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The Paleolithic Era existed approximately from 30,000 BCE until 10,000 BCE. During this time, humans lived in a hunter-gatherer economy, began using stone tools, and produced the first accomplishments in human creativity. Paleolithic art and artifacts consist of cave drawings, paintings, and rock art. The subjects of cave drawings are animals, human figures, and abstract signs. There is some evidence that a preference for aesthetic emerged.
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Approximately 30,000 years ago, Dolni Vestonice, in the now Czech Republic, was inhabited by an abundant Paleolithic society that had one of the earliest discovered kilns. The Venus of Věstonice is a small ceramic figurine depicting a nude, voluptuous woman. The figurine could have represented fertility and had ritualistic importance. -
The painted walls of the caves in Lascaux illustrate the early human ability to give meaning to surroundings. The black outlines were painted with either chunks of raw mineral pigment color or using matts of hair or moss, and the surfaces appear to be painted by blowing paint from hollowed out bones. The animals depicted (horses, bison, mammoths, lions, bears) were animals that were hunted and animals seen as predators. They were drawn in alert profile poses, some with forward-facing heads. -
This prehistoric sculpture depicts a now extinct species of bison called a a steppe wisent. It was made from a reindeer antler that was used for hunting. The piece has a lot of detail to depict hair and antlers. It's attributed to the Magdalenian, a Paleolithic culture that hunted big animals like horses and bison. Because food might have been plentiful, people had time to work on art.