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The art of the Upper Paleolithic is amongst the oldest art known (sometimes called prehistoric art). Older possible examples include the incised ochre from Blombos Cave. Upper Paleolithic art is found in Aurignacian Europe and the Levant some 40,000 years ago, and on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia at a similar date, suggesting a much older origin perhaps in Africa.〔 http://www.npr.org/2014/10/08/354166930/indonesian-cave-paintings-as-old-as-europes-ancient-art〕 Cave art in Europe continued to the Mesolithic (at the beginnings of the Holocene) about 12,000 years ago. As this corresponds to the final phase of the last glacial period, Upper Paleolithic art is also known as "Ice Age art". As a notable aspect of what some call the "Upper Paleolithic Revolution",〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Upper Paleolithic Revolution )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Mind: What archaeology can tell us about the origins of human cognition )〕 and evidence for behavioral modernity, the appearance of art in part helps us define the Upper Paleolithic itself. Art helps define what makes us human - it is part of what we are or can be (e.g. Steven Mithen, and ''The Mind in the Cave'' by David Lewis-Williams). Paleolithic art includes rock and cave painting, jewelry,〔http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/086/ant0860642.htm〕 drawing, carving, engraving and sculpture in: clay, bone, antler,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=British Museum - perforated baton )〕 stone〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=British Museum - laurel leaf point )〕 and ivory, such as the Venus figurines, and musical instruments such as flutes. Decoration was also made on functional tools, such as spear throwers, perforated batons and lamps. Common subject matters include the animals that were hunted (e.g. reindeer, horses,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Wild Horse )〕 bison,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Bison )〕 birds〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The State Hermitage Museum: Collection Highlights )〕 and mammoth)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Mammoth )〕 and predators and other animals that were not (e.g. lions,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Lion�s Head )〕 other big cats,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Snow Leopard )〕 bears and the woolly rhinoceros);〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Rhinoceros )〕 the human form was often expressed - especially female shapes〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The State Hermitage Museum: Collection Highlights )〕 (they often look either: young, old, or pregnant).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The State Hermitage Museum: Collection Highlights )〕 Men are also depicted, such as the 'Pin Hole man'. ==Europe and the Levant (Ice Age Art) == The vast majority of Ice Age art will not have survived; apart from work in wood, leather and other very perishable materials, the antler and bone which are very commonly used would normally decay if not buried in dry caves and shelters. There is evidence for some craft specialization, and the transport over considerable distances of materials such as stone and, above all marine shells, much used for jewellery and probably decorating clothes. Shells from Mediterranean species have been found at Gönnersdorf, over 1,000 kilometres from the Mediterranean coast. The higher sea levels today mean that the level and nature of coastal settlements in the Upper Paleolithic are unable to be explored and remain largely mysterious.〔Bahn and Vertut, 88〕 Engravings on flat pieces of stones are found in considerable numbers (up to 5,000 at one Spanish site) at sites with the appropriate geology, with the marks sometimes so shallow and faint that the technique involved is closer to drawing – many of these were not spotted by the earliest excavators, and found by later teams in spoil heaps. Painted plaques are less common. It is possible that they were used in rituals, or alternatively heated on a fire and wrapped as personal warmers. Either type of use may account for the many broken examples, often with the fragments dispersed over some distance (up to 30 metres apart at Gönnersdorf). Many sites have large quantities of flat stones apparently used as flooring, with only a minority decorated.〔Bahn and Vertut, 90-91〕 Ice Age art can be naturalistic and figurative; it can also be geometric and non-representational. Some of the oldest works of art were found in the Schwäbische Alb, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Venus figurine known as the Venus of Hohle Fels, dates to some 40,000 years ago. Other fine examples of art from the Upper Palaeolithic (broadly 40,000 to 10,000 years ago) includes: cave painting (such as at Chauvet, Lascaux, Altamira, Cosquer, and Pech Merle), incised / engraved cave art such as at Creswell Crags, portable art (such as animal carvings and sculptures like the Venus of Willendorf), and open-air art (such as the rock art of the Côa Valley and in Portugal; Domingo García and Siega Verde in Spain; and in France). There are numerous carved or engraved pieces of bone and ivory, such as the Swimming Reindeer found in France from the Magdalenian period. These include spear throwers, including one shaped like a mammoth,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=British Museum - spear-thrower )〕 and many of the type of objects called a bâton de commandement. One of the most famous pieces of portable art from Britain is the Robin Hood Cave Horse from Derbyshire. Other examples include the Kendrick's Cave Decorated Horse Jaw. Many of the finest examples were featured in the ''Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind''〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=British Museum - Ice Age art: arrival of the modern mind )〕 exhibition at the British Museum in 7 February - 26 May 2013. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Art of the Upper Paleolithic」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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