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1
CHAPTER ONE
PREHISTORIC ART
1
Multiple Choice
1. Archaeologists link the emergence of image making to the arrival of
A. Homo sapiens.
B. Neanderthals.
C. Homo sapiens sapiens.
D. Homo erectus.
2. Prehistoric people often coated their floors with powdered
A. ash.
B. bones.
C. clay.
D. ocher.
3. How long ago did figurines of people and animals appear?
A. 50,000 years
B. 30,000 years
C. 25,000 years
D. 10,000 years
4. The Woman from Brassempouy (Fig. 1-9) captures the essence of a head, also called the
A. memory image.
B. abstracted mind.
C. soul image.
D. mind image.
5. What were small-scale female sculptures from the Upper Paleolithic period once called?
A. Mother Goddess
B. Venus
C. Eve
D. shamans
6. Most Neolithic architecture in Germany and central Europe consisted of wood posts
supporting a central beam or
A. ridgepole.
B. thatch.
C. megalith.
D. capstone.
7. Rows of trapezoidal buildings made of wooden posts, branches, mud, and clay characterize the
architectural remains at
A. Skara Brae.
B. Çatalhöyük.
C. Lepenski Vir.
D. Newgrange.
8. Continually rebuilt and replastered, early houses at Çatalhöyük may have functioned as
A. grain storerooms.
B. temples.
C. observatories.
D. historical markers.
9. Scholars see the transport of bluestones to Stonehenge from more than 150 miles away as a
sign of
A. associations with Celtic druids.
B. evidence of engineering technology.
C. connections to ancestral homelands.
D. ritual significance of materials.
10. How were the beams of Stonehenge secured?
A. mortise-and-tenon joints
B. corbeled vault and capstone
C. post-and-lintel construction
D. mammoth tusks and hides
11. Bronze is an alloy of copper and
A. tin.
B. gold.
C. terra cotta.
D. silver.
12. The potter’s wheel developed in approximately 4000 BCE in
A. China.
B. Egypt.
C. Japan.
D. Near East.
13. Prehistory includes all of human existence before the development of
A. written records.
B. architecture.
C. metal tools.
D. carved images.
14. Which of the following was created in the most realistic style?
A. Bison, Le Tuc d’Audoubert (Fig. 1-14)
B. Woman from Willendorf, Austria (Fig. 1-7)
C. Lion-Human, Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany (Fig. 1-6)
D. Figures of a Woman and a Man, Cernavoda, Romania (Fig. 1-27)
15. Handprints at the cave at Pech-Merle were probably created using what technique?
A. incising lines with a sharp stick
B. spraying paint onto the cave wall
C. painting the image with a brush
D. drawing with an ocher crayon
16. What was encountered at Newgrange that may have induced hallucinations?
A. celestial maps
B. entoptic motifs
C. deer hunts
D. female figures
17. What conclusion can archeologists make about the ancient site of Çatalhöyük?
A. It was temporarily used as a burial ground.
B. It had religious and domestic functions.
C. The people focused on military defenses.
D. The settlement was built over an older Paleolithic site.
18. Rather than being a product of invaders, the destruction of houses at some sites in the
Neolithic period was part of
A. the selection of a new leader.
B. a rival family’s attempt to gain property.
C. a ritual killing of the house.
D. ritual celebrating a birth.
19. What technique was used to create Gold-Adorned Face Mask (Fig. 1-29)?
A. corbeling
B. sculpture in the round
C. relief sculpture
D. composite pose
20. What method of dating cave paintings and excavated objects uses organic material?
A. radiometric dating
B. electron spin resonance
C. potassium-argon dating
D. uranium-thorium dating
21. The painting of Men Taunting a Deer(?) (Fig. 1-17) at Çatalhöyük may represent
A. a belief in sympathetic magic.
B. an earlier cave painting.
C. the hope for more animals.
D. a dangerous ritual or game of baiting.
22. An anthropologist who studied the Altamira Cave does not believe that the animals that are
depicted are dead but rather are
A. gods.
B. dust-wallowing.
C. surrogates for man.
D. disabled.
23. Scholars dismissed the sympathetic magic interpretation of cave paintings because
A. animal and human representations are abstract.
B. animals were frequently shown alongside human figures.
C. animals used for food were not portrayed.
D. animals are painted on cave ceilings.
24. What conclusion can be made about both the Lion-Human (Fig. 1-6) and Woman from
Willendorf (Fig. 1-7)?
A. Artists expressed imaginative themes.
B. Celestial observations influence art.
C. Killing a lion would incur a curse.
D. Humans and animals were part of separate groups.
25. The Human Figures (Fig. 1-28) from ’Ain Ghazal give the impression of living individuals
who
A. can communicate with the gods.
B. are unable to express themselves.
C. can communicate with the dead.
D. are leaders of their site.
Short Answer
1. What are the particular challenges and rewards of studying prehistoric art?
2. Why does the date for the transition from the Paleolithic period to the Neolithic period vary?
3. Why is the Lion-Human sculpture remarkable for the Paleolithic period?
4. Why was the cave of Lascaux closed to the public?
5. How did the artists of Lascaux fuel the lamps that they used to see within the deep recesses of
the cave?
6. Why is the Lascaux scene Bird-Headed Man with Bison (Fig. 1-12) unique, and what might it
represent?
7. What events or occurrences determined the onset of a Neolithic culture?
8. What new technologies emerged in the Neolithic period, and what was the purpose and
function of each?
9. Briefly discuss the artistic decorations found in the structures of Çatalhöyük.
1. How would you compare the artistic representations of the Paleolithic period to the Neolithic
period?
2. What is the significance of the form and the manner in which Woman from Dolní Vĕstonice
(Fig. 1-8) was created?
3. What formal artistic devices did the artists of the Chauvet Cave in southeastern France use to
convey images of horses, mammoths, aurochs, and other animals?
4. Many early vessels of clay or metal were covered with decorative motifs. Why would early
people have made the effort to decorate their functional objects? What drives people to go
beyond the purely functional? Support your viewpoint with specific examples of early art.
5. How are the structures of megalithic architecture similar in form and function? Give examples
and compare and contrast those examples.
