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