresh memory.

Starting around the end of the ice age, about 10,000 years ago, rock art has gradually moved beyond the caves. This was dictated not so much by the search for new better places, as (almost no doubt remains here) by survival rock art through selection. Rock art is well preserved in the permanent conditions of deep limestone caves, but not on rock surfaces more open to destruction. So, the unquestioning spread of rock art at the end of the Ice Age does not indicate the growth of artistic production, but the overcoming of the threshold of what ensured good preservation.

On all continents, bypassing Antarctica, rock art now shows the diversity of artistic styles and cultures, the progressive growth of the ethnic diversity of mankind on all continents, as well as the development of major religions. Even the last historical stage the development of mass migrations, colonizations and religious expansion - thoroughly reflected in rock art.

DATING

There are two main forms of rock art, petroglyphs (carvings) and pictors (drawings). Petroglyphic motifs were created by carving, gouging, chasing or polishing rock surfaces. In pictograms, additional substances, usually paint, were superimposed on the rocky surface. This difference is very important, it determines the approaches to dating.

The methodology of scientific dating of rock art has been developed only during the last fifteen years. Therefore, it is still at the stage of its "childhood", and the dating of almost all world rock art remains in poor condition. This, however, does not mean that we have no idea of his age: often there are all kinds of landmarks that allow us to determine the approximate or at least probable age. Sometimes it is lucky to determine the age of a rock carving quite accurately, especially when the paint contains organic substances or microscopic inclusions that allow dating due to the radioactive isotope of carbon they contain. A careful evaluation of the results of such an analysis can determine the date quite accurately. On the other hand, the dating of petroglyphs remains extremely difficult.

Modern methods are based on determining the age of mineral deposits that could be deposited on rock art. But they allow you to determine only the minimum age. One way is to analyze the microscopic organic matter interspersed in such mineral layers; laser technology can be successfully used here. Today, only one method is suitable for determining the age of the petroglyphs themselves. It is based on the fact that the mineral crystals, which were chipped during the gouging of petroglyphs, initially had sharp edges, which eventually became blunt and rounded. By determining the rate of such processes on nearby surfaces, the age of which is known, it is possible to calculate the age of petroglyphs.

Several archaeological methods can also help a little in the matter of dating. If, for example, a rock surface is covered with archaeological layers of mud whose age can be determined, they can be used to determine the minimum age of petroglyphs. Comparisons of stylistic manners are often resorted to in order to determine the chronological framework of rock art, though not very successfully.

Much more reliable methods of studying rock art, which often resemble the methods of forensic science. For example, the ingredients of a paint can tell how it was made, what tools and additives were used, where the dyes came from, and the like. Human blood, which was used as a binder in glacial period, found in Australian rock art. The Australian researchers also found up to forty layers of paint superimposed on each other in different places, indicating the constant redrawing of the same surface over a long time. Like the pages of a book, these layers tell us the history of the use of surfaces by artists over generations. The study of such layers is just beginning and can lead to a real revolution in views.

The pollen of plants found on the fibers of brushes in the paint of rock paintings indicates what crops were grown by contemporaries of ancient artists. In some French caves, characteristic paint recipes were found out from their chemical composition. By charcoal dyes, often used for drawings, even the type of wood burned to charcoal was determined.

Rock art research has evolved into a separate scientific discipline, and is already used by many other disciplines, from geology to semiotics, from ethnology to cybernetics. His methodology provides for expressiveness through the electronic display of colors of very spoiled, almost completely faded drawings; a wide range of specialized description methods; microscopic studies of traces left by tools and scanty sediments.

VULNERABLE MONUMENTS

Methods for the preservation of prehistoric monuments are also being developed and increasingly applied. Copies of rock art pieces (fragments of the object or even the entire object) have been made to prevent damage to the originals. Yet many of the world's prehistoric monuments are in constant danger. Acid rain dissolves the protective mineral layers that cover many petroglyphs. All the turbulent flows of tourists, urban sprawl, industrial and mountain development, even unqualified research contribute to the dirty work of shortening the age of inestimable artistic treasures.

Discovery of cave art galleries posed a number of questions for archaeologists: what did the primitive artist draw with, how did he draw, where did he place the drawings, what did he draw, and, finally, why did he do it? The study of caves allows us to answer them with varying degrees of certainty.

