Create a simple thumb pot, using Stone Age technology to decorate it.


Blades, scrapers, arrows and lance heads were made from flint, shaped by flaking or knapping the stone to create a sharp edge.


(above left) Blades, scrapers, arrows and lance heads were made from flint, shaped by flaking or knapping the stone to create a sharp edge.


Polished axe heads were used to chop down trees. They might also have been used as weapons.


(above right) Polished axe heads were used to chop down trees. They might also have been used as weapons.


Figure 20.3 Stone Age tools and weapons.


Pottery Clay was dug and hand-built into a variety of simple pot shapes, which would have been heated enough in open fires to turn them into ceramics (Fig. 20.4).


Note: Houses


Domestic buildings were generally round in plan, built with stone wood and mud, with thatched roofs.


Stones for large structures would have been moved by dragging and


levering, possibly using logs as rollers to ease the progress of the largest stones. Beasts of burden and the wheel were not yet available.


Art Elements and


Design Principles Stone Age designs are made from the simplest art elements: dot and line with a little low relief. There are 10 different categories of designs:


l five are made of curved lines: concentric circles, spirals, arcs, serpentiforms (snake-like designs) and dots in circle shapes


l five are made of straight lines: chevrons, lozenges (diamond shapes), radials (sticking out from a centre like spokes on a wheel), parallel lines and offsets (lines at angles to each other). All the shapes are drawn freehand and they are abstract, but they must have held some meaning for the people who made them (Fig. 20.5 and 20.6).


Figure 20.4 Examples of Stone Age pottery.


Concentric circles


Spirals


Arcs


Serpentiniforms


Dot in circle


Chevrons Figure 20.5 Range of Stone Age designs. CHAPTER 20 THE STONE AGE (c. 4000–2000 BC) 289


Lozenges Radials


Parallel lines


Offsets


UNIT 7 PRE-CHRISTIAN IRELAND (c. 4000 BC–AD 500)


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