Notes: Paleolithic and Neolithic Periods

Paleolithic and Neolithic Periods

9/6/18 – Objects as History

  • Descendants of “Lucy” first “modern human” to stand
  • Flint knapping and hafting used as early tool making skills by Neanderthals
  • Neanderthals are thought to have lacked the capacity for language, speech, and symbolic thinking
  • Flint knapping uses a hammer stone and a flakable flint so that when you strike with the hammer stone, the flint will flake off to create a sharp blade
  • “Bitumen” a sticky tar like substance used as an adhesive, also used in the embalming process
  • How does symbolism show in prehistoric artifacts?
  • “Lion Man” (30,000 BCE paleolithic mammoth ivory carved artifact, discovered near Ulm, Germany) – might suggest a developing view of shamanism and spirituality
  • “Sakhmet” (1390 BCE, Egypt) – statue of the goddess Sakhmet, a goddess of violence and unexpected disaster. When she doesn’t use her destructive power, she bestows life
  • 2,900 BCE – Stonehenge – no texts available to give context, so very little known
  • 2,500 BCE – Egyptian pyramids – many texts available
  • “Henge” means circle

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