The palette of primitive man was poor: it had four basic colors - black, white, red and yellow. Chalk and chalk-like limestones were used to produce white images; black - charcoal and manganese oxides; red and yellow - minerals hematite (Fe2O3), pyrolusite (MnO2) and natural dyes - ocher, which is a mixture of iron hydroxides (limonite, Fe2O3.H2O), manganese (psilomelane, m.MnO.MnO2.nH2O) and clay particles. In the caves and grottoes of France, stone slabs were found on which ocher was rubbed, as well as pieces of dark red manganese dioxide. Judging by the painting technique, pieces of paint were rubbed, bred on bone marrow, animal fat or blood. Chemical and X-ray diffraction analysis of paints from the Lascaux Cave showed that not only natural dyes were used, mixtures of which give different shades of primary colors, but also rather complex compounds obtained by firing them and adding other components (kaolinite and aluminum oxides).

The serious study of cave dyes is just beginning. And questions immediately arise: why were only inorganic paints used? The primitive man-collector distinguished more than 200 different plants, among which were dyeing ones. Why are the drawings in some caves made in different tones of the same color, and in others - in two colors of the same tone? Why did the colors of the green-blue-blue part of the spectrum enter early painting for so long? In the Paleolithic, they are almost absent, in Egypt they appear 3.5 thousand years ago, and in Greece - only in the 4th century. BC e. Archaeologist A. Formozov believes that our distant ancestors did not immediately understand the bright plumage of the "magic bird" - the Earth. The most ancient colors, red and black, reflect the harsh color of the life of that time: the sun disk at the horizon and the flame of a fire, the darkness of the night full of dangers and the darkness of the caves bringing relative calm. Red and black were associated with opposites ancient world: red - heat, light, life with hot scarlet blood; black - cold, darkness, death... This symbolism is universal. It was a long journey from the cave artist, who had only 4 colors in his palette, to the Egyptians and Sumerians, who added two more (blue and green) to them. But even further from them is the cosmonaut of the 20th century, who took a set of 120 colored pencils on his first flights around the Earth.

The second group of questions that arise in the study of cave painting concerns the technology of drawing. The problem can be formulated as follows: did the animals depicted in the drawings of the Paleolithic man "leave" the wall or "gone" into it?

In 1923, N. Castere discovered a Late Paleolithic clay figure of a bear lying on the ground in the Montespan cave. It was covered with indentations - traces of javelin blows, and numerous prints of bare feet were found on the floor. The thought arose: this is a "dummy" that has absorbed hunting pantomimes fixed for tens of millennia at the carcass of a dead bear. Further, the following row can be traced, confirmed by finds in other caves: a life-size model of a bear, dressed in its skin and decorated with a real skull, is replaced by its clay likeness; the beast gradually "gets on its feet" - for stability it is leaned against the wall (this is already a step towards creating a bas-relief); then the beast gradually “leaves” into it, leaving a traced, and then a picturesque outline ... This is how the archaeologist A. Solyar imagines the emergence of Paleolithic painting.

No less likely is another way. According to Leonardo da Vinci, the first drawing is the shadow of an object lit by a fire. Primitive begins to draw, mastering the technique of "bypass". The caves have preserved dozens of such examples. On the walls of the Gargas Cave (France), 130 "ghostly hands" are visible - imprints of human hands on the wall. It is interesting that in some cases they are depicted as a line, in others - by shading the outer or inner contours (positive or negative stencil), then drawings appear, "torn off" from the object, which is no longer depicted in full size, in profile or frontally. Sometimes objects are drawn as if in different projections (face and legs - profile, chest and shoulders - frontally). Skill grows gradually. The drawing acquires clarity, confidence of the stroke. By the best drawings biologists confidently determine not only the genus, but also the species, and sometimes the subspecies of the animal.

The next step is taken by Madeleine artists: by means of painting they convey dynamics and perspective. Color helps a lot with this. The full of life horses of the Grand Ben Cave seem to run in front of us, gradually decreasing in size ... Later this technique was forgotten, and similar drawings are not found in rock art either in the Mesolithic or in the Neolithic. The last step is the transition from a perspective image to a three-dimensional one. So there are sculptures that "came out" from the walls of the cave.

Which of the following points of view is correct? A comparison of the absolute dates of the figurines made of bones and stone shows that they are approximately the same age: 30-15 thousand years BC. e. Maybe in different places the cave artist followed different paths?

