People have been making art for at least 100,000 years. Prehistoric art illustrates early human creativity through small portable objects, cave paintings, and early sculpture and architecture.
- Paleolithic Period or Old Stone Age (30,000 BCE–10,000 BCE)
- Mesolithic Period or Middle Stone Age (10,000 BCE–8,000 BCE)
- Neolithic Period or New Stone Age (8,000 BCE–3,000 BCE)
The art of the prehistoric Stone Age represents the first accomplishments in human creativity, preceding the invention of writing. While numerous artifacts still exist today, the lack of writing systems from this era greatly limits our understanding of prehistoric art and culture.