It’s always a fascinating experience when you visit a museum. As you look at the various pieces you are riddled with questions and imagine what it would be like to living in the era of the art piece. This is especially true of art pieces from eras we know little about such as prehistoric art. This paper describes and compares two pieces art from the prehistoric era.

The Indian Knoll and Jiahu are both three-dimensional pieces of art. However, Indian Knoll art were mainly stone objects made called bannerstones unlike Jiahu art which were flutes made from “the wing bone of the red-crowned crane, with five to eight holes capable of producing varied sounds in a nearly accurate octave.” (Tedesco, 2000) The stones used to make the bannerstones were chalcedony and banded clay of various colors, translucencies, and weight.

The flutes of the Jiahu were used for rituals and different types of ceremonies. It was also believed that the sound of the flute had a special relationship with cranes. “The sound of the flutes is alleged to lure cranes to a waiting hunter, ” (Tedesco, 2000) indicating that the flutes may be used as a tool during hunting. This makes the flutes somewhat similar to the bannerstones, whose stones were made into spears.

The spears of the bannerstones were considered [well balanced, finished, and small masterpieces of design and form. Therefore stones were carefully chosen stones and worked with particular attention to the natural color and pattern of the stone itself.] (Department of AAOA, 2003) They were created for spear throwers so the weight of the stone was of great importance because they had to be strapped to a securely to a spear shaft.