Paper short abstract:

We introduce the session looking at art in Europe from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age. We ask what insights can be gained from an holistic approach. We argue that style can be seen as a form of technology, so that strongly stylised objects attempt to instantiate and mobilise models of causality.

Paper long abstract:

We will briefly introduce the session and the corpus of material to be considered: art in Europe from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age. We are argue for art as a specialized form of material culture and for the need to embed material seen as art in a broader material context. More specifically, we argue for the notion of style as a technology, which has particular effects on human senses and emotions. All technologies hold implicitly within them a model of causality, but also a dialectical relationship with human desire, being both shaped by it and shaping of desire. The material from Europe provides one of the richest sources for probing ideas of this type.