H
umankind 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 (MAP15-1) discovered bones ofAustralopithecus,a predecessor of modern humans who lived
some three million years ago. Associated with the bones was a waterworn reddish-brown jasperite pebble
(FIG. 1-2) that bears an uncanny resemblance to a human face. The nearest known source of this variety of
ironstone is 20 miles 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 objects from their normal contexts, altering them, and then labeling them. In
1917, for example, Marcel Duchamp took a ceramic urinal, set it on its side, called it Fountain (FIG. 35-27),
and declared his “ready-made” worthy of exhibition among more conventional artworks. But the artistic
environment of the past century cannot be projected into 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 inter-
vention beyond mere selection—and it was not. In fact, evidence indicates 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 humans intentionally manufactured sculptures and paint-
ings. That is when the story of art through the ages really begins.
Paleolithic Art
The several millennia following 30,000 BCEsaw a powerful outburst of creativity. The works produced by
the peoples of the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic period (from the Greek paleo,“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
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