HOME | DD

Description
Hello paleoartists, archaeologists, and paleo-enthusiasts!

As you may know, the submission period for the January Contest wrapped up two days ago, and voting has begun to choose the winner. As mentioned before, voting is open until next Wednesday, so there is still time to choose your personal favorite if you haven't already done so.

Seeing as it is now February, it seems obvious that we open the new month with a new contest. For the February Contest, there will be a new theme (last month we had "Hoaxes, Fringe Theories, and Pseudoscience"): Art of the Paleolithic. What exactly does that mean? Well, as you may know, the Paleolithic was not just a time of biological evolution and the generation of new taxa, but was also a time for cultural change. In the Upper Paleolithic of Europe and Late Stone Age of Africa, humans began making artwork that can be considered the earliest undeniable evidence that humans were not just thinking beings, but exceptionally symbolic beings.

In this photograph, we have paintings of spotted horses and human hands on a rock surface, but Paleolithic art wasn't just paintings on the insides of caves and rock shelters in France and Spain. Paleolithic art took many forms: the aforementioned paintings, crafted jewelry from animal teeth and the shell of sea creatures, ivory sculptures representing animal and human-like figures (like the famous Venuses from sites like Willendorf in Austria or Hohlefels in southern Germany), musical instruments like flutes carved from bird limbs, and so much more.

These artifacts are of utmost importance to the study of the history of humankind and the origins of human behavior and culture. For this very reason, I have opted to select prehistoric art as the central theme for this contest.

Basically, submissions for this contest must have some sort of connection to Paleolithic/Stone Age art. I will leave this relatively open to interpretation, but to help you generate ideas, these are a few suggestions:

Relatively unmodified replications of the original art

Reconstructions of how the artwork is produced (the painters making the rockart or the sculpture making the ivory Venus)

Reconstructions of fauna based on how they are represented by our Paleolithic counterparts

Speculation of how the objects/paintings were involved in the living culture of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, like ritual, music, worship, etc.

Neanderthal art, which is a huge controversy but would be interesting to reflect on nonetheless

These, of course, are only a few rather non-specific ideas, so you could do much more with your submission. Don't feel like you must pick something within these ideas, but at the same time, try to keep the connection between your illustration, drawing, schematic, story, or sculpture (whatever medium you use) and the theme of Paleolithic art at least somewhat obvious. And yes, I just said you can write a story or make a sculpture/pottery (stories would be particular relevant for the fourth idea that I mention)!

When submitting your artwork for this contest, submit it to the relevant category in this group (in this case, "Fossils, artefacts and more" or "Articles and Opinion Pieces" ). Furthermore, post a comment here to ensure that your submission is included in the contest.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Cheers!

WS