خلاصة:
For some 3 million years, the archaeological record is characterized by stone tools
undergoing incremental changes. Then around 40,000 years ago, the monotony of
lithics is terminated by a profusion of visual representations, generally considered to
be the world’s first objets d’art. This collection include a series of portable objects,
especially figurines and, later on, the famous cave paintings from western Europe, as
well as lesser-known shell-beads in the Levant and painted slabs in Australia. Despite
myriad forms and geographic diversity, the figures of this period consistently exhibit a
level of sophistication surprising for humanity’s first alleged dabbling in art.
Scholars argue over the rate at which art truly emerged. Natural objects engraved
with simple geometric designs have been purported to be artistic precursors — the
beginning of a gradual trajectory from primitive to developed art. Scientific analysis
has confirmed that the appearance of some of these artifacts is consistent with an
anthropogenic origin. However, even if they are man-made, the meaning of these
objects is unclear. Rather than representing artistic antecedents, they may belong to a
separate class of human activity, more akin to modern doodling. This suggestion
seems rather plausible due to the fact that the archaeological record has crude
geometric etchings and masterful realistic creations, but very little in between. If these
categories are part of the same trajectory, where is the middle of the curve?
ملخص الجهاز:
: (37-55) The Emergence of “Art”: Explosion or Illusion Kamyar Abdi1 Received: 2011/10/25 Accepted: 2011/12/26 Abstract For some 3 million years, the archaeological record is characterized by stone tools undergoing incremental changes.
Remarking on the frequency of such artifacts at the site of Abri 39 The Emergence of “Art”: Explosion or Illusion Castanet in France, Randall White commented, “I have more [objects of art] in a few square meters than in all the rest of the world up until then” (cited in Appenzeller 1998: 1452).
These capacities seem to fall into what Mithen calls technical, social, and natural history intelligence — all of which humans appear to possess prior to the emergence of material representation.
Conclusion The archaeological record suggests a fluorescence of artistic expression between 50 to 30 thousand years ago, during the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition.
Natural objects engraved with simple geometric designs have been purported to be artistic precursors — the beginning of a gradual trajectory from primitive to developed art.
Natural objects engraved with simple geometric designs have been purported to be artistic precursors — the beginning of a gradual trajectory from primitive to developed art.
Others see symbolic representation as an invention induced by social changes in the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition.
Based on an assessment of the prevailing views about the alleged Upper Paleolithic Explosion, it appears likely that humanity did take a great leap forward in symbolic representation at this time.