Final answer:
Art consisting mostly of rock carvings and rock paintings belongs to the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age, characterized by its cave art sites with paintings and sculptures that are among the earliest known examples of representational image-making.
Step-by-step explanation:
Art of the Old Stone Age
The period's art that consisted mostly of rock carvings and rock paintings is attributed to the Paleolithic, commonly known as the Old Stone Age. This era spanned from around 2.5 million years ago until the end of the last Ice Age, around 9600 BCE. Paleolithic art includes over two hundred cave sites with spectacular paintings, drawings, and sculpture, representing the earliest indisputable examples of representational image-making by humans. The Upper Paleolithic period, in particular, is well-known for its cave paintings found in Europe, including famous sites like Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain.
During the Old Stone Age, our ancestors engaged in creating a wide variety of art forms, from monumental cave paintings to smaller, portable items such as necklaces made from stones and shells, and figural sculptures made from clay, stone, and ivory. Archaeologists have unearthed these artifacts, offering us valuable insights into the lives and cultures of early humans.
By contrast, the Middle Stone Age saw the production of symbolic art like the charcoal-drawn animal forms in the Apollo 11 cave of Southern Africa, while the New Stone Age or Neolithic period is better known for its megalithic structures, such as Stonehenge and passage graves, rather than cave paintings or carvings.