Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #prehistoricart
Most recents (2)
1/ Following on from our thread about amber fossils yday, I thought we'd take a look at how prehistoric people used amber today!
This spectacular bear carving from Słupsk, Poland, dates back to the Neolithic, somewhere between 4000-7000 BP.
(Source: muzeum.szczecin.pl/en/collections…)
This spectacular bear carving from Słupsk, Poland, dates back to the Neolithic, somewhere between 4000-7000 BP.
(Source: muzeum.szczecin.pl/en/collections…)
2/ Early evidence for human use of amber comes from the famous Altamira Cave in Spain. In a Solutrean layer, dated 17-22kya, several pieces of unworked amber were found.
This may have been intended for jewelry, or for medicine - amber has antibiotic properties.
(D.Descouens)
This may have been intended for jewelry, or for medicine - amber has antibiotic properties.
(D.Descouens)
3/ Possibly the oldest piece of worked amber (discovered so far) is this delightful little moose figurine! It dates back c.13,700 BP & was found in a ploughed field in Germany. It might have been attached to the top of a wooden staff.
(U. Bohnhorst)
(U. Bohnhorst)
1/ Nawarla Gabarnmung is one of the largest & most impressive #PrehistoricArt sites in Australia. The entire rock shelter is man-made. The Jawoyn, who created it, quarried out loose stone from the cliff-face, leaving behind supporting pillars. Some of the ceiling #art is 28kya+
^^Photo by John Gollings
2/ Whilst we don't know the definitive age of all the paintings, we do know the site has been in use for 45,000 years, thanks to the archaeological record. It only fell out of use by the Jawoyn in the 1950s & was unkown to Westerners until as late as 2006!
