Update

Oxford Reference Search Results

Narrow Your Choices

By Availability

By Reference Type

Refine By Subject

By Content Set

By Illustrations

View:

Overview

prehistoric

Subject: Science and technology, Environmental Science

Dating back to before written historical records begin. In Europe this includes the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. In North America prehistory is usually taken to refer any ...

prehistoric art

prehistoric art   Quick reference

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms (2 ed.)

Reference type:
Subject Reference
Current Version:
2010
Subject:
Art & Architecture
Length:
107 words

... art Art created before the existence of written records, the period varying enormously between different cultures. Writing came into existence in various parts of the world between the 4th and 1st millennia bc . Much of our knowledge of prehistoric art and culture, therefore, has been derived from archaeological investigations. In Europe the ending of the prehistoric period is often associated with writings about European Iron Age societies by classical authors. The term ‘prehistoric’ was first coined by a Frenchman, Gustave d'Eichthal, in 1843 . In...

prehistoric art

prehistoric art  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
Art created before the existence of written records, the period varying enormously between different cultures. Writing came into existence in various parts of the world between the 4th and 1st ...
Bernburg

Bernburg  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
German centre of ceramics production.The term ‘Bernburg Pottery’ is used to describe both Prehistoric pottery made in Thuringia c.3000 bc, and the product of two faience factories that flourished in ...
Combed ware

Combed ware  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
The term is used in two distinct senses. In prehistoric archaeology (in which there is an eponymous ‘combed ware culture’), the term denotes a pattern of pottery decoration in which ...
Este Art

Este Art  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
Style of prehistoric European art that flourished around Este in the province of Padua, Italy, in the 7th–4th centuries bc. In antiquity this area of the Po Valley was partially ...
Celtic architecture

Celtic architecture  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
The Celts were a group of prehistoric tribes, once occupying central and western Europe, whose territory, following post-Roman barbarian invasions, was reduced to western outposts extending from ...
art mobilier

art mobilier  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
(French: ‘portable art’).A term used in the study of prehistoric and primitive art for small movable works of art such as figurines, engraved stones, and bone carvings. According to ...
Venus of Willendorf

Venus of Willendorf  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
A prehistoric limestone figurine of a naked, faceless, obese woman, discovered at Willendorf, Austria, in 1908. It is 11 cm (4¼ in) high (small enough to hold in the hand) ...
Keros

Keros  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
Small Greek island of the Aegean Cyclades, to the south of Naxos. Though no longer inhabited, it was evidently important in prehistoric times. There was a settlement on the small ...
Key Marco

Key Marco  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
Prehistoric village site on the west coast of Florida, south of Fort Myers. Key Marco was one of dozens of such shell-midden sites, first occupied c.ad 700 and abandoned after ...
Great Gallery, Barrier Canyon

Great Gallery, Barrier Canyon  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
Prehistoric rock art site in North America, in the steep-walled sandstone canyon country of southeastern Utah. The Great Gallery is the principal site in the canyon and features one of ...
Dryopic

Dryopic  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
Pertaining to the Dryopians, held to be one of the earliest settlers in Ancient Greece, hence prehistoric columnar structures pre-dating Classical Antiquity, such as those of Euboea.
Mimbres pottery

Mimbres pottery  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
Type of pottery made by the prehistoric Mogollon people of the American south-west (especially what is now south-west New Mexico). About ad 700 potters in the Mimbres area of the ...
Eutresis

Eutresis  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
Site south-west of Thebes, in central Greece, where Hetty Goldman’s major excavation campaign (1924–7) revealed a long and informative prehistoric sequence, running from the later Neolithic period ...
Fort Center

Fort Center  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
Site of a prehistoric village with complex earthworks, which flourished on the banks of Caloosahatchee River near Lake Okeechobee in south Florida. By c.450 bc the hunter–gatherer occupants had ...
Fernand Cormon

Fernand Cormon  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
(b Paris, 24 Dec. 1845; d Paris, 20 Mar. 1924).French painter. He had a successful career both as a painter and a teacher (his pupils included Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec, and van Gogh), but his ...
Spiro Mounds

Spiro Mounds  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
The Spiro site is the premier ceremonial center of the Arkansas River Valley Caddoan Tradition in eastern Oklahoma, and one of the more impressive late prehistoric religious and political centers ...
long-house

long-house  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
1 Domestic building including living-quarters, byres, etc., under one roof, with access by a single entry-passage.2 Very large prehistoric timber structure, apparently used for many purposes, the ...
Athens, National Archaeological Museum

Athens, National Archaeological Museum  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
The principal archaeological museum in Greece, the Athens National Museum contains one of the most important collections of ancient Greek art from the prehistoric to the Roman period. The ...
Damghan

Damghan  

Reference type:
Overview Page
Subject:
Art & Architecture
Town on the road to Mashhad in northern Iran, 344 km east of Tehran. The area had a long history of settlement, as shown by the ruins of the prehistoric ...

View: