OUP00_CABECERO_BLANCO
OUP00_CABECERO_BLANCO
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1. Prehistory: the Paleolithic age
1. Description of the place or site
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Locate the place you have chosen. Describe the current characteristics of
the area and what they were like in the Paleolithic Period.
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Is it a difficult place to reach? Was it or is it near a river or lake?
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What was the climate like when the paintings were done? Was it similar
to the current climate in the region?
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Which animals inhabited the surroundings? What was the vegetation
like?
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Are the paintings outside or inside caves?
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If it is a cave, what’s its structure like?Where are the paintings? Ask yourself
the same questions if you are analysing an outside site.
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According to experts, what are the approximate dates of the paintings?
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Have human remains or tools been found there? Describe and date them.
2. Analysis of the paintings
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Colours:
Are the paintings polychrome or monochrome? What colours
did they use? If you wish, include how the colours were made and how
they were applied.
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Style:
Is it realistic or schematic?
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Subjects:
What did they portray? Are there solitary figures or scenes of
groups of figures? Are there abstract signs? Have their meanings been deciphered?
Procedure
Detectives of the past
1
Reconstructing the past is the work of detectives. You are going to go back in time
using the Internet. By examining surviving artwork, you are going to discover the
ways of life and beliefs of the period. Like good detectives, you are
going to share your discoveries with your classmates by giving a pres-
entation.
In a large group
and individually
Get into groups and look at the first two websites in the box below: the video
about Chauvet Cave and the virtual visit to Lascaux. Then go to the third website.
Choose one of the three options from the Paleolithic Period. You may prefer to
research another example from this period that you know about or which is near
to where you live.
Preparation
Chauvet
Lascaux
World Heritage Site cave paintings
MATERIALS
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Notebook
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Computer with Internet
access
Period
Plan of Altamira cave,
Cantabria
Entrance to Altamira cave
Replica of Altamira cave