Another of the mysteries of cave painting is the lack of background and framing. Figures of horses, bulls, mammoths are freely scattered along the rock wall. The drawings seem to be hanging in the air, not even a symbolic line of the earth is drawn under them. On the uneven vaults of caves, animals are placed in the most unexpected positions: upside down or sideways. No in drawings of primitive man and a hint of landscape background. Only in the 17th century n. e. in Holland the landscape takes shape in a special genre.

The study of Paleolithic painting provides specialists with abundant material to search for the origins of various styles and trends in contemporary art. So, for example, a prehistoric master, 12 thousand years before the appearance of pointillist artists, depicted animals on the wall of the Marsula cave (France) using tiny colored dots. The number of such examples can be multiplied, but something else is more important: the images on the walls of the caves are a fusion of the reality of existence and its reflection in the brain of a Paleolithic person. Thus, Paleolithic painting carries information about the level of thinking of a person of that time, about the problems that he lived with and that worried him. Primitive art, discovered more than 100 years ago, remains a real El Dorado for all kinds of hypotheses about this.

Dublyansky V.N., popular science book

Primitive (or, otherwise, primitive) art geographically covers all continents except Antarctica, and in time - the entire era of human existence, preserved by some peoples living in remote corners of the planet to this day.

Most of the most ancient paintings were found in Europe (from Spain to the Urals).

It was well preserved on the walls of the caves - the entrances turned out to be tightly filled up millennia ago, the same temperature and humidity were maintained there.

Not only wall paintings have been preserved, but also other evidence of human activity - clear footprints of bare feet of adults and children on the damp floor of some caves.

Reasons for the emergence of creative activity and the function of primitive art Man's need for beauty and creativity.

beliefs of the time. The man portrayed those whom he revered. People of that time believed in magic: they believed that with the help of paintings and other images, one could influence the nature or outcome of the hunt. It was believed, for example, that it was necessary to hit a drawn animal with an arrow or spear in order to ensure the success of a real hunt.

periodization

Now science is changing its opinion about the age of the earth and the time frame is changing, but we will study by the generally accepted names of the periods.
1. Stone Age
1.1 Ancient stone Age- Paleolithic. ... to 10 thousand BC
1.2 Middle Stone Age - Mesolithic. 10 - 6 thousand BC
1.3 New Stone Age - Neolithic. From 6 - to 2 thousand BC
2. Bronze Age. 2 thousand BC
3. Age of iron. 1 thousand BC

Paleolithic

Tools of labor were made of stone; hence the name of the era - the stone age.
1. Ancient or Lower Paleolithic. up to 150 thousand BC
2. Middle Paleolithic. 150 - 35 thousand BC
3. Upper or late Paleolithic. 35 - 10 thousand BC
3.1 Aurignac-Solutrean period. 35 - 20 thousand BC
3.2. Madeleine period. 20 - 10 thousand BC This period received its name from the name of the La Madeleine cave, where murals related to this time were found.

The earliest works of primitive art date back to the Late Paleolithic. 35 - 10 thousand BC
Scientists are inclined to believe that naturalistic art and the representation of schematic signs and geometric figures arose simultaneously.
Pasta drawings. Impressions of a human hand and a disorderly weave of wavy lines pressed into the wet clay by the fingers of the same hand.

The first drawings from the Paleolithic period (Old Stone Age, 35–10 thousand BC) were discovered at the end of the 19th century. Spanish amateur archaeologist Count Marcelino de Sautuola, three kilometers from his family estate, in the cave of Altamira.

It happened like this:
“An archaeologist decided to explore a cave in Spain and took his little daughter with him. Suddenly she shouted: “Bulls, bulls!” The father laughed, but when he raised his head, he saw on the ceiling of the cave huge, painted figures of bison. Some of the bison were depicted standing still, others rushing with inclined horns at the enemy. At first, scientists did not believe that primitive people could create such works of art. Only 20 years later, numerous works of primitive art were discovered in other places and the authenticity of the cave painting was recognized.

Paleolithic painting

Cave of Altamira. Spain.
Late Paleolithic (Madeleine era 20 - 10 thousand years BC).
On the vault of the cave chamber of Altamira, a whole herd of large bison, closely spaced to each other, is depicted.

Panel of bison. Located on the ceiling of the cave. Wonderful polychrome images contain black and all shades of ocher, rich colors, superimposed somewhere densely and monotonously, and somewhere with halftones and transitions from one color to another. A thick layer of paint up to several cm. In total, 23 figures are depicted on the vault, if we do not take into account those of which only outlines have been preserved.

