THE PALAEOLITHIC

The European Palaeolithic is conventionally divided into three periods; the Lower Palaeolithic ending perhaps 100,000 or so years ago; the Middle Palaeolithic beginning perhaps 300,000 years ago and ending perhaps 40,000 years ago; and the Upper Palaeolithic beginning perhaps 40,000 years ago and ending perhaps 10,000 years ago.

“Art” was definitely produced during that long period that began two or three million years ago. The earliest known figurines may date back to only slightly less than half a million years ago, but most of those best known date to the Upper Palaeolithic from around 30,000 to 15,000 years ago. The use of colour, the manufacture of beads (from 70,000 years ago) and the creation of rock art in the form of paintings and carvings (from 30,000 years ago) all began in the last 100,000 years, but here most of the material dates to the period after the end of the Palaeolithic. The same is true of burial rites: they can be traced back to almost 100,000 years ago, and yet the practice only really became common during the last 6000 years or so. Nevertheless, the origins of what d’Errico calls “symbolling” lie in the Palaeolithic. Religion builds on the symbolic, yet it is a question whether the presence of “symbolism” also automatically entails religion, or even whether “symbolling” involves the conscious use of symbols as we understand them.