Native American Art - Lithic and Archaic Stage

Lithic and Archaic Stage

See also: Petroglyph, Pictogram, Petroform, Rock art, and Stone tools

In North America, the Lithic stage or Paleo-indian period is defined as approximately 18,000–8000 BCE. The period from around 8000–800 BCE is generally referred to as the Archaic period. The production of bannerstones, Projectile point, Lithic reduction styles and pictographic cave paintings are some of the art that remains from this time period.

Belonging in the Lithic stage, the oldest known art in the Americas is a carved bone bone, possibly from a mammoth, etched with a profile of walking mammoth or mastodon that dates back to 11,000 BCE. The bone was found early in the 21st century near Vero Beach, Florida, in an area where human bones (Vero man) had been found in association with extinct pleistocene animals early in the 20th century. The bone is too mineralized to be dated, but the carving has been authenticated as having been made before the bone became mineralized. The anatomical correctness of the carving and the heavy mineralization of the bone indicate that the carving was made while mammoths and/or mastodons still lived in the area, more than 10,000 years ago.

The oldest known painted object in North American is the Cooper Bison Skull from 10,900–10,200 BCE. Lithic age art in South America includes Monte Alegre culture rock paintings created at Caverna da Pedra Pintada dating back to 9250–8550 BCE. Guitarrero Cave in Peru has the earliest known textiles in South America, dating to 8000 BCE.

The southwestern United States and certain regions of the Andes have the highest concentration of pictographs (painted images) and Petroglyphs (carved images) from this period. Both pictographs and petroglyphs are known as rock art.

• A petroglyph of a caravan of bighorn sheep near Moab, Utah, USA; a common theme in glyphs from the southwestern desert

• Archaic abstract curvilinear style petroglyphs, Coso Rock Art District, California
• Petroglyph from Columbia River Gorge, Washington, USA
• Folsom spear-point.
• Archaic bannerstone, Ohio
• Desert Archaic arrowhead, Wilson Butte Cave, Idaho