AP Art History Unit 1 Cheatsheet: Global Prehistory, 30,000-500 bce

Three Stone Ages (Lithic Periods):

• Paleolithic (Old Stone Age): earliest period; hunter-gatherers; small groups; survival paramount
• Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age): transitional period
• Neolithic (New Stone Age): emergence of agriculture, settlement, animal husbandry

Environmental Shifts:

• European ice ages (glacial periods)
• Saharan grassland → desert
• Lower glacial sea levels exposed Southeast Asian land bridges, facilitating migration toward Sahul (Australia and New Guinea) by about 45,000 years ago.

Key Principle: Human behavior and artistic expression were shaped by changing environments and survival strategies.

Recurring Subjects:

• Animal imagery (dominant in cave paintings across Asia, Europe, Americas)
• Human figures, especially female figurines
• Fecund (fertile) females suggesting fertility symbolism
• Transformational animal-human iconography (shamanic)
• Supernatural or unusual characteristics in human figures

Formal Strategies:

• Dynamic interplay of naturalism and abstraction
• Adaptation of animal images to natural contours of materials
• Geometric and representational designs (Lapita pottery)

Spiritual Dimensions:

• Shamanic religion (earliest, most persistent worldwide spiritual approach)
• Ritual life and cosmic integration (~15,000 BCE in Europe)
• Promotion of human and animal fertility

Skill 5.A & 5.B – Analyze unfamiliar works: Describe visual elements and explain artistic decisions in works not in the standard curriculum image set. Requires visual analysis skills applicable across periods and cultures.

Skill 6.A & 6.B – Attribution: Identify or justify attribution of a work to a specific artist, culture, style, or object type by comparing visual features with known works.

Skill 7.A & 7.B – Interpret meaning: Describe and explain art-historically valid interpretations of a work, its reception, or meaning. Derive interpretations from analysis of form, style, materials, content, function, context, and reception.