Practice question · Put in order
Order these landmarks of early art from oldest to youngest.
- Chauvet’s lions and rhinos (~36,000 BP)
- Sulawesi figurative cave painting (~45,000 BP)
- Blombos Cave engraved ochre (~75,000 BP)
- Lascaux’s great bulls (~17,000 BP)
- Altamira’s polychrome bison (~15,000 BP)
Hints
- Abstract marking predates figurative depiction.
- The technically most accomplished cave is not the most recent.
Show the answer
- Blombos Cave engraved ochre (~75,000 BP)
- Sulawesi figurative cave painting (~45,000 BP)
- Chauvet’s lions and rhinos (~36,000 BP)
- Lascaux’s great bulls (~17,000 BP)
- Altamira’s polychrome bison (~15,000 BP)
Why
Note the shape of this sequence: abstraction precedes depiction, Indonesia matches Europe, and the technically dazzling Chauvet is twice as old as Lascaux. Art history’s first chapter is not a progress narrative.
Practise Prehistoric Art
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on Prehistoric Art
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