Neolithic Art refers to art created in the Neolithic Era or the New Stone Age. The Neolithic period was a time of great change in human behavioral and cultural characteristics. Humans gave up the hunter-gatherer way of life in many parts of the world. Instead they cultivated crops and domesticated animals. Here are 7 important examples of Neolithic Art. Click on the Title of Artworks for details and sources.
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The Key Questions
The word Neolithic is a combination of two Greek words neos (new) and lithos (stone). The New Stone Age or the Neolithic era is the last and final phase of the Stone Age. It is marked by the use of polished stone tools while in the previous periods the stone tools were chipped. It began with the advent of agriculture and was followed by the Bronze Age. While it various in different parts of the world, Neolithic Era is approximately dated from 8,000 BCE to 2,000 BCE.
The Neolithic Era saw a comeback of sculptures after a relatively quiet period in the preceding Mesolithic Era. Moreover, sculpture was no longer restricted to carving and were now also fashioned out of clay and baked. In rock art, depictions of humans dominate representations and they became more identifiable.
#1 Great God of Sefar
| Estimated Age: | Around 10,000 years |
| Found At: | Sefar, Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria |
| Discovered By: | Charles Brenans |
| Discovered In: | 1930s |
Great God of Sefar has bands at his arms, wrist, waist and legs. Two large bulges at his elbows are clearly noticeable. Their meaning is debated. It also has a mysterious large oval between his legs. The Masa population living near Lake Chad believe in a God named Matna, whose main characteristic is his huge scrotum affected by elephantiasis. As the oval between the legs of the figure looks like his genital organs have swollen, the proposition the Great God of Sefar depicts Matna has been suggested.
#2 Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük
| Estimated Age: | Around 8,000 years |
| Found At: | Çatalhöyük, Turkey |
| Discovered By: | James Mellaart |
| Discovered In: | 1961 |
The Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük is created out of baked clay. It depicts a naked woman with large breasts, belly and hips. The female depicted exudes an aura of power and is seated comfortably on what seems like a throne. Her hands rest on the heads of felines (probably leopards) suggesting that she has been shown as a tamer of nature. Initially, the statue was seen as that of a Great Mother Goddess but this has been contested since then.
#3 Yarmukian Seated Woman
| Estimated Age: | Around 8,000 years |
| Found At: | Tel Megiddo, Israel |
| Discovered By: | Jean Perrot |
| Discovered In: | 1965 |
The Yarmukian culture, which gets its name from the Yarmuk river, was a Neolithic culture of the ancient Levant. The most interesting feature of the culture is the large number of art objects found at its sites. The Seated Woman is perhaps the best known among them. Several minute details have been captured in this sculpture. These include coffee bean eyes, nose, ears, headdress and legs which have been portrayed in a somewhat exaggerated fashion. The statue was created by wrapping a layer of clay around a cylindrical clay core.
#4 Adam of Macedonia
| Estimated Age: | Around 7,000 years |
| Found At: | Govrlevo, Macedonia |
| Discovered By: | Milos Bilbija |
| Discovered In: | 2000 |
Adam of Macedonia has been created in a realistic manner, unlike most other Neolithic finds. It depicts a male torso in a seated position with a stressed spine and deeply indented abdomen. It has surprising anatomical details for the time it was created. It has well defined muscles, ribs, navel and a broken phallus. Because of its age and refinement of workmanship, Adam of Macedonia has been acclaimed as one of the ten most important archaeological discoveries in the world.
#5 Thinker of Cernavodă
| Estimated Age: | Around 7,000 years |
| Found At: | Cernavodă, Romania |
| Discovered In: | 1956 |
Thinker of Cernavodă depicts a man in deep thought with his hands on his head and his elbows on his knees. Unlike most prehistoric statues, the face depicted is expressive. A slit is used to represent his mouth, his nose is in relief and his eyes are formed with triangular impressions. The figurine is remarkable for being one of the first known representations of a person in the act of contemplation. It was thus named after a famous sculpture by Auguste Rodin called The Thinker.
#6 Jōmon Venus
| Estimated Age: | Around 5,000 years |
| Found At: | Tanabatake, Japan |
| Discovered In: | 1986 |
Jōmon is a Japanese term for cord-marking and it has become associated with a culture of the Jōmon era (12,500 BCE – 300 BCE) which created such pottery. Dogū (“earthen figure”) are small humanoid and animal figurines created by the Jōmon culture. The Jōmon Venus is the most famous Dogū. It is considered to be a depiction of a pregnant woman. This may be deduced from the broad hips and large belly of the depicted figure. On June 15, 1995, Jōmon Venus was designated a National Treasure of Japan.
#7 Westray Wife
| Estimated Age: | Around 5,000 years |
| Found At: | Westray Island, Scotland |
| Discovered By: | Jakob Kainz |
| Discovered In: | 2009 |
Orkney is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland. Westray is one of the Orkney Islands. The Westray Wife, also known as the Orkney Venus, is remarkable for being the earliest depiction of a human discovered in Scotland. Made from sandstone, it is a small sculpture having the dimensions of 3.5 cm by 3 cm. The lower half of the figurine has four sides in the shape of a diamond and the upper half represents a round head. The head has features of a human face with heavy brows, two dots for eyes and an oblong for a nose.