The LithicLair: Neolithic LairShop

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Neolithic Pottery and the Evolution of the LithicLair

For some years now, I have been studying the ceramic art, and other aspects of the culture, of Neolithic Europe. This is the period of approximately 6000 B.C.E. through c. 2500 B.C.E., from the time of the emergence of agriculture in Europe through the first series of invasions by Indo-European pastoralists who originated in the region between Central Asia and the steppelands of what is now eastern Ukraine. Having discovered how to bake clay into usable containers and structures sometime in the late 6th millennium B.C.E., indigenous Europeans went completely nuts with the stuff, and made practically everything, from cups to two-story houses, out of clay. It was not long before they began engraving and painting beautiful decorative designs on many thousands of these creations.

I have been especially drawn to the dynamic ceramic art of Neolithic Eastern Europe, with its motifs and themes of constant movement and cyclical energy. Beginning around 1999, I began making ornaments out of Sculpey polymer clay on which I inscribed Neolithic artistic motifs and symbols. The odd thing is, I would start out intending to create a design or group of motifs a certain way; and the design would seemingly take on a life of its own, turning out very nicely but markedly different than what I had originally intended. Who knows what besides the natural dynamism of this art tradition triggered that effect?

Since I don't mass-produce these ornaments, I decided to scan them and upload them here and there in order to share them with the rest of the world. Each ornament is one of a kind; I scan each one at least once, and then put the image on Photoshop to create a background.

NEW LAIRSHOP UPDATE: New scans of Neolithic-inspired ornaments, and new versions of several familiar images, have been recently uploaded to the LithicLair's "image basket"; and will soon appear in The LithicLair's ceramic ornaments section! Imagine that: polymer clay ornaments scanned, decorated on Photoshop, and "reincarnated" as new stoneware ornaments to share across the world!

Also, framed versions of the LithicLair images are available for purchase at LithicStock, my Imagekind gallery. On top of that, I've just finished a new Neolithic-inspired digital image, using naturalistic features like the trunk of a tree; and featuring much use of Old European/Classical Cypriot script characters! Look for the new image to appear in LithicStock and The LithicLair shortly!

The LithicLair's Products 

Neolithic-Inspired Digital Artwork: a Cross-Millennial Collaboration

These images sprang from a desire to share one-of-a-kind, non-mass-produced ornaments with the world; and by extension, to share my interest in the dynamic artwork of the Neolithic potters. So I scanned the actual ornaments as color photographs for websites; put them on Photoshop to provide interesting backgrounds; and duly uploaded them for inclusion on Cafepress products. I figure, Neolithic Europeans made loads of ceramic pieces; but they, too, did not mass-produce their artwork, so why would I?





The LithicLair is still in expansion mode, since being upgraded a couple of months ago. Check back often for brand-new and recently-added products!

Neolithic Mandala Ornament (Round)

An image of our Neolithic Mandala, an original polymer clay ornament illustrating authentic Neolithic European symbols celebrating the four directions, four elements and Nature's life cycle!

Price: 7.99Buy Now

Neolithic HandStrata Sweatshirt

The original LithicLair image, a hand tracing with Neolithic European "doodles" and background inspired by Paleolithic cave strata and handprints. Our tribute to the petroglyph artists of Ol

Price: 36.99Buy Now

Neolithic Mandala Dark T-Shirt

I actually have this ornament at home--an original representation of the Neolithic European life cycle, symbolically rendering the four elements, four directions, and cyclical life phases.

Price: 20.99Buy Now

GreenSpiral Jr. Spaghetti Tank

A rounded terracotta cave encases four Neolithic-inspired ornaments, joined by the proverbial Green Spiral. New Spring product!

Price: 20.00Buy Now

Neolithic Seed Pod Ornament (Round)

This design was inspired by an actual Neolithic Eastern European dish decorated with the same seed-pod motifs! Seeds spiral around central X-spot, inspired by Old European script.

Price: 7.98Buy Now

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New! The LithicLinks Lair 

The LairLinks Contingent of this lens.

Here is a link to The LithicLair, and a few other LairShops, as well as some cool information about Neolithic Europe, Neolithic ceramic art, and how I've been studying and working with it. And perhaps a closer look at antiquity and origin myths, while we're at it...
The LithicLair: Neolithic LairShop
Neolithic-inspired digital artwork and contemporary variations on ancient designs and ornamentation.
Kari's Lair: Home of the Virgo Folkie
The LairMistress's official Home Lair.
The LairShops Beckon
Our Cafepress LairShops Blog.
Genesis: Notes for Research
The inflammatory deconstruction and symbolic interpretation of the Biblical creation story that will probably get me excommunicated.
Belili Productions: and the Life and Work of Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994)
Some of the influences that inspired my study of Neolithic Europe's art and culture.
Archaeology in Sardinia
A Mediterrean island with a millennia-long history.
Island of Malta: Temples and Sacred Sites
A closer look at some well-known and well-preserved prehistoric sites.
Skara Brae: Orkney's Finest Neolithic Settlement
A must-see for anyone with archaeological interest.
Ukrainian Gift Shop
A resource for info on Ukrainian eggs, with motifs closely resembling those on Neolithic Eastern European pottery.
Catal Hoyuk Homepage
The centerpiece of Neolithic Anatolia (present-day Turkey).
Neolithic Linear Pottery: Wikipedia Entry
Discusses Eastern and Western variations on Neolithic European pottery.
Archaeology Digs in Europe
About.com resource for those seeking dig opportunities throughout Europe, at sites from various periods.
History of Crete, Neolithic and Minoan
Good historic and prehistoric resource on this renowned Aegean island.

