Using stone age-style tools to make art is simple. We use it to tell the stories and adventures like an early generations.
science.aksiografi.com – The Stone Age was a period of time when people used stone tools. The term was introduced in the early 1800s by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (1788–1865), a Danish museum curator. Thomsen needed a way of classifying historical materials, so he divided them into three groups: stone, bronze, and iron. He later applied the names Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age to the periods of history. Each age represents a time period when a certain material was the main one used for making tools. The Stone Age is the earliest and longest stage of human cultural development, starting from about 2 million years ago and lasting to about 5000 B.C. During that time, stones were used for tools as well as for weapons.
Around 5000 B.C., the peoples of Mesopotamia (an area that corresponds to modern Iraq) and Egypt started using metal tools, but there were many regions of the world that still used stone tools when Columbus discovered America in 1492. While most of the world today works with metal and high-tech tools—everything from hammers to computers—there are still a few cultures, such as some Aborigines in Australia, who use stone tools just as their ancient ancestors did in the Stone Age.
Learning Objective
To use Stone Age–style tools to make a drawing.
Materials
Round wooden toothpick
2 rocks—1 large and flat, 1 small and lemon size (A nonporous cutting board can be used instead of the large rock)
1 table spoon (15 mL) dirt
spoon
3-ounce (90-mL) paper cup
tap water
sheet of white construction paper
Procedure
1. Use the following steps to make a stick paintbrush:
• Lay the toothpick on the large flat rock.
• Using the smaller rock, beat one end of the toothpick until it is frayed like bristles of a paintbrush.
CAUTION: Hold the rock in one hand and keep the other hand away so you do not hit your fingers.
2. Use the following steps to make dirt paint:
• Place the dirt in the center of the large flat rock.
• Use the smaller rock to grind the dirt into a fine powder.
• Use the spoon to scoop the ground dirt into the paper cup.
• Add a little water to the ground dirt in the cup and stir to make a thick paint.
3. Using the stick paintbrush and dirt paint, make simple drawings on the paper that tell a story or convey a message.
Results
You used stones as tools to make a paintbrush and paint, and then you made a story picture.
Why?
The first humans used natural pigments (coloring matter), such as different colored dirt, to make paint. This paint was used to decorate their bodies and their homes as well as to tell stories, as in the story pictures drawn on the walls of cave dwellings. The oldest known cave drawings, discovered in Namibia, Africa, are believed to have been drawn about 24,000 B.C. These drawings on the rocky cave walls are called petroglyphs (carvings or line drawings on rock).
People still decorate their bodies and homes with paint. But few make stick brushes and mud paint using stone tools. Instead, many pigments are chemically produced. These colors are mixed with water, oil, and/or waxes to form body paints such as lipsticks, and decorative art paints such as acrylics.
Try New Approaches
Plant parts, such as leaves and flowers, contain pigments. Leaves generally have green pigment and flowers have different colored pigments. If the plant parts are crushed, their pigments can be used to stain cloth. Use a rock to crush plant parts and decorate a T-shirt.
• Fold two to four sheets of newspaper and place them inside a white T-shirt.
• Lay the shirt on a nonporous cutting board so that the front of the shirt is faceup.
• Arrange flower petals and leaves on the shirt front. Make small piles of petals and leaves to create a design.
• Cover the flower parts with waxed paper, and crush the parts by tapping them with a rock. Use caution as before when using the stone tool.
• Remove the waxed paper and crushed flower parts. Allow the shirt to dry. NOTE: Washing the shirt by hand in cold water will help keep the colors bright.
Reference
Arnold, Caroline. Stone Age Farmers beside the Sea: Scotland’s Prehistoric Village of Skara Brae. New York: Clarion Books, 1997. Describes life in the prehistoric Scottish Village of Skara Brae, where the community farmed, herded, hunted, and fished from 3100 to 2500 B.C.
MacDonald, Fiona. The Stone Age News. Cambridge, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 1998. Uses a newspaper format to present fictional articles, interviews, eyewitness accounts, and even advertisements that feature the history of the Stone Age.
VanCleave, Janice. Help! My Science Project is Due Tomorrow! Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2002. Easy science projects, including those about pigments.
