The Importance of Studying Prehistoric Art 

02/03/2025
Art has often been a catalyst for social change & a platform for expressing dissent or advocating for societal transformation. Art is a universal language, through its explorations of different cultures and time periods. - H.W Janson

Prehistoric Art as We Know It 

Prehistoric art is an ode to some of humankind’s best creative endeavors, prior to the existence of writing systems and its records. It is hard to pinpoint the exact time duration of prehistory in itself, with its majority being during BC (before Christ), and with its length rumored to be more than ten million years. A great quantity of prehistoric art can be traced back to the Neolithic and Paleolithic time periods. The Paleolithic period, also known as the Old Stone age, took place in 30,000 BC, and its art had an abundance of cave paintings, sculptures, and drawings. The Paleolithic period was most well known for its discoveries and usage of fire, weapons, spoken language, perserving cultural + religious beliefs, and so on.The Neolithic period, also known as the New Stone age, took place in 10,000 BC, and its art has an abundance of pottery, sculptures, tools, and paintings. The Neolithic period was most well known for its advancement of architecture, such as Stonehedge, a structure in Wiltshire, England, originally built to track the movement of the sun, moon, and stars.
 

What Prehistoric Art Means to Me

When I was writing this blog, I wondered if by researching prehistoric art, and using what I know about art history thus far, if I could make connections to what I’m studying in college. Right now, I’m pursuing a Bachelors degree in Art & Design, and plan on having a career as an Art Therapist someday. While researching, I learned that Art Therapy started to be formally practiced, when British artist Adrian Hill coined the term in 1940s United Kingdom. Hill believed in the power of healing through artistic endeavor, and did great work in aiding the British mental health sector after World War II. As for how Art Therapy got started in the United States, we can thank Margaret Naumberg and Edith Kramer for such. Naumburg was a psychologist and educator, and believed art therapy was a form of abstract dialect that could help us unlock our inner thoughts and emotions. Kramer was an artist who thought the creative process and the end result product was of great importance to our psyche, especially in navigating anger, anxiety, and pain, regardless if you are an artist or not. Hill, Naumberg, and Kramer’s initiatives were heavily inspired by psychoanalytic theory. However, they were not the first evidence of therapeutic arts. The start of therapeutic rituals can be traced back to several different cultures during prehistoric times, such as Africa’s sculptures, sand paintings from the Navajo community and other Indigenous tribes, and cave paintings all across Europe and the United States. 


Why it’s worth studying Prehistoric Art

Prehistoric art is worth noting, as well as studying because when we take the time to look at art from the past, not only does it helps understand art from the present, but can also get us curious and even excited for the future of art. With prehistoric art specifically, it was the start of depicting culture in art, and the root into visualising why we as human beings are the way we are. An example of this is are rock paintings. Some say that the first evidence of human artistry and creativity started in 100,000 BC, when rock art first seen in Africa’s rocks and caves, done in markings with ground red oscher. When we reflect on art history, we get to expand our knowledge, and reflect on similarities, dfifferences, and patterns from one piece of art to another.
 

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