 Facsimilie - Detail of Rock Shelter Painting Cogul, Lerida, Spain c. 4000-3000 BC (BCE) Museo Arqueologico, Barcelona |
Most fully represented are archaeological complexes discovered in the forest regions of European Russia. The objects found give an idea of the culture and art of Neolithic tribes who, from the 6th millennium to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, inhabited the country between the rivers Volga and Oka, the Urals, and southern areas of the Pskov region including settlements in Karelia.
Neolithic everyday objects reveal that fishing and hunting were the
main occupations of the inhabitants of the forest territories.
Neolithic people decorated clay vessels in a wide variety of ways,
created bone, horn and wooden figurines of people and animals.
Noteworthy are a number of articles intended for tribal cults; these
are polished stone ax-hammers, one end terminating with a bear’s or
elk’s head executed with a considerable degree of realism. There are
very carefully worked small flint figurines of people, animals and
birds, which are schematic and stylized and were probably used as
amulets.
Stonehenge, Salisbury PlainWilshire, England c. 2750-1500 BC (BCE) (also see history of architecture) |
Vessels from Denmark
c. 3000 - 2000 BC (BCE)
National Museum, Copenhagen
Tomb Interior with Corbeling
and Engraved Stones
Newgrange, Ireland
c. 3000 - 2500 BC (BCE)
Art of a monumental character was familiar to these tribes. On the coast of the White Sea and on the eastern shores of Lake Onega, a large number of petroglyphs were etched into the rock surface. The petroglyphs are executed in various manners: there are realistic and symbolic petroglyphs, and outline drawings but most are silhouettes.
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