Prehistoric time period

Prehistory

I never had chance to learn prehistory, how the design started in this world till our class.  I was amazed from everything that were on books and lecture, which I would like to list them here.


The oldest known artifact dates back to during this period.  Those artifacts are very simple, very basic with minimum modification due to their simple lifestyle, available materials in surrounding.  Also their living location was set by the geographical reasons ( example ; near by river, cave, availability in food...etc).

Prehistory consists of two stone ages, and bronze age

1. Stone age;

   a. Paleolithic (2,500,000 - 9000 B.C.E.)

 - Name of this era were given from the stone tools that were found from this era.




 - According to our text, those stone ax that were found, It's likely that person who crafted this ax wanted to create symmetrical object, which makes this stone a designed object. 

-Their lifestyle = living in woods, surrounded by nature probably made them think that symmetrical shape = pleasing form, since there are no such a thing that has perfectly symmetrical shapes in nature.  Those assumption lead to the conclusion that, asymmetrical shape were considered as bad luck.  The idea comes from injured body (lost arm, lost finger...etc) which could have happened very often, due to their nomadic, hunting, and gathering practice.



                                                                        Lascaux

-Most famous Paleolithic caves (17,000 B.C.E.)


-This painted cave was assumed to be used as ritual or religious purposes, rather than habitation. 

-Animals were painted due to their importance, significant role in people's life back then.  Since the painting were large, painted in higher part of cave, it lead conclusion that they had invention of ladder.

-They painted in the cave with holding fire.  It could have seen as animals that were moving with flickering firelight.



   b. Neolithic (9000 - 2000 B.C.E.)

-People's in this era started to using stone in more bigger scale.


-Materials that were used by people in this era besides stone, such as ; hides, grasses, reeds, woods, sod, bone and feathers were found.

-Stonehenge and Skara Brae are the most famous arts that were discovered.



                                                                     Stonehenge



-Many of stonehenges were found in England and Scotland. 

-Henge is a Neolithic monument in a circular form, created with banks, ditches, and upright stones.

-It was place for ritual. It consists of two concentric circles, with openings astrologically positioned according to the lunar and solar path.

-Stonehenge relies on post-and-lintel, or trabeated construction.

-Their lifestyle were somewhere between nomadic to permanent settlement.  It make sense that more permanent lifestyle need more permanent materials even though it is heavy for transporting, as stone.

-Tools were found in this era, such as; spears, axes, vessels made from pottery, and gold ornament.


                                                                 Skara Brae


- Small Neolithic village in Scotland (3100 - 2500 B.C.E.)

-It is considered to be residential complement to ritual centers such as Stonehenge.

-Curvilinear houses were built of stone, without mortar.

-Built-in furniture's appearance.

-It has cooking space, bed-like space, fireplace, and storage.  Permanent lifestyle compared to nomadic lifestyle allowed them to settle.

-The closefitting corbelled masonry flows in soft curved round the walls.

-Material availability and lifestyle influences their living space very big.



2. Bronze Age (4000 - 1000 B.C.E.)

- As the name of time period, discovery and usage of metal had big influences on their living.

-While Europe were still in Neolithic period, Middle East and Asia had entered the Bronze Age.

-People were no longer primarily crafting buildings and objects out of stone, but still used especially in places that were rich in stone availability.
                                                                  Mojenjo-Daro





-This civilization developed largely due to the agricultural success, and availability in water ( place is located next to Indus river).  So their lifestyle became more strongly permanent than the past periods.

-Population was about 20,000 - 30,000. 

-Trading various goods with other city became popular.

-More people, more conflicts in society.  Appearance of metal for weapon were significant.

-City was laid out on a grid = city planning (design) was developed.


What amazed me the most was that there were no precedent study for them to create what was similar to those arts at the time.  I thought they were all true arts.