Prehistoric Art: Paleolithic Art
Besides the About Art History article, here are further resources on Paleolithic art. Selections include: Cave Art, Figurines, Museums and Image Collections, Educator Resources (lesson plans) and General Resources (mainly articles and papers).
The article entitled "Art History 101: Paleolithic Art" covers the pertinent highlights of the Late Upper Paleolithic period, with its Venus figurines and Cave art.
Subtitled "Speculations on the Psychology of Paleolithic Graphics", this long article by J. A. Cheyne explores the meaning of graphics in an iconic culture.
The full-text version of Tim Appenzeller's article for
Science Magazine, in which he explores whether human artistic creativity burst forth (out of nowhere) 38,000 years ago or had earlier roots.
An online, chronological index of the magazine's offerings. Articles have quite weighty names, and are a bit hard to digest (this probably has more to do with the complexity of the subject matter, than with the occasional rough translation from Italian to English).
A paper by Jean Clottes, Ph.D. (retired General Inspector for Archaeology at the French Ministry of Culture and Scientific Advisor [at the same Ministry] for prehistoric rock art) on Paleolithic art and prehistoric research in France. It covers rock art from the Chauvet Cave, Cussac, Lascaux and Niaux.
Why Rock art constitutes the greatest body of evidence of the intellectual life of our ancestors. Article (with bibliography) by James Q. Jacobs, part of his larger site
Rock Art Pages.
