Pre-Modern

40000 BC - AD 1400

The earliest artistic expressions emerged through ritual objects, monuments, and architecture deeply connected to nature, belief, and community life.

c. 1500 BCE–1521 CE

Pre-Columbian Central America

Art of ancient American civilizations before European contact. Strongly tied to religion, power, and cosmology.

c. 3000–30 BCE

Ancient Egyptian

Art created to serve religion, kingship, and the afterlife. Highly symbolic, ordered, and governed by strict visual conventions.

c. 10,000–3000 BCE

Neolithic

Art from early farming societies. Included megaliths, pottery, and symbolic objects.

c. 40,000–3000 BCE

Ancient Rock, Cave and Land Art

Prehistoric images carved or painted onto natural surfaces. Often linked to ritual, survival, and early symbolic thinking.