Paleolithic & Neolithic Art Timeline

Paleolithic, Unknown Artist, Chauvet Cave Paintings, c. 30,000 BCE, ochre and charcoal on cave walls, Chauvet-Pont-d'arc, France

30,000 BCE

The Chauvet and Lascaux cave paintings are both similar, but Chauvet caves include more dangerous animals such as lions and mammoths, while Lascaux cave paintings focus more on hunting animals. This can mean they lived differently or had opposite cultural focuses.

Paleolithic, Unknown Artist, Venus Of Willendorf, c. 25,000 BCE, oolitic limestone, Austria, Now in a museum in Vienna

25,000 BCE

The Venus of Willendorf is a tiny sculpture of a female with large breasts and belly. These features emphasize fertility and reproduction; this was important in paleolithic times because it represents survival because childbirth was risky in those times.

Paleolithic, Unknown Artist, Lascaux Cave Paintings, c.15,000 BCE, natural pigments on cave walls, Lascaux Cave, France.

15,000 BCE

The Lascaux Cave Paintings houses prehistoric cave paintings such as horses, ibex, bison, and deer, these paintings are representations that rituals or spiritual practices were most likely being held. It also demonstrates humans' close relationships with the animals.

Neolithic, Unknown Artist, Great God of Sefar, c. 9,000 BCE, rock painting, Tassili n' Ajjer, Algeria.

9000 BCE

The Great God of Sefar is a rock painting of a large figure with