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5 - Bushel with ibex motifs, poss reverse side.jpg

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3 - Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine.jpg

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2 - Great Hall of the Bulls. Lascaux, France.jpg

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The function of artistic expression prior to written records is inferred from evidence of technology and survival strategies and based on the relation of tools and their function (whether task related or expressive), available food sources, the rise of sophisticated culture, and humans’ capacity to shape and manage the environment. Basic art historical methods can be applied to prehistoric art by comparing works of art, imagery, materials, and techniques to identify patterns (such as a prevalence of transformational animal–human iconography), then ethnographic approaches can be used to propose hypotheses (e.g., that certain iconography is shamanic in nature). Cross-cultural comparison can help establish wider generalizations (e.g., that South African, Asian, and indigenous American peoples all participated in rock/cave expressions of a visionary aesthetic). In this way, the apparent paucity of evidence can be mitigated and theories proposed, tested, refined, and potentially rejected by conflicting evidence or new information, as in other periods of art history and in other disciplines.