would fi gure in the later history of European art had begun
to form, each belonging to two major language groups: the
West Mediterraneans in the Iberian Peninsula, where Spain
and Portugal are today, and the Indo-Europeans, who began
somewhere north of the Black Sea or southeast of the Baltic
Sea and migrated eastward and westward, occupying all of
central and northern Europe as well as much of Asia.
Both the West Mediterranean peoples and the Indo-
European peoples were inheritors of the artistic legacy of ice
age Europe, but the direct line of development of art is easier
to see in Iberia. Th ere are not as many paintings and other
art works known from 9,000 to 4,000 b.c.e. as from earlier,
perhaps because a matriarchal religious system changed
or perhaps because Europeans had other preoccupations,
spending their energies using new tools such as stone saws
and working at new technologies such as dugout canoes.
With the loss of some of their largest prey, people may have
had to spend more time hunting than earlier, thus dimin-
ishing the time they had to create art. Perhaps the spread-
ing out of the European population over new lands revealed
by the retreating glaciers diminished the sort of interplay
among groups that would have stimulated new ideas in art.
Th ere were only about 75,000 people in all of Europe.
Still, in Spain are rock paintings that incorporate new
detail in the portrayals of men. Th e most famous is a rock
p a i nt i n g i n C a s t e l lón , S p a i n , s ome t i me s c a l le d t he M a rc h i n g
Warriors, though they could be dancing. Th ey have noses,
lips, and beards, and the leader wears a feathered headdress.
Th ey carry spears and bows. Th e painting dates from 7,000
to 4,000 b.c.e. Much has been made of the resemblance be-
tween this painting and the rock paintings of the Sahara of
the same era, and it is possible that some of the Saharan
painters and the West Mediterraneans were part of a single
cultural group.
In about 6500 b.c.e. people in the Balkans and Greece
began practicing agriculture. Some historians view this event
as the beginning of an invasion of Europe by people from the
Near East, who eventually conquered the areas through cen-
tral Europe to northern Europe, replacing the people already
there. A more likely possibility is that the idea of agriculture
spread through Europe. Even though they were still living
primarily by hunting and gathering, Europeans were already
a mostly settled people who lived in small villages. Th e spread
of agriculture brought with it new trade routes, and with
those trade routes came an exchange in artistic ideas.
For instance, in what is now Hungary, in the 5000s to
4000s b.c.e., people made ceramic stamp pendants that could
emboss symbols and images in clay, an idea that probably
came from Syria. Th e symbols, consisting of lines and curves,
may have served as charms. Th ey also sculpted ceramic hu-
man and animal fi gures and what may be phallic symbols.
None of these sculptures is unbroken, making it hard to tell
how detailed they may have been. A sign that people were
adopting a more sedentary way of life, staying in one loca-
tion, comes from clay models found in Bulgaria, dating from
5,000 to 2,000 b.c.e. Th ese depict household furniture such as
chairs and couches. Th eir purpose is unknown, but they may
represent a tradition of toy making.LATE MESOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC:
4000–2000 B.C.E.
By 4000 b.c.e. the Indo-Europeans occupied most of central
and eastern Europe, northern Europe, southern Scandinavia,
and most of Britain, which was no longer attached by land to
the rest of Europe. Th e West Mediterraneans still occupied
Iberia and some of southern France. Th is era saw special cre-
ativity in the manufacture of household wares. For instance,
a pot from the 3000s b.c.e., found in Hungary, looks like two
bowls placed lip to lip and fused, with the stem of the top lid
open and a face etched into it. Th e bowl is decorated with
zigzags, straight lines, crosshatching, and other designs, per-
haps representing clothing for the body of the face or perhaps
simply intended to please the eye. It may have been meant
for use in religious rites, but it may simply refl ect the human
tendency to beautify even everyday objects.
Romania has proved a rich site in sculpture from the
3000s b.c.e. Its fi gurines tend to be female and spare in ap-
pearance, with sharp angles. Many female fi gures also were
produced in Ukraine during the 3000s b.c.e. Two ceram-
ic fi gures of a woman and a man were found in a grave in
Cernavodă, Romania. Although they are nearly abstract,
they seem very human. Th e woman is fat in the stomach and
thighs, with small, sharply angled breasts; a long neck; a cir-
cular head with impressions for eyes; a fl at nose; and a pursed
mouth. Th e man is seated on a small stool, his knees high,
with his elbows pressed into his thighs and his hands pressed
into his cheeks. His head is more oval than the woman’s, with
the same sort of eyes, nose, and mouth. Th ey come across as
ordinary people at rest, both looking a little weary. Th ey rep-
resent a tradition of geometrical sculpture that would survive
until the era of classical art.
Between 3000 and 2500 b.c.e. the Únĕtice culture in
what is now central Poland learned to make bronze by com-
bining tin and copper. Th is development did not occur until
about 2300 b.c.e. in Greece and the Balkans, 1800 b.c.e. in
Britain and Iberia, and 1500 b.c.e. in southern Scandinavia.
Bronze would give artists an important new medium for their
sculptures.BRONZE AGE: 2000–500 B.C.E.
By about 2000 b.c.e. the Indo-Europeans had come to domi-
nate Europe. Within Europe they had fragmented into the
Celts of central Europe, the British Isles, and Iberia; the Ger-
manic peoples, possibly from the east, occupying southern
Scandinavia; the Slavs of northeastern Europe; the Italics of
southern Europe; the Illyrians of the Balkans; and the Th ra-
cians of eastern Europe. Of these groups, the Celts would de-
velop the most distinctive style of art. Th e most important
outside infl uence on Indo-European art came from Mycenae,
Greece, in about 2000–1200 b.c.e. Mycenaean art has beenart: Europe 107