Fragment. Buffalo. Cave of Altamira. Spain. Late Paleolithic. They illuminated the caves with lamps and reproduced from memory. Not primitivism, but the highest degree of stylization. When the cave was discovered, it was believed that this was an imitation of a hunt - the magical meaning of the image. But today there are versions that the goal was art. The beast was necessary for man, but he was terrible and elusive.

Fragment. Bull. Altamira. Spain. Late Paleolithic.
Nice brown shades. The tense stop of the beast. They used the natural relief of the stone, depicted on the bulge of the wall.

Fragment. Bison. Altamira. Spain. Late Paleolithic.
Transition to polychrome art, darker stroke.

Font-de-Gaume cave. France

Late Paleolithic.
Characterized by silhouette images, deliberate distortion, exaggeration of proportions. On the walls and vaults of the small halls of the Font-de-Gaumes cave, at least about 80 drawings are applied, mainly bison, two indisputable figures of mammoths and even a wolf.

Grazing deer. Font de Gome. France. Late Paleolithic.
The image of the horns in perspective. Deer at this time (the end of the Madeleine era) replaced other animals.

Fragment. Buffalo. Font de Gome. France. Late Paleolithic.
The hump and crest on the head are emphasized. Overlapping one image with another is a polypsest. Detailed work. Decorative solution for the tail. Image of houses.

Wolf. Font de Gome. France. Late Paleolithic.

Cave of Nio. France

Late Paleolithic.
Round room with drawings. There are no images of mammoths and other animals of the glacial fauna in the cave.

Horse. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.
Depicted already with 4 legs. The silhouette is outlined in black paint, retouched in yellow inside. The character of a pony horse.

Stone sheep. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic. Partially contour image, the skin is drawn on top.

Deer. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.

Buffalo. Nio. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.
Among the images, most of all are bison. Some of them are shown as wounded, arrows in black and red.

Buffalo. Nio. France. Late Paleolithic.

Lascaux cave

It so happened that it was the children, and quite by accident, who found the most interesting cave paintings in Europe:
“In September 1940, near the town of Montignac, in the South-West of France, four high school students went on an archaeological expedition they had planned. In place of a long-rooted tree, there was a gaping hole in the ground that aroused their curiosity. There were rumors that this was the entrance to a dungeon leading to a nearby medieval castle.
There was also a smaller hole inside. One of the guys threw a stone at it and, from the noise of the fall, concluded that the depth was decent. He widened the hole, crawled inside, nearly fell over, lit a flashlight, gasped, and called out to the others. From the walls of the cave in which they found themselves, some huge beasts were looking at them, breathing with such confident force, at times it seemed ready to turn into a rage, that they became terrified. And at the same time, the power of these animal images was so majestic and convincing that it seemed to them as if they had fallen into some kind of magical kingdom.

Lasko cave. France.
Late Paleolithic (Madeleine era, 18 - 15 thousand years BC).
Called primeval Sistine Chapel. Consists of several large rooms: rotunda; main gallery; pass; apse.
Colorful images on the calcareous white surface of the cave.
Strongly exaggerated proportions: large necks and bellies.
Contour and silhouette drawings. Clear images without clutter. A large number of male and female signs (rectangle and many dots).

The scene of the hunt. Lasko. France. Late Paleolithic.
genre image. A bull killed by a spear butted a man with a bird's head. Nearby on a stick is a bird - maybe his soul.

Buffalo. Lasko. France. Late Paleolithic.

Horse. Lasko. France. Late Paleolithic.

Mammoths and horses. Kapova cave. Ural.
Late Paleolithic.

KAPOVA CAVE- to the south. m Ural, on the river. White. Formed in limestones and dolomites. Corridors and grottoes are located on two floors. The total length is over 2 km. On the walls - Late Paleolithic pictorial images mammoths, rhinos

Paleolithic sculpture

Art of small forms or mobile art (small plastic)
An integral part of the art of the Paleolithic era are objects that are commonly called "small plastic".
These are three types of objects:
1. Figurines and other three-dimensional items carved from soft stone or other materials (horn, mammoth tusk).
2. Flattened objects with engravings and paintings.
3. Reliefs in caves, grottoes and under natural canopies.
The relief was knocked out with a deep contour or the background around the image was shy.

