Global Prehistory, 30,000–500 BCE

Art did not begin when someone decided to be an artist. The objects in this unit, made between 30,000 and 500 BCE, tell you that humans have always used materials to organize meaning, mark the world, and communicate across the void of time. You will build the formal vocabulary here: how to look at line, form, space, scale, and material in their most legible form, on objects simple enough to read clearly. That vocabulary is the tool the entire course depends on. Get it wrong here and every unit after gets harder.

4–6% of exam