Paleolithic Era

Within the Paleolithic era, many changes occurred from cultural to biological. Several of the changes the happened in this time period, have remained today. At the beginning of the Paleolithic era our primate ancestors existed, but by the end humans in our modern form existed across the world. Homo sapiens sapiens remains have been dated to 100,000 years ago. The emergence of art, the beginning of personal adornment, the domestication of the dog, and intentional burials started in this time period. Our ancestors began to express their creativity and individuality with the first forms of art. The two forms art were mural and portable art. “Mural art is paintings and engravings on the walls of caves” (Price 131). Mural art has been found mostly in France and Spain. The paint used for murals is a combination of minerals and cave water. The main colors are black, yellow, red and sometimes white. The mixture is long lasting as hundreds of murals exist today. Most of the murals that have survived are deep within the caves as oppose to the murals that may have been painted in the entrance of caves. There are several caves that have invaluable collections of mural art. One of them is the cave of Lascaux in France. The murals are mostly of animals, occasionally pregnant. There are few paintings of humans. “Portable art is cravings, figurines and other shaped or decorated pieces that can be moved from place to place (Price 131). Portable art has been found in Europe and most of the Old World. The amount of portable art many be a result of groups of people traveling during different seasons to more accommodating areas during the year. A remarkable example of portable art is from the site Dolni Vestonice. Two representations of the same woman have been found. One is a small ivory plaque and the other is a small carved ivory head of a woman with an asymmetrical face. At this site, “a skeleton of a woman with congenital nerve damage buried under two

References: Hirst, K. Kris. “How were Dogs Domesticated?” About.com. http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/dogs.htm Price, T. Douglas and Feinman, Gary M. Images of the Past Fifth edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008.