40,000 to 3500 B.C. Prehistoric to the beginning of Written Language
Rock engravings called Petroglyphs c. (circa=around) 40,000 B.C. Rock engravings called Petroglyphs
A pride of lions hunt bison Chauvet Cave Southern France c. 30,000 B.C. A pride of lions hunt bison Chauvet Cave Southern France
From the Great Hall of Bulls in Lascaux cave France c. 15,000 B.C. From the Great Hall of Bulls in Lascaux cave France
Mammoth from Vogelherd Cave, Germany c.25,000 BC
Bird figurine 22ND TO 21ST MILLENIUM BC Mammoth Ivory 10.03 cm Malta Settlement
Bowl, late 8th millennium b. c Bowl, late 8th millennium b.c.; Neolithic period Syria Alabaster (calcite) D. 5 1/8 in. (13 cm)
Storage jar decorated with mountain goats, Chalcolithic, Sialk III 7; 4th millennium B.C. Iran Ceramic, paint; 20 7/8in. (53cm) Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1959 (59.52)
Ceramic; H. 3 7/8 in. (9.8 cm), Diam. 6 in. (15.3 cm) Bowl with Human Feet, Predynastic Period, probably late Naqada I–early Naqada II, ca. 3750–3550 B.C. Egyptian Ceramic; H. 3 7/8 in. (9.8 cm), Diam. 6 in. (15.3 cm)
Early Sumerian pictographic tablet, c. 3100 B.C. This “archaic” pictograph script contained the seeds for the development of writing, Information is structured by horizontal and divided into zones
Head of a ram, 3300–3100 B.C.; Late Uruk period Mesopotamia Ceramic, paint; 5 in. (12.7 cm) Purchase, James N. Spear Gift, 1981 (1981.53)
Marble; H. with harp 11 1/2 in. (29.2 cm) Rogers Fund, 1947 (47.100.1) Statuette of a seated harp player, ca. 2800–2700 B.C.; late Early Cycladic I–Early Cycladic II Cycladic Marble; H. with harp 11 1/2 in. (29.2 cm) Rogers Fund, 1947 (47.100.1) Cycladic Islands North of Crete in the Aegean Sea