Relief

One of the first finds, called small plastics, was a bone plate from the Shaffo grotto with images of two fallow deer or deer:

Deer swimming across the river. Fragment. Bone carving. France. Late Paleolithic (Madeleine period).

Everyone knows wonderful French writer Prosper Mérimée, author of the fascinating novel The Chronicle of the Reign of Charles IX, Carmen and other romantic novels, but few people know that he served as an inspector for the protection of historical monuments. It was he who handed over this disc in 1833 to the Cluny Historical Museum, which was just being organized in the center of Paris. Now it is kept in the Museum of National Antiquities (Saint-Germain en Le).
Later, an Upper Paleolithic cultural layer was discovered in the Shaffo Grotto. But then, just as it was with the painting of the cave of Altamira, and with other pictorial monuments of the Paleolithic era, no one could believe that this art is older than the ancient Egyptian. Therefore, such engravings were considered examples of Celtic art (V-IV centuries BC). Only in late XIX c., again, like cave painting, they were recognized as the oldest after they were found in the Paleolithic cultural layer.

Very interesting figurines of women. Most of these figurines are small in size: from 4 to 17 cm. They were made of stone or mammoth tusks. Their most notable hallmark is an exaggerated "corpulence", they depict women with overweight figures.

"Venus with a goblet". Bas-relief. France. Upper (Late) Paleolithic.
Goddess of the Ice Age. The canon of the image is that the figure is inscribed in a rhombus, and the stomach and chest are in a circle.

Sculpture- mobile art.
Almost everyone who has studied Paleolithic female figurines, with some differences in detail, explains them as cult objects, amulets, idols, etc., reflecting the idea of motherhood and fertility.

"Willendorf Venus". Limestone. Willendorf, Lower Austria. Late Paleolithic.
Compact composition, no facial features.

"The Hooded Lady of Brassempouy". France. Late Paleolithic. Mammoth bone.
The facial features and hairstyle have been worked out.

In Siberia, in the Baikal region, a whole series of original figurines of a completely different stylistic appearance was found. Along with the same as in Europe, overweight figures of naked women, there are figurines of slender, elongated proportions and, unlike European ones, they are depicted dressed in deaf, most likely fur clothes, similar to "overalls".
These are finds at the Buret sites on the Angara River and Malta.

conclusions
Rock painting. Features of the pictorial art of the Paleolithic - realism, expression, plasticity, rhythm.
Small plastic.
In the image of animals - the same features as in painting (realism, expression, plasticity, rhythm).
Paleolithic female figurines are cult objects, amulets, idols, etc., they reflect the idea of motherhood and fertility.

Mesolithic

(Middle Stone Age) 10 - 6 thousand BC

After the melting of the glaciers, the usual fauna disappeared. Nature becomes more pliable for man. People become nomads.
With a change in lifestyle, a person's view of the world becomes broader. He is not interested in a single animal or an accidental discovery of cereals, but vigorous activity people, thanks to which they find whole herds of animals, and fields or forests rich in fruits.
This is how art was born in the Mesolithic multi-figured composition, in which it is no longer the beast, but the man plays the leading role.
Change in the field of art:
the main characters of the image are not a separate animal, but people in some action.
The task is not in a believable, accurate depiction of individual figures, but in the transfer of action, movement.
Many-figured hunts are often depicted, scenes of honey gathering, cult dances appear.
The nature of the image is changing - instead of realistic and polychrome, it becomes schematic and silhouette. Local colors are used - red or black.

A honey harvester from a hive, surrounded by a swarm of bees. Spain. Mesolithic.

Almost everywhere where planar or three-dimensional images of the Upper Paleolithic era were found, there seems to be a pause in the artistic activity of people of the subsequent Mesolithic era. Perhaps this period is still poorly understood, perhaps the images made not in caves, but in the open air, were washed away by rain and snow over time. Perhaps, among the petroglyphs, which are very difficult to accurately date, there are those related to this time, but we still do not know how to recognize them. It is indicative that objects of small plastics are extremely rare during excavations of Mesolithic settlements.

Of the Mesolithic monuments, only a few can be named: Stone Grave in Ukraine, Kobystan in Azerbaijan, Zaraut-Sai in Uzbekistan, Mines in Tajikistan and Bhimpetka in India.

