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AP Art History — Global Prehistory to 1750 flashcards

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Required works from global prehistory, the ancient Mediterranean, and early Europe and the colonial Americas to c. 1750 — identified from descriptions and placed by maker, date, medium, function and patronage.

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Learn deck · part of AP Art History · written against: College Board AP Art History Course and Exam Description (ten units, 250 required works). Updated 2026-10-10.

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  1. Slabs of stone painted in charcoal with animal figures were excavated from a cave in Namibia and dated to c. 25,500–25,300 BCE. Identify them and say why they matter.
    The Apollo 11 stones — among the oldest known figurative images from Africa.

    Watch out: the name comes from the 1969 moon landing, reported while the cave was being dug.
    Global Prehistory
  2. Why do scholars doubt that the Great Hall of the Bulls at Lascaux was simple decoration?
    The overlapping animals (c. 15,000–13,000 BCE) were painted inside a cave where no one lived, by lamplight, so most interpretations point to ritual use — hunting magic, initiation or storytelling.

    Example: the bulls show twisted perspective: a body in profile with horns turned toward the viewer.
    Global Prehistory
  3. A bone carved and incised so that it resembles a dog's or coyote's head, found in central Mexico and dated very broadly to c. 14,000–7000 BCE — what is it?
    The camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine from Tequixquiac — a pelvic bone of an extinct llama-like animal reshaped to bring out a resemblance the maker saw in it.

    Why: it is one of the earliest known artworks from the Americas.
    Global Prehistory
  4. What is a jade cong of the Liangzhu culture, and why was making one so laborious?
    A square tube with a circular bore (China, c. 3300–2200 BCE), placed in elite burials for ritual purposes; jade is too hard to chisel, so it had to be ground down with abrasive sand over long periods.

    Watch out: the square-earth/round-heaven reading is a later interpretation, not a recorded Liangzhu belief.
    Global Prehistory
  5. Why was the White Temple at Uruk raised on top of a ziggurat?
    The Sumerian mud-brick platform (c. 3500–3000 BCE) put the shrine of Anu, god of the sky, far above the city, where it could be seen from a long way off across the level countryside.
    Ancient Mediterranean › Ancient Near East
  6. What did the wide-eyed gypsum figures from the Square Temple at Eshnunna (c. 2700 BCE) do for the Sumerians who commissioned them?
    They are votive figures: stand-ins placed before the god's statue so the donor could pray perpetually. Hands clasped, eyes inlaid with shell and black limestone, they show attentive worship rather than likeness.
    Ancient Mediterranean › Ancient Near East
  7. The Standard of Ur has a 'War' side and a 'Peace' side. What do its materials and composition reveal?
    Its shell, lapis lazuli and red limestone inlay (c. 2600–2400 BCE) shows long-distance trade — the lapis came from Afghanistan. Scenes are set in registers with the ruler shown larger by hierarchical scale.

    Watch out: its actual function is unknown; 'standard' is a modern guess.
    Ancient Mediterranean › Ancient Near East
  8. What images appear in the Catacomb of Priscilla, and why were they painted underground?
    Frescoes of the Good Shepherd, a praying orant figure and a Virgin and Child decorate this underground burial network in Rome (c. 200–400 CE). Early Christians borrowed Roman imagery to express hope of salvation where the dead were buried.
    Early Europe and Colonial Americas › Late Antique and Byzantine
  9. What does Santa Sabina in Rome (c. 422–432 CE) show about early Christian church design?
    It adapts the Roman basilica plan — nave, side aisles, apse and clerestory — for Christian worship. Its plain brick exterior contrasts with a bright interior lined with reused (spolia) Corinthian columns.
    Early Europe and Colonial Americas › Late Antique and Byzantine
  10. What do the Justinian and Theodora mosaics at San Vitale, Ravenna, claim?
    Flanking the apse of this centrally planned church (c. 526–547 CE), the emperor and empress bring offerings for the Eucharist, with halos and courtiers — the union of church and imperial state, asserting Justinian's authority over a city he never visited.
    Early Europe and Colonial Americas › Late Antique and Byzantine

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1750 to Present and Global TraditionsPractice Questions

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About these cards

Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.

Checked against:

  • Topic outline follows the College Board AP Art History Course and Exam Description (effective Fall 2020, with the clarifications implemented for Fall 2026), Units 1–3 and the required image set; no text copied.
  • Facts checked against Smarthistory (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0); reference only, no text copied.
  • Museum and heritage records checked: the French Ministry of Culture's Lascaux site, the Musée du Louvre, LACMA, the National Gallery (London), the Uffizi and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; corrections also checked against the excavators' report on the Samothrace Nike Monument (American Journal of Archaeology 124, 2020) and Treccani's Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani; reference only, no text copied.
  • Also checked: the British Museum's collection record and its BBC Radio 4 series A History of the World in 100 Objects, the Penn Museum's Expedition magazine, the Getty Union List of Artist Names and Art & Architecture Thesaurus, the official sites of Saint-Louis-des-Français in Rome, Turismo Roma and the Cabildo Catedral de Córdoba, Utah Valley University's open art-history textbook and Material Culture Review; reference only, no text copied.

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