The First Sculptors Exploring the Art of our Ancestors

Welcome to Episode 6 of my series on Prehistoric Art.
This episode explores the emergence of sculpture as one of the earliest and most intimate forms of human image-making.

We examine how early humans shaped figures from stone, bone, ivory, and clay, revealing complex relationships between the body, belief, and the natural world. Focusing on objects such as Paleolithic Venus figurines and the remarkable Lion Man, the episode considers how three-dimensional form allowed prehistoric artists to explore fertility, identity, hybridity, and the boundaries between human and animal.

Rather than treating these works as crude or mysterious, this chapter situates them within their archaeological and cultural contexts, showing how sculpture reflects advances in planning, abstraction, and symbolic thought. These objects mark a crucial moment when art moved beyond surface and image to occupy space—becoming something that could be held, carried, and experienced in the round.

This video is part of the survey series Prehistoric Art: Origins of Human Creativity.

Episode 1 — BC, AD, and Centuries: Explaining the Timeline of History
Episode 2 — Ancient Origins: The Story of Human Evolution
Episode 3 — The Makapansgat Pebble: Humanity’s First Symbol?
Episode 4 — Altamira: When Early Minds Began to Create
Episode 5 — Lascaux & Chauvet: Echoes of the Ice Age
Episode 6 — The First Sculptors: Exploring the Art of Our Ancestors
Episode 7 — The Neolithic: Stonehenge, Çatalhöyük, and Beyond


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