Module 3

Question 1

Function of artwork

Answer 1

There is no correct way to interpret this, up to artist and beholder. Sometimes “art for arts sake,” sometimes to represent cultural values.

Question 2

Palaeolithic art

Answer 2

A variant of primitive art. Old stone age art.

Question 3

Notion of primitive

Answer 3

Living in a simple way, uncivilized.

Question 4

Concept of cultural evolution

Answer 4

Human culture evolution can be compared to biological evolution.

Question 5

Civilized vs. uncivilized

Answer 5

18th century European evolutionist thought conceived this idea… primitive societies.

Question 6

Lesser art

Answer 6

Less sophisticated than paintings or sculptures, shoddy manufactoring.

Question 7

Totemism

Answer 7

Belief system that humans have kinship with a spirit being (totem). A totem can be an animal, plant, or object that acts as an emblem for a group of people.

Question 8

Sympathetic hunting magic

Answer 8

The magic associated with hunting for hunter-gatherer societies.

Question 9

“Art for arts sake”

Answer 9

Does not serve a grander purpose, it was made because the artist wanted to make it.

Question 10

Trinil (Indonesia) site

Answer 10

Home to the oldest piece of art (540,000 years ago). A mussel shell.

Question 11

Bilzingsleben site

Answer 11

Germany, home to archaic homo sapien art.

Question 12

Neandertals

Answer 12

First appear ~130,000 years ago. Larger brain, but shorter than us.

Question 13

Cranial capacity (brain size)

Answer 13

Neandertals larger than ours.

Question 14

Supraorbital ridges (brow ridges)

Answer 14

Much more defined and larger than ours.

Question 15

Speech as symbolic behaviour

Answer 15

Being able to speak is key in developing symbolic behaviour.

Question 16

Tonal language

Answer 16

In which words can differ depending on the tone used (like music).

Question 17

Eagle feather and talon jewerly

Answer 17

Neandertals may have used these things to make jewelry.

Question 18

Mineral pigments

Answer 18

Ochre. Used to paint marine shells.

Question 19

Homo sapiens sapiens

Answer 19

Humans.

Question 20

Anatomically modern humans

Answer 20

Specimens ~100,000 - 300,000 years old are anatomically modern humans. Skeletally, they are the same as us.

Question 21

Symbolic materials

Answer 21

Interactions of materiality and processes of symbolization and conceptualization. This is needed to claim modern behaviour.

Question 22

Microliths

Answer 22

A small stone tool usually made of flint.

Question 23

Composite tools and artifacts

Answer 23

Retouched tools that combine the properties of more than one of the retouched tools.

Question 24

Jebel Qafzeh site

Answer 24

A burial site. Marine shells had some ochre stains on them and were perforated, perhaps strung up as necklaces.

Question 25

Skhül site

Answer 25

Burial site. They were buried with perforated marine snail shells.

Question 26

Blombos cave

Answer 26

South Africa. Engraved design is entoptic, perhaps linked to Shamanism.

Question 27

Paleolithic personal ornaments

Answer 27

Beads, pendants, and similar objects used. Key in understanding symbolic behaviour, they were conveyors of social identity.

Question 28

Minor or low art

Answer 28

Such as the personal ornaments. High art is painting or sculpture.

Question 29

Primitive money

Answer 29

An example being marine shells. They hold special purpose, a reciprocal exchange.

Question 30

Second-order or reflective symbolic meaning

Answer 30

Those who use a language recognize meaning in conventionally defined arbitrary signs.

Question 31

Engravings as time markers

Answer 31

Alexander Marshak argues that engravings on Upper Paleolithic bones functioned as notations for time... a cognitive approach.

Question 32

Chaîne opératoire approach

Answer 32

Helps to try and understand the lithic past.

Question 33

Anthropomorphic figurine

Answer 33

Resembling or made to resemble human form.

Question 34

Swabian region

Answer 34

Southwestern Germany.

Question 35

Aurignacian ivory figurines

Answer 35

Animals, humans, and hybrids are represented in static, non-aggressive manners.

Question 36

Aurignacian culture

Answer 36

Early modern Europeans, they show the first flowering of art in this region.

Question 37

Crô-Magnon

Answer 37

Home to some of the earliest bone tools in archaeological record.

Question 38

Lion-man figurine

Answer 38

Found in Hohlenstein-Stadel cave. A hybrid figurine made of ivory (Aurignacian ivory figurines).

Question 39

Abri Castanet

Answer 39

France. Earliest carvings in Europe (~37,000 years ago). Representations of animals and female genitalia.

Question 40

Dolni Vestonice

Answer 40

Czech Republic. May be the earliest representation of an actual person. Earliest examples of fired clay sculptures.

Question 41

Venus figurine

Answer 41

No concrete idea of what the purpose was. Could be a fertility symbol, ideal beauty, porn, or self-representation of the artists.

Question 42

Codified art

Answer 42

There are rules that an artist can follow to make more realistic, or whatever the purpose may be.

Question 43

Production sequence

Answer 43

Relative dating system, they are arranged in serial order, which is then taken to indicate time.

Question 44

Bird bone flute

Answer 44

Ancient peoples used it to draw birds close to then kill them.