Art in the Stone Age Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Art in the Stone Age - Research Paper Example The essay "Art in the Stone Age" discovers Stone Age's art. Despite the fact that there is no ‘written’ record of these people and their beliefs, the artwork they produced reveals much about the way they thought, what they believed and the technologies they had developed for the easing of everyday concerns or needs. Although both the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods are named for the dependence upon stone as the primary material for everything from tools to shelters, these two eras are distinctly different in the ideas expressed and the technologies mastered evidenced in their artwork as these objects were created. Although it is traditionally thought these two eras are easily marked by a profound shift in social development, this study will show that Paleolithic cave paintings are a highly innovative technology reveling a society far more advanced that previously thought. According to Phillip Myers (1904), early Paleolithic art is essentially non-existent. Based upon t hose items that have been found, the early Paleolithic period is marked by a concentration on the production of chipped flint tools with an occasional use of bones, horns, tusks or other material to assist in cutting, scraping and other survival needs. â€Å"What we know of Paleolithic man may be summed up as follows: he was a hunter and fisher; his habitation was a cave or rock shelter; his implements were in the main roughly shaped flints; he had no domestic animals save possibly the dog and the reindeer; he was ignorant.