The earliest art humans ever made — cave paintings, carved figurines, and massive megalithic structures built long before writing existed. Understanding why prehistoric people made art is the key to understanding art history itself.
The College Board's required works from Global Prehistory — every one is fair game on the exam.
Work 1–1
Apollo 11 Stones
c. 25,500–25,300 BCE. Namibia. Charcoal on stone. Some of the earliest known figurative art.
Work 1–2
Great Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux
c. 15,000–13,000 BCE. Dordogne, France. Pigment on limestone. Iconic cave painting with composite view animals.
Work 1–3
Camelid Sacrum in the Shape of a Canine
c. 14,000–7000 BCE. Tequixquiac, central Mexico. Bone. One of the earliest known works from the Americas.
Work 1–4
Running Horned Woman
c. 6000–4000 BCE. Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria. Pigment on rock. Rock art from the Sahara depicting a ritual figure.
Work 1–5
Bushel with Ibex Motifs
c. 4200–3500 BCE. Susa (modern Iran). Painted terracotta. Early example of abstracted animal imagery on pottery.
Work 1–6
Anthropomorphic Stele
Fourth millennium BCE. Arabian Peninsula. Sandstone. Low-relief human figure with belt and daggers; one of the earliest works from Arabia.
Work 1–7
Tlatilco Female Figurine
c. 1200–900 BCE. Tlatilco, Mexico. Ceramic. Dual-faced figurine associated with shamanic ritual.
Work 1–8
Terra Cotta Fragment (Lapita)
c. 1000 BCE. Solomon Islands, Reef Islands. Terra cotta (incised). Lapita pottery with stamped geometric designs and a stylized face.
Work 1–9
Stonehenge
c. 2500–1600 BCE. Wiltshire, England. Sandstone and bluestone. Megalithic monument with astronomical alignments.
Work 1–10
Jade Cong
c. 3300–2200 BCE. Liangzhu, China. Carved jade. Ritual object with symbolic earth/heaven cosmology.
Work 1–11
Ambum Stone
c. 1500 BCE. Ambum Valley, Papua New Guinea. Greywacke. Abstract zoomorphic sculpture; one of the oldest known Pacific artworks.
About Unit 1
Unit 1 covers the art made by humans before the invention of writing — roughly from 30,000 BCE to 500 BCE, across all inhabited continents. These works were not created as "art" in the modern sense; they served ritual, spiritual, social, and possibly communicative purposes that we can only partially reconstruct from archaeological evidence.
This unit is worth roughly 4% of the AP Art History exam. While it's not the most heavily weighted unit, its works appear frequently in FRQ prompts asking students to compare prehistoric pieces with works from other cultures and time periods. The formal vocabulary you build here — how to describe a megalith, a figurine, or a cave painting — carries through the entire course.
The College Board ties Unit 1 to three enduring understandings:
EU 1
Art before writing served ritual and social functions
EU 2
Formal choices reflect beliefs about the human body and the cosmos
EU 3
Monumental construction signals complex social organization