In addition to rock art, petroglyphs appeared in the Mesolithic era.
Petroglyphs are carved, carved or scratched rock art.
When carving a picture, ancient artists knocked down the upper, darker part with a sharp tool. rock, and therefore the images stand out noticeably against the background of the rock.

In the south of Ukraine, in the steppe, there is a rocky hill of sandstone rocks. As a result of strong weathering, several grottoes and sheds were formed on its slopes. Numerous carved and scratched images have long been known in these grottoes and on other planes of the hill. In most cases, they are difficult to read. Sometimes images of animals are guessed - bulls, goats. Scientists attribute these images of bulls to the Mesolithic era.

Stone grave. South of Ukraine. General view and petroglyphs. Mesolithic.

To the south of Baku, between the southeastern slope of the Greater Caucasus Range and the coast of the Caspian Sea, there is a small Gobustan plain (a country of ravines) with highlands in the form of table mountains composed of limestone and other sedimentary rocks. On the rocks of these mountains there are many petroglyphs of different times. Most of them were discovered in 1939. Large (more than 1 m) images of women and male figures made by deep carved lines.
Many images of animals: bulls, predators and even reptiles and insects.

Kobystan (Gobustan). Azerbaijan (territory of the former USSR). Mesolithic.

Grotto Zaraut-Kamar
In the mountains of Uzbekistan, at an altitude of about 2000 m above sea level, there is a monument widely known not only among archaeologists - the Zaraut-Kamar grotto. Painted images were discovered in 1939 by local hunter I.F.Lamaev.
The painting in the grotto is made with ocher of different shades (from red-brown to lilac) and consists of four groups of images, in which anthropomorphic figures and bulls participate.

Here is a group in which most researchers see bull hunting. Among the anthropomorphic figures surrounding the bull, i.e. There are two types of "hunters": figures in robes widening downwards, without bows, and "tailed" figures with raised and stretched bows. This scene can be interpreted as a real hunt of disguised hunters, and as a kind of myth.

The painting in the grotto of Shakhta is probably the oldest in Central Asia.
"What does the word Mines mean," writes V.A. Ranov, "I don't know. Perhaps it comes from the Pamir word "mines", which means rock."

In the northern part of Central India, huge rocks with many caves, grottoes and sheds stretch along the river valleys. In these natural shelters, a lot of rock carvings have been preserved. Among them, the location of Bhimbetka (Bhimpetka) stands out. Apparently, these picturesque images belong to the Mesolithic. True, one should not forget about the uneven development of cultures of different regions. The Mesolithic of India may turn out to be 2-3 millennia older than in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Some scenes of driven hunts with archers in the paintings of the Spanish and African cycles are, as it were, the embodiment of the movement itself, brought to the limit, concentrated in a stormy whirlwind.

Neolithic

(New Stone Age) from 6 to 2 thousand BC

Neolithic- new stone age last stage stone age.
periodization. The entry into the Neolithic is timed to coincide with the transition of culture from an appropriating (hunters and gatherers) to a producing (agriculture and/or cattle breeding) type of economy. This transition is called the Neolithic Revolution. The end of the Neolithic dates back to the time of the appearance of metal tools and weapons, that is, the beginning of the copper, bronze or iron age.
Different cultures entered this period of development in different time. In the Middle East, the Neolithic began about 9.5 thousand years ago. BC e. In Denmark, the Neolithic dates from the 18th century. BC, and among the indigenous population of New Zealand - the Maori - the Neolithic existed as early as the 18th century. AD: before the arrival of Europeans, the Maori used polished stone axes. Some peoples of America and Oceania still have not fully passed from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.

Neolithic, like other periods primitive era, is not defined chronological period in the history of mankind as a whole, but characterizes only the cultural characteristics of certain peoples.

Achievements and activities
1. New features of the social life of people:
- Transition from matriarchy to patriarchy.
- At the end of the era in some places (Anterior Asia, Egypt, India) there was new formation class society, that is, social stratification began, the transition from a tribal-communal system to a class society.
- At this time, cities begin to be built. One of the most ancient cities is Jericho.
- Some cities were well fortified, which indicates the existence of organized wars at that time.
- Armies and professional warriors began to appear.
- One can quite say that the beginning of the formation of ancient civilizations is connected with the Neolithic era.

