Please share anything you make in any way.
So, some examples: drawing, photography, digital art, painting, illustration, knitting, weaving, baking etc etc.
I will upload something myself at some point soon.
It doesn't have to be your own if you would like to share something from someone/somewhere else that you like.
I’m reassured that I’m fully human
Thank you Phased
It would be marvellous to understand the reason behind the decline in figurine use, but it remains to date, there isn’t evidence to explain why it happened so suddenly during the neolithisation of western and northern Europe, but there is evidence that it declined and my point was that to date, linguistics can’t explain it and neither can archaeology. Is the second part of your response from AI? I haven’t used AI, but if I do, I always check its sources.
The Neolithisation wasn’t one single event. Studies show the sudden decline of figurine production was in a series of steps. Figurines weren’t commonly ‘small stone figurines’, clay figurines were the predominant type during the neolithic (dating systems for neolithic periods vary between regions) and they were in abundance until their rapid decline, whereas stone figurines were not common so people didn’t spend time “chipping and polishing stone by hand”.
“Preservation bias” is something archaeologists are aware of more than most, and you are right in pointing out wood decays. However, if a rich tradition of wooden figurine production had existed, it has been argued that we would have expected to find at least some examples of these among the extraordinarily well preserved conditions that have been revealed in e.g. the wooden wells of Linear Pottery Culture or the pile dwellings in the circus-alpine region, yet this is not so. Moreover, if wooden figurines had replaced clay figurines, at least a few organic figurines would have been revealed during the extensive archaeological work in bogs and wetland areas that preserved other organic material culture.
There is archaeological and biological evidence that the introduction of agriculture could be associated with poor health and disease, but to date, a relationship demonstrating it caused people to stop producing or using figurines hasn’t been proved. To prove it, archaeologists would need data showing the symbolic response to the conditions was abandonment of figurines. There are substantial regional differences throughout Europe as farming spread and even communities experiencing broadly comparable economic transformations responded in different ways. So it can’t be argued that “intense physical and existential stress” led to a “pivot” in their spiritual and symbolic lives.
Neolithic people had to contend with celestial events, but it’s too far a stretch to claim figurine use stopped because “survival now depended on mapping celestial events and seasonal cycles”. There is nothing in the archaeological record to suggest that figurine use was connected to astronomy or seasons.
Regarding Central European Roundels, there is a chronological correlation with the decline in figurine use but it doesn’t explain the cause. Even if they had significant orientation properties, it doesn’t provide evidence relating to a cognitive transformation over a much wider area.
We don’t have evidence that “gruelling hours” were spent making clay figurines. They were made by various methods, moulding and shaping by hand. Some may have been made in a small scale ‘workshop’, others perhaps by individuals, but they weren’t labour intensive to make. We don’t know if they were all “intimate, household figures”. In fact, we don’t know exactly what their function was.
This could be one of my favourite cat drawings
Very educational morning, learned about the Seaman and the Fish game, including the baby and the frog...and Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's heads are just incredible, can not believe that I never heard of him...this one certainly has the same vibe as my critter
Thank you. I’m grateful that you said we could post other people’s work, otherwise I wouldn’t have posted anything.
I would need to write an essay to fully answer your question as people have been debating its definition for a long time. Definitions include ’aesthetically pleasing’, ‘having agency’, ‘artist’s intention’ etc.
I think for me, art is something that is life enhancing, relatable and gives my life meaning. It’s often aesthetically pleasing but it doesn’t have to be. It can offer security and be grounding.
The temptation now is to take over this thread with photos of figurines
Wow, that's pretty uncanny looking.
Reminds me of Seaman for the SEGA Dreamcast
It’s ok Phased I just wondered if they were made from an ironwood, which would be very heavy and hard to carve.
Art has been part of what it means to be human since prehistoric times so I wonder if that means I’m not fully human, as creating art has eluded me I do appreciate other people’s art.
