Neolithic Art
The term Neolithic means
" New Stone" Age, which
begins ca. 9,000 B.C. when the
ice that covered Northern Europe began to melt.
This event changed the ecology of the world and ushered in a new era
for mankind. The culture of the
hunter-gatherer was supplanted by the agrarian culture. This marks the beginning of fixed
settlements and the domesticating of plants and animals. Tools are now made by grinding (rather than chipping)
and polishing.
Human skull with
restored features, Jericho, ca. 7000-6000 B.C.
Jericho was a town along the
Jordan River which was supported by an agrarian culture. It had a running spring. It appears to have been founded in 9000 B.C. It developed significantly around 8000 B.C. into
a Neolithic town of about ten acres. It consisted of mud-brick houses.
The roofs were branches covered with dirt.
By 7500 B.C., fortifications were being erected. These indicate that the town was interested in protecting that which it had
built. The inhabitants of Jericho also erected a rock cut ditch and
a five-foot thick wall. The wall
included a large, circular stone tower that was 33 feet in diameter at the base
and was 28 feet high and which had an inner staircase. At this time, approx. 2000 people lived in
Jericho.
Jericho was abandoned around
7000 B.C. and new settlers arrived. They
built rectangular, mud brick houses on stone foundations and plastered their
floors and walls. They appear to have
made small statuettes of women, goddesses, or animals. We also have another form of art that they
produced — human skull covered with plaster and then painted. The skulls were detached from the rest of the
body and were buried separately from the body.
They most certainly had significance to the culture, but we will probably
never know the details.
Neolithic Architecture
Stonehenge, Salsbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, ca. 2,000 B.C.
Stonehenge was created in
several phases, beginning approximately 3,100-2,300 B.C. It was not built by the druids.
Phase I — ca. 3,100-2,300
B.C.
During Phase I, a huge circular
mound was created. It was ~380 feet in diameter and had a 6 foot high embankment. An entrance was marked by a pair of stones on
the north east side. Just within this
earthen circle are 56 Aubrey holes — named after John Aubrey, their 17th-century discoverer. It is now believed
that they held wooden posts and that later they were used to bury cremated
remains. Today, the holes are invisible
from the surface, but are marked by round concrete markers. Within the embankment were 4 small pits in 4
small mounds, which formed a rectangle.
Off to the northeast of the great
circle is a stone called the heel stone.
Phase II — ca. 2,100-2,000
B.C.
Phase II was erected by the so-called
Beaker Culture from Bluestones. The
Beaker Culture was a Neolithic culture that used pottery drinking vessels.
These stones
were not local, but came from south western tip of Wales — Pembrokeshire — where several Megalithic circles still
survive. This was approximately 240
miles away from the site. It is believed
that the Bluestones were transported using a combination of rafts, ropes, and human labor.
They had to come up the rivers and then had be hauled across Salisbury Plain —
a very labor intensive effort. Each bluestone weighs up to 4 tons and about 80 of these bluestones
were used. During Phase II, the creation of two
concentric circles or henges was attempted (note that other henges also exist in
England). However, this plan appears not to have been completed. In the center the circle, ten upright stones
were set up with free-standing lintels in the shape of a horseshoe (known as trilithons). The Altar Stone was set up in center.
Phase III — ca. 2,000 - 1,550
B.C.
During Phase III, the outer circle constructed
of local sarsen stone was constructed.
These stones weigh as much as 50 tons each and were mined approximately 20
miles north of the site. At the top of the
giant sarsens are small protuberances called tenons which were used to
secure the upper lintel, which connected each of the sarsens with its mate.
The builders may have dug sloping holes for placement the posts were tipped
into place. Then the lintels were slowly dragged into position up an inclined plane
made of dirt and were secured by means of the hole in the lintel [mortise]
hooking to the matching protuberance [tenon] on top. Thus, upright trilithons were created.
During this periods, the
bluestones were re-erected in the center, and holes were dug for the remainder
of the bluestones to be set up in two concentric rings outside of the saracen
stones — the so-called X and Y holes.
This was abandoned. The blue
stones were rearranged into the circle and horseshoe that stands today.
Phase IV — ca. 1,550-1,100
B.C.
The avenue to
It is now generally accepted
that
Thus the Neolithic builders
in unison with the priests created a monument for their religion and their
agriculture. It was both spiritual and practical.