The archaeology of ancient art has much to offer for our understanding of visual culture in past societies, with a record rich with material that opens up new ways of thinking about the environment, nature, the body and the non-human world. Such an approach can lead us to consider how art (as we define it in the present day) shaped past lifeways with archaeological evidence that indicates representation, relationships and identities were expressed through image-making.
Focusing on European material and organised chronologically, we will engage with the earliest evidence we have for visual inscription. This will include cave paintings (e.g. Lascaux, France), figurines (e.g. the Venus of Willendorf, Austria) carvings (e.g. Lepenski Vir, Serbia), monuments (e.g. Newgrange, Ireland) rock art (e.g. Ilkley Moor, UK), metalwork (e.g. Gundestrup Cauldron, Denmark) and frescoes (e.g Tarquinia, Italy). This will lead to an engagement with the roles colour, technology, symbolism and materiality play in the construction of prehistoric lifeways. Our coverage will also include global ethnographic and anthropological research as analytical tools for interpretation.
We will contextualise our discussions with reference to digital sources (e.g. museum collections), readings (which we will discuss in class) and visual media (film and online presentations).