2. The division of labor, the formation of technologies began:
- The main thing is simple gathering and hunting as the main sources of food are gradually being replaced by agriculture and cattle breeding.
The Neolithic is called the "Age of Polished Stone". In this era, stone tools were not just chipped, but already sawn, polished, drilled, sharpened.
- Among the most important tools in the Neolithic is an ax, previously unknown.
development of spinning and weaving.

In the design of household utensils, images of animals begin to appear.

An ax in the shape of an elk head. Polished stone. Neolithic. Historical Museum. Stockholm.

Wooden ladle from the Gorbunovsky peat bog near Nizhny Tagil. Neolithic. GIM.

For the Neolithic forest zone, fishing becomes one of the leading types of economy. Active fishing contributed to the creation of certain stocks, which, combined with the hunting of animals, made it possible to live in one place all year round.
The transition to a settled way of life led to the appearance of ceramics.
The appearance of ceramics is one of the main signs of the Neolithic era.

The village of Chatal-Guyuk (Eastern Turkey) is one of the places where the most ancient samples of ceramics were found.

Cup from Ledce (Czech Republic). Clay. Culture of bell-shaped goblets. Eneolithic (Copper Stone Age).

Monuments of Neolithic painting and petroglyphs are extremely numerous and scattered over vast territories.
Their accumulations are found almost everywhere in Africa, eastern Spain, on the territory former USSR- in Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, on Lake Onega, near the White Sea and in Siberia.
Neolithic rock art is similar to Mesolithic, but the subject matter becomes more varied.

"Hunters". Rock painting. Neolithic (?). Southern Rhodesia.

For about three hundred years, the attention of scientists was riveted to the rock, known as the "Tomsk Pisanitsa".
"Pisanitsy" refers to images painted with mineral paint or carved on the smooth surface of a wall in Siberia.
Back in 1675, one of the brave Russian travelers, whose name, unfortunately, remained unknown, wrote:
“The prison (Verkhnetomsky prison) did not reach the edges of the Tom, a stone is large and high, and animals, and cattle, and birds, and all sorts of similarities are written on it ...”
Real scientific interest in this monument arose already in the 18th century, when, by decree of Peter I, an expedition was sent to Siberia to study its history and geography. The result of the expedition was the first images of the Tomsk petroglyphs published in Europe by the Swedish captain Stralenberg, who participated in the trip. These images were not an exact copy Tomsk petroglyphs, and conveyed only the most general outlines of rocks and the placement of drawings on it, but their value lies in the fact that they can be seen drawings that have not survived to this day.

Images of the Tomsk petroglyphs, made by the Swedish boy K. Shulman, who traveled with Stralenberg across Siberia.

For hunters, deer and elk were the main source of livelihood. Gradually, these animals began to acquire mythical features - the elk was the "master of the taiga" along with the bear.
The image of the elk belongs to the Tomsk pisanitsa the main role: Shapes are repeated many times.
The proportions and shapes of the animal's body are absolutely correctly conveyed: its long massive body, a hump on its back, a heavy large head, a characteristic protrusion on the forehead, a swollen upper lip, bulging nostrils, thin legs with cloven hooves.
In some drawings, transverse stripes are shown on the neck and body of moose.

On the border between the Sahara and Fezzan, on the territory of Algeria, in a mountainous area called Tassili-Ajer, bare rocks rise in rows. Now this region is dried up by the desert wind, scorched by the sun and almost nothing grows in it. However, earlier in the Sahara meadows were green ...

- Sharpness and accuracy of drawing, grace and grace.
- A harmonious combination of shapes and tones, the beauty of people and animals depicted with a good knowledge of anatomy.
- The swiftness of gestures, movements.

The small plastic of the Neolithic acquires, as well as painting, new subjects.

"Man Playing the Lute". Marble (from Keros, Cyclades, Greece). Neolithic. National Archaeological Museum. Athens.

The schematism inherent in Neolithic painting, which replaced Paleolithic realism, also penetrated small plastic arts.

Schematic representation of a woman. Cave relief. Neolithic. Croisart. Department of the Marne. France.

Relief with a symbolic image from Castelluccio (Sicily). Limestone. OK. 1800-1400 BC National Archaeological Museum. Syracuse.

conclusions

Mesolithic and Neolithic rock art
It is not always possible to draw a precise line between them.
But this art is very different from the typical Paleolithic:
- Realism, accurately fixing the image of the beast as a target, as a cherished goal, is replaced by a broader view of the world, the image of multi-figured compositions.
- There is a desire for harmonic generalization, stylization and, most importantly, for the transfer of movement, for dynamism.
- In the Paleolithic there was a monumentality and inviolability of the image. Here - liveliness, free fantasy.
- In the images of a person, a desire for grace appears (for example, if we compare the Paleolithic "Venuses" and the Mesolithic image of a woman collecting honey, or Neolithic Bushman dancers).

Small plastic:
- There are new stories.
- Greater craftsmanship and mastery of craft, material.

Achievements

Paleolithic
- Lower Paleolithic
> > fire taming, stone tools
- Middle Paleolithic
> > out of Africa
- Upper Paleolithic
> > sling

Mesolithic
- microliths, bow, canoe

Neolithic
- Early Neolithic
> > agriculture, animal husbandry
- Late Neolithic
> > ceramics

Eneolithic (Copper Age)
- metallurgy, horse, wheel

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is characterized by the leading role of bronze products, which was associated with an improvement in the processing of metals such as copper and tin, obtained from ore deposits, and the subsequent production of bronze from them.
The Bronze Age changed copper age and preceded the Iron Age. In general, the chronological framework of the Bronze Age: 35/33 - 13/11 centuries. BC e., but different cultures they differ.
Art is becoming more diverse, spreading geographically.

Bronze was much easier to work than stone and could be molded and polished. Therefore, in bronze age they made all kinds of household items, richly decorated with ornaments and of high artistic value. Ornamental decorations consisted mostly of circles, spirals, wavy lines and similar motifs. Particular attention was paid to jewelry - they were large in size and immediately caught the eye.

Megalithic architecture

In 3 - 2 thousand BC. appeared peculiar, huge structures of stone blocks. This ancient architecture was called megalithic.

The term "megalith" comes from the Greek words "megas" - "big"; and "lithos" - "stone".

Megalithic architecture owes its appearance to primitive beliefs. Megalithic architecture is usually divided into several types:
1. Menhir - single vertical standing stone over two meters high.
On the Brittany Peninsula in France, the so-called fields stretched for miles. menhirs. In the language of the Celts, the later inhabitants of the peninsula, the name of these stone pillars several meters high means "long stone".
2. Trilith - a structure consisting of two vertically placed stones and covered by a third.
3. A dolmen is a building whose walls are made up of huge stone slabs and covered with a roof made of the same monolithic stone block.
Initially, dolmens served for burials.
Trilit can be called the simplest dolmen.
Numerous menhirs, triliths and dolmens were located in places that were considered sacred.
4. Cromlech is a group of menhirs and triliths.

Stone grave. South of Ukraine. Anthropomorphic menhirs. Bronze Age.

Stonehenge. Cromlech. England. Age of Bronze. 3 - 2 thousand BC Its diameter is 90 m, it consists of boulders, each of which weighs approx. 25 tons. It is curious that the mountains from where these stones were delivered are located 280 km from Stonehenge.
It consists of triliths arranged in a circle, inside a horseshoe of triliths, in the middle - blue stones, and in the very center - a heel stone (on the day of the summer solstice, the luminary is exactly above it). It is assumed that Stonehenge was a temple dedicated to the sun.

Age of Iron (Iron Age)

1 thousand BC

In the steppes of Eastern Europe and Asia, pastoral tribes created the so-called animal style at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age.

Plaque "Deer". 6th century BC Gold. Hermitage Museum. 35.1 x 22.5 cm. From a mound in the Kuban region. The relief plate was found attached to a round iron shield in the chief's burial. An example of zoomorphic art ("animal style"). Deer hooves are made in the form of a "big-beaked bird".
There is nothing accidental, superfluous - a complete, thoughtful composition. Everything in the figure is conditional and extremely truthful, realistic.
The feeling of monumentality is achieved not by size, but by the generalization of form.

Panther. Plaque, shield decoration. From a mound near the village of Kelermesskaya. Gold. Hermitage Museum.
Age of Iron.
Served as a shield decoration. The tail and paws are decorated with figures of curled up predators.

Age of Iron

Age of Iron. The balance between realism and stylization is tipped in favor of stylization.

Cultural ties with Ancient Greece, countries ancient East and China contributed to the emergence of new plots, images and visual means V artistic culture tribes of southern Eurasia.

Scenes of a battle between barbarians and Greeks are depicted. Found in the Chertomlyk barrow, near Nikopol.