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Prehistoric Art
The art of prehistoric man usually
describes hunting journeys or the animals hunted. One theory is
that ornamenting caves with pictures came out of sheer artistic impulse.
Another hypothesis is that cave pictures were drawn in order to assist
the hunt itself. Cave paintings are economical in details and usually present
only the important features of the animal and its most prominent characteristic.
Pictures of humans were the complete opposite: they described figures symbolically,
and with no reference to the body's external nature.
Architecture at this time is still
non-existent, although, as early as the middle stone age, we find
monuments placed on two erected stones, like a table, and lines of stone
pillars. These were probably built for ritual purposes.
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