world. Thus, the depictions of hunts could be attempts to
make successful hunts reality.
Th is supernatural interpretation of ancient art—whether
paintings or statues—makes sense of some but not all depic-
tions. It does not account for the portrayal of a gored man
on a European rock wall, of people dancing on Saharan rock
sides, or of beings that are half animal and half human found
in Egypt, Africa, and the Near East. Some African rock art
was used during initiation rites to tell young people about
their responsibilities as adults. In Inner Mongolia the rock
paintings may have done no more than list the kinds of wild
game found in an area. In Australia aborigines know what
their ancient paintings mean: Th ey are stories of creation and
the arrival of humans in Australia, and the aborigines can
translate the paintings for outsiders.
In addition to painting stone, ancient artists sculpted it.
Many of the earliest artworks that archaeologists have found
are small stone carvings of humanlike fi gures. Stone sculp-
ture has usually been carved either fully in the round or in re-
lief. In reliefs, carved fi gures project from a fl at background.
Egyptians and Kushites, from south of Egypt, were masters
of relief carving, illustrating military victories or interactions
between gods and humans on stone walls. Th ese carvings
featured stylized fi gures that appear fl at to modern eyes but
which were seen by ancient viewers to represent several per-
spectives of a fi gure. Reliefs were popular in the Near East
and the Roman world for depicting military victories; the Ro-
mans developed the triumphal arch, which celebrated a great
military leader with reliefs showing his victories.
Th e Egyptians may have been the fi rst to create life-sized
metal statues, dating to about 3500 b.c.e. Copper, a com-
ponent of bronze, tends to hold bubbles, but it oft en can be
found in nuggets; in Europe and northwestern North Ameri-
ca it was sometimes pounded into shape, beginning in about
4000 b.c.e. in North America and perhaps later in Europe.
Wherever people learned how to make it, bronze became the
preferred metal for art, because it holds its shape better than
other metals, even iron.
Another early medium for artistic expression was ceram-
ics. It is not known how early people began making ceramics,
but it dates back to at least the period of the last great ice age.
Decorating ceramic vessels seems a natural activity for peo-
ple, because human beings tend to like to have beauty in their
lives. Th us, early ceramics oft en took on attractive shapes and
were oft en painted. Advances in the technology of fi ring clay
led to the development of glazes, which required high tem-
peratures to melt. Glazes added luster to ceramics. Ancient
pottery was not always intended to have practical uses such
as storing grain or for carrying water. For instance, almost
everywhere, people made ceramic fi gures, usually small. Th e
fi gures sometimes served religious purposes such as acting
as spiritual guardians for graves or as substitutes for human
sacrifi ces. In many cases ceramic fi gures were toys, oft en in
the shapes of animals and carts.
Wood was certainly used for sculpture in the ancient
world, but wood decays, leaving mostly objects of more
durable substances such as stone and ceramics; a few ancient
pieces survive, typically in dry climates. Written records tell
of marvelous wooden sculptures in ancient India, and wood
has long been favored for sculpture in Africa; both regions,
however, have climates and insects that rapidly destroy
wooden art. As with pottery fi gures, wooden carvings oft en
were used for supernatural purposes, such as representing
gods, but they also took the form of well-carved furniture,
and wood was a favored medium for making dolls.
Glassmaking seems to have been intended originally for
the making of jewelry. Glass beads, in particular, were very
highly valued throughout the ancient world, with certain col-
ors of glass sometimes being more highly valued than gold.
Especially prized glass beads could travel through trade for
thousands of miles, allowing archaeologists to use the ones
they fi nd to trace commerce among ancient peoples. Eventu-
ally, glass became a medium for household objects, and glass-
makers became skilled at creating everyday objects such as
vases and lamps into art objects such as dishes that looked
like grapes or candlesticks that looked like vines.
A technique used to decorate objects was painting. An-
cient peoples painted almost anything, probably because
they loved color. Where a modern artist might leave a marble
sculpture or bronze sculpture its natural color, ancient art-
ists would paint the marble or bronze. Th e desire to create a
painting for its own sake probably occurred very early among
ancient artists, but aside from rocks, their paintings were
usually on perishable materials such as wood, bark, bamboo,
and silk. Th is means that a vast part of humanity’s artistic
history has been lost because the ancient paintings decayed or
were destroyed. Sometimes the paints themselves contained
acids that could eat through whatever was under the paint.
From time to time, the paint lost fl exibility as it dried and
fl aked away. For many ancient cultures art historians fi nd
only traces of paints that serve as clues as to the colors artists
used. Occasionally, researchers get lucky, because in dry ar-
eas such as Egypt paint can survive in dark places, or ancient
artists found a way to paint with durable colors, as the ancient
Chinese did with lacquer.
Whatever form it took, ancient art was an expression
of what ancient people valued and can tell modern people
something about what the ancient people were like. In some
cases, art is all that is left of a culture that passed from history
thousands of years ago. Th e complexity of much ancient art
speaks of people who were as complicated as modern people,
and their work is sometimes unsurpassed by later artists.AFRICA
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
ROCK ENGRAVING AND PAINTING
Th e earliest art to be found in Africa is on rocks. Dating the
earliest rock art is diffi cult, but the oldest examples probably
date to between 27,500 and 25,000 b.c.e. Th ese pieces are88 art: Africa