Prehistoric period

This study is focused on landscape paintings' characteristics throughout history. It starts with primitive cave paintings passed through the ancient civilisations, then followed by the main art movements and styles and ends with the contemporary style landscape paintings. Future prospects and expectations for landscape representations were also considered. It was found that landscape representation has been the focus for most artists because of its link to their normal lives. In the primitive caves, illustrations of plants and animals were found covering caves' walls. Landscape backgrounds were used in the ancient Egyptian civilisation and lost its significance in the Greece style to reappear with the Roman artists with special concern and perspective. The Renaissance era witnessed more progress in landscape paintings' subjects and perspective. Baroque paintings initiated the focus on independent landscape paintings to be crystalised in the Romantic paintings and later on in the impressionists' art works using distinctive painting techniques. The modernists approved landscape topic in their paintings to apply their unique techniques, whereas the contemporary landscape paintings have adopted abstract and free methods in employing various materials and colours. It is obvious that the landscape subject has been employed throughout all stages of art history because it is the key segment of their environment and life not only because of its aesthetic values. Realistic landscape representation in visual art and design is expected to progress in abundance in the near and far future as many people due to the pandemic circumstances have been deprived from naturally experiencing landscapes causing mental and health difficulties.

The site of Kul Tepe is located near the city of Hadishahr, in Eastern Azerbaijan Province. It is an ancient multi-period mound, having an extension of about 6 hectares and rising 19 meters above the surrounding land. The second season of archeological excavations at the site, carried out in 2013, aimed at clarifying its chronology and its settlement organization. In the meantime it aimed at elucidating fundamental questions concerning the transition process from Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age, at identifying different cultural horizons (including Proto-Kura-Araxes and Kura-Araxes I periods) and also at outlining cultural conditions of the region during prehistoric and historic periods. The present paper exposes briefly the main stratigraphic, architectural and material data from the site. On the basis of the results from the first and the second seasons of excavation, it is argued that Kul Tepe possessed cultural material pertaining to Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic (Dalma), Late Chalcolithic (Pisdeli=LC1; LC2 and LC3=Chaff-faced Ware), Proto-Kura-Araxes and Kura-Araxes I, Early, Middle, Late Bronze Age, Iron III, Urartian and Achaemenid periods.

This study is focused on landscape paintings' characteristics throughout history. It starts with primitive cave paintings passed through the ancient civilisations, then followed by the main art movements and styles and ends with the contemporary style landscape paintings. Future prospects and expectations for landscