Mark-making was part of the Homo toolkit even as far back as the Lower Paleolithic, continuing through the Middle Paleolithic, and on to the Upper Paleolithic. The Upper Paleolithic, roughly 35,000 to 11,000 years ago, is the period from which the great bulk of Paleolithic artworks are known. Paleolithic art is a worldwide phenomenon, but at this point, the most extensively publicized Upper Paleolithic art is found in Europe, the most renowned of which are cave paintings like this horse from Lascaux, France.
Many cave paintings like this famous horse are schematicised, or stylized. They follow conventionalized features like super small heads, enormous bellies, and exceedingly short legs. In caves, there are also a great number of mysterious painted signs and symbols (whose meanings have been lost to the mists of time), as well as a number of naturalistic, or proportional artworks.
But there is much more to Paleolithic art than just cave art.
Less well-known are engravings on small portable stones and bones, which oftentimes have variously oriented figures of animals piled on top of each other, like this stone from La Colombière, France.
These portable pieces, sometimes referred to as plaquettes, are most often found randomly distributed in and around dwelling sites, but are occasionally found in caves. Researchers have been able to isolate remarkable individual figures from these portable items like this mammoth from Gönnersdorf, Germany.
Since the subject matter is the same on plaquettes as on the cave walls, researchers have felt that there must have been similar usage. But what that usage was remains nebulous.