Neolithic Art on Wikipedia 

In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, prehistorical cultures beginning somewhere in very late geological history, and generally continuing until that culture either develops writing or other methods of record-keeping, or it makes significant contact with another culture that has.

The very earliest human artifacts showing evidence of workmanship with an artistic purpose are a subject of some debate; it is clear that such workmanship existed by 40,000 years ago in the Upper Palaeolithic era. From the Upper Palaeolithic through the Mesolithic, cave paintings and portable art like figurines and beads predominated, with decorative figured workings also seen on some utilitarian objects. In the Neolithic evidence of early pottery appeared, as did sculpture and the construction of megaliths. Early rock art also first appeared in the Neolithic. The advent of metalworking in the Bronze Age brought another increase in mediums used for art, an increase in stylistic diversity, and the creation of objects that did not have any obvious function other than art. It also saw the development in some areas of artisans, a class of people specializing in the production of art, as well as early writing systems. By the Iron Age, civilizations with writing had arisen from Ancient Egypt to Ancient China.

Many indigenous peoples from around the world continued to produce artistics works distinctive to their geographic area and culture, until exploration and commerce brought record-keeping methods to them. Some cultures, notably the Maya civilization, independently developed writing during the time they flourished, which was then later lost. These cultures are generally considered prehistoric, especially if their writing systems have not been deciphered.

The Best of Flickr's Neolithic Images 

New feature: archaeological sites in Crete!

The original stuff--up close and personal!

Check out these recent shots of Neolithic sites on the island of Crete, one of the stops on my Mom's recent Mediterranean cruise. I keep wishing I'd gone along; but I wouldn't have wanted to go home if I had! In fact, they'd probably have had to drag me kicking and screaming out of the Archaeological Museum in Varna, Bulgaria...

Agia Triada, Crete by FlickrDelusions

Agia Triada, Crete

Stone thing by skuds

Stone thing

Archaeology by skuds

Archaeology

Archaeology by skuds

Archaeology

Ancient Greek Trireme Battleship Carved in Rock, Lindos, Rhodes, Greece by Pet_r

Ancient Greek Trirem...

Archeological Site of Kameiros, Rhodes, Greece by Pet_r

Archeological Site o...

Lindos From Distance, Rhodes, Greece by Pet_r

Lindos From Distance...

Medieval Fortress, Lindos, Rhodes, Greece by Pet_r

Medieval Fortress, L...

Rhodes Harbour, Rhodes, Greece by Pet_r

Rhodes Harbour, Rhod...

Lindos Acropolis, Rhodes, Greece by Pet_r

Lindos Acropolis, Rh...

Me Posing With Lindos in the Background, Rhodes, Greece by Pet_r

Me Posing With Lindo...

Picturesque Bay Below Lindos Citadelle, Rhodos, Greece by Pet_r

Picturesque Bay Belo...

Bull leaping fresco - retouched detail by FlickrDelusions

Bull leaping fresco...

Bull leaping fresco - detail by FlickrDelusions

Bull leaping fresco...

Bull leaper by FlickrDelusions

Bull leaper

Dish by FlickrDelusions

Dish

Minoan bull by FlickrDelusions

Minoan bull

Disc of Phaistos by FlickrDelusions

Disc of Phaistos

automatically generated by Flickr

Our new Wiki Cultural Series 

In which we periodically profile a distinct culture of Neolithic Europe.

Our newest feature: the Lengyel Culture of east-central Europe, which flourished in the classical/mid-Neolithic period of the 5th millennium B.C.E.

The Lengyel culture, ca. 5000-4000 BC, was an archaeological culture located in the area of modern-day southern Moravia, western Slovakia, western Hungary, parts of southern Poland, and in adjacent sections of Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia.

It was a successor to the Linear pottery culture, and in its northern extent, overlapped the somewhat later but otherwise approximately contemporaneous Funnelbeaker culture.

Agriculture and stock raising (mainly cattle, but also pigs, and to a lesser extent, ovicaprids) was practiced, though a large number of wild faunal remains have also been recovered. Settlements consisted of small houses as well as trapezoid longhouses. These settlements were sometimes open, sometimes surrounded by a defensive ditch.

Inhumation was in separate cemeteries, in the flexed position with apparently no preference for which side the deceased was laid out in.

Videos on Neolithic Europe 

The art and culture of Old (Neolithic) Europe

Here's something new to peruse: the first three videos deal with Neolithic European art and culture; the second row of three videos relate to Neolithic art and cultures in Asia, including China and the Indian Subcontinent (specifically, Balochistan province in modern-day Pakistan). See how ceramic cultures compare and contrast between East and West.

Forn sed: Heliga platser: Skålgropssten i Levene

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ΝΕΟLITHIC COROPLASTIC ART

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104 views
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ΝΕΟΛΙΘΙΚΗ ΚΕΡΑΜΙΚΗ ΕΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΙ

Runtime: 335
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Art of Asia: Ceramics - Innovations in Clay

Runtime: 520
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China's Neolithic Sites at HeMuDu, Ningbo 《老外视线》

Runtime: 420
226 views
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WORLDS FIRST URBAN SETTLEMENT; MEHRGARH (Balochistan) PART II

Runtime: 116
555 views
4 Comments:

curated content from YouTube

A New Neolithic Newswire 

Thought we'd try this one for a while...

...in place of the old News/Blog feeds. Who knows what we'll dredge up...??

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Guests of the LithicLair 

Discuss your experience with the art of Neolithic Europe

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Amazon.com: Tales of the Neolithic 

Prehistoric fiction, European archaeology, and Herstorical research

eBay: The Stuff of Prehistory 

The Neolithic will rise again!

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