New Zealand Art - Prehistoric Art

Prehistoric Art

Charcoal drawings can be found on limestone rock shelters in the centre of the South Island, with over 500 sites stretching from Kaikoura to North Otago. The drawings are estimated to be between 500 and 800 years old, and portray animals, people and fantastic creatures, possibly stylised reptiles. Some of the birds pictured are long extinct, including moa and Haast's eagles. They were drawn by early Māori, but by the time Europeans arrived, local inhabitants did not know the origins of the drawings.

Read more about this topic:  New Zealand Art

Famous quotes containing the words prehistoric and/or art:

    Of course
    the New Testament is very small.
    Its mouth opens four times
    as out-of-date as a prehistoric monster,
    yet somehow man-made....
    Anne Sexton (1928–1974)

    “As for your world of art and your world of reality,” she replied, “you have to separate the two, because you can’t bear to know what you are.... The world of art is only the truth about the real world.”
    —D.H. (David Herbert)