Art in the ancient world

In 1940, four teenagers discovered the Lascaux caves in south-west France. The walls are covered in paintings of animals such as horses, bulls and deer, made around 17,000 years ago.
Prehistoric artists used natural pigments: earth colours such as red and yellow ochre, and black from charcoal.
In many caves around the world, prehistoric artists also made hand stencils by blowing pigment around a hand held against the wall.

Ancient Egyptian painters followed strict rules. Figures were often shown in a composite view: head and legs in profile (side view), but the eye and shoulders from the front. Important people were drawn larger than others (hierarchical scale).
Ancient Greek potters made black-figure pots (black figures on red-orange clay) and later red-figure pots (red figures on a black background), developed in Athens around 530 BC. Greek sculptors developed contrapposto, a relaxed pose with the weight on one leg.
The Romans made mosaics from small pieces of stone or glass called tesserae.

In 1974, farmers digging a well near Xi'an in China found the Terracotta Army: thousands of life-size clay soldiers made for the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a united China, who died in 210 BC. Each soldier was given individual features.
In West Africa, the Nok culture (in what is now Nigeria) made terracotta sculptures of human heads more than 2,000 years ago.