Art of Prehistory and Early History: Period of Consideration

Anyone approaching a field of knowledge first wants to know the basics : What is it about?

It's about art, however that is defined. Art of prehistory and early history, that is, the art that our ancestors left behind before actual (written) historiography began.

Over what period of time has this knowledge developed (in other words, for those who will later need this knowledge as part of an education: How much will I have to learn)?

When it comes to the prehistory and early history of art, there isn't ultimately a great deal of "material": The prehistory and early history of art begins with human history; human history begins with the Stone Age; the Stone Age begins at the time when the genus Homo distinguished itself from apes through the use of fire and tools. The first evidence of Homo in Central Europe is 600,000 years old, which is why, for art history, precisely these "few years" constitute the official period under consideration for the prehistory and early history of art.

It sounds like a complex subject that anyone familiar with the prehistory of art should be aware of… but it's actually somewhat less daunting. The prehistory and early history of art can only become concrete when there is a work of art to be found. The oldest known cave paintings by anatomically modern humans in Europe are a mere 40,000 years old, and the oldest known artwork is only 43,000 years old – making 43,000 years of prehistoric and early historical art in Europe.

That's certainly how it's been so far, and that's still how it's taught in schools today; but probably not for much longer: In February 2018, an international research team from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology revealed that Neanderthals in Europe created cave art more than 20,000 years before the arrival of anatomically modern humans (who presumably reached Europe around 40,000 years ago).

Using uranium-thorium dating, the researchers analyzed 60 samples of carbonate crusts on the pigments of paintings in three Spanish caves: the Cueva de La Pasiega in the northeast, the Maltravieso cave in the west, and the Ardales cave in the south.

These early paintings are colored red and sometimes black, and contain groups of animals, dots, and geometric symbols. Positive and negative handprints and rock carvings were also used in their design. However, the analysis of the find has caused a sensation among experts for another reason: modern methods have revealed that the paintings are at least 64,800 years old.

A discovery that would suddenly place human art some 20,000 years earlier if we consider Neanderthals to be humans. Do Neanderthals belong to the human family? In a broader sense, certainly – Homo neanderthalensis evolved parallel to anatomically modern Homo sapiens and, like them, belong to the genus Homo, of which we (Homo sapiens) are now the only remaining members.

When it comes to recognizing cave paintings as human art, however, it is far more crucial that while Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens evolved in parallel from African Homo erectus, they did not do so separately: Homo sapiens evolved in Africa, while Homo neanderthalensis evolved in Europe, inhabiting large parts of southern, central, and eastern Europe for a time. And we now know that Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis lived in close proximity to one another for tens of thousands of years.

The DNA of the Neanderthal genome has also now been sequenced and has revealed evidence that multiple gene flows took place between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens – if sexually uninhibited, compatible beings lived “door to door” for so long, the assumption that they mated eagerly is not really far-fetched.

The descendants of these “contacts with foreigners” don't ask whether these pretty eyes (breasts, penises) belong to their own tribe; we Europeans all carry more or less Neanderthal genes within us.

It has been known for quite some time that human evolutionary history is somewhat more complicated than early anthropologists assumed – the Out-of-Africa theory is certainly complemented by a great deal of “Out of Europe” evidence, and it is reasonable to assume that many more early humans reproduced in a mixed manner wherever they encountered one another. Racism and xenophobia thus demonstrate, first and foremost, that the people who want to distance themselves in this way are completely ignorant of the facts.

If Europeans (today: humans, because Europeans also multiplied across the world) carry more or fewer Neanderthal genes within us, we could also include these cave paintings in human art history, which would then be at least 64,800 years old.

Germans, in particular, could do this, since the Neander Valley is located right in the heart of North Rhine-Westphalia. One can probably already anticipate that the news of this groundbreaking discovery will send esoterically inclined German art historians into raptures: finally, the reason why art history developed in Germany has been found…