“A carved stone or a carved piece of wood are examples of someone taking a natural object and putting it in a place where it becomes a marker in time and space, against which human life can be registered”. (The author in his essay ‘Master Sculptures – An Evocation of the Relationship between Thought and Matter’, published in the brochure of the Bali Indonesia Sculptor Association for an exhibition in Karne Gallery, Ubud, from 27.12. 2004 till 5.1.2005.

In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate cultures (prehistory), beginning somewhere in the darkness of very late geological history.

In 1999 the Venus of Tan-Tan, the earliest figurine artistic object was discovered in Morocco (left), which comes from the Paleolithic period between 500,000 and 300,000 BC. It is about 6 centimeters long and shaped like a human figure, with grooves that suggest a neck, arms and legs. Evidence suggests that this Moroccan piece may have been created by natural geological processes with a minimum of human tool-work, but the piece bears evidence of having been painted; "a greasy substance" on the stone's surface has been shown to contain iron and manganese and indicates that it was decorated by someone and used as a figurine, regardless of how it may have been formed. The Venus of Tan-Tan could be the world's oldest attempt at sculpture.

Discoveries in Blombos cave, situated in South Africa, have totally changed the history of art. Stones were discovered that were decorated with complex red arrays, showing that early Homo Sapiens were capable of abstraction and production of art.

These impressive works date back from 70,000 years ago i.e. more than 50,000 years compared to Lascaux in France.

Bison Altamira cave	Painting in Lascaux cave

The earliest known European art is from the upper Paleolithic period and includes both cave painting, such as the famous paintings at Altamira in Spain and Lascaux in France, and portable art, such as animal carvings and so-called Venus figurines like the Venus of Willendorf.

There are some speculations that only Homo sapiens are capable of artistic expression. However, Homo erectus had long before produced seemingly aimless patterns on artifacts such as is those found at Bilzingsleben in Thuringia, and these might be understood as a precursor to art, as well as to reveal some intent of the artificer to decorate, to fashion beyond practical necessity. The symmetry and attention given to the shape of a tool has led authors to see middle Paleolithic hand axes as artistic expressions as well. The Venus of Berekhat Ram (Israel) and its counterpart in Morocco, the Venus of Tan-Tan, from 800,000 and 220,000 BC, (see photo above) may be the earliest attempts to recreate the human form. A recent find, the Mask of La Roche-Cotard in France, now suggests, however, that Neanderthal humans may have developed a sophisticated and more complicated artistic tradition.

Later findings from terrains of Ukraine (Mizyn archeological site) dated from Mousterian epoch of Paleolithic are Mammoth ivory bracelets with carved meander ornaments.

The Mesolithic period has some examples of portable art, like painted pebbles (Azilien) from Birseck, Hermitage in Switzerland, and in some areas, like the Spanish Levant, stylized rock art. Patterns on utilitarian objects, like the paddles from Tybrind Vig, Denmark, are known as well.

In the Neolithic period - according to archaeological evidence - the Jōmon people in ancient Japan were the first to develop pottery, dating to the 11th millennium BC. The Jōmon people were making clay figures and vessels decorated with patterns made by impressing the wet clay with braided or unbraided cord and sticks with a growing sophistication.

Free standing sculpture had already begun by the Neolithic, the earliest being the anthropomorphic figurines, often embellished by animals from the very beginning of the Neolithic discovered in Nevali Cori and Göbekli Tepe near Urfa in eastern Turkey, dating to ca. 10th millennium BC. The Mesolithic statues of Lepenski Vir at the Iron Gorge, Serbia and Montenegro date to the 7th millennium BC and represent either humans or mixtures of humans and fish.

In Central Europe, many Neolithic cultures, like Linearbandkeramic, Lengyel and Vinca, produced female (rarely male) and animal statues that can be called art. Whether the elaborate pottery decoration of, for example, the Želiesovce and painted Lengyel style are to be classified as art is a matter of definition.

Megalithic monuments are found in the Neolithic from Portugal to the British isles and Poland. They start in the 5th Millennium BC, though some authors speculate on Mesolithic roots. Because of frequent reuse, this is difficult to prove.

	While the most well-known of these is Stonehenge, where the main structures date from the early Bronze age, such monuments have been found throughout most of Western and Northern Europe, notably at Carnac, France, at Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands,
Stonehenge, England

in Portugal, and in Wiltshire, England, the area of Stonehenge, the Avebury circle, the tombs at West Kennet, and Woodhenge.

One tomb found in New Grange, Ireland, has its entrance marked with a massive stone carved with a complex design of spirals. The tomb of Knowth has rock-cut ornaments as well; one of them may be the oldest known image of the Moon.

Many of these monuments were megalithic tombs, and archaeologists speculate that most have religious significance.

The author is a retired judge and private art collector from Austria who has lived with his Balinese wife and their child since many years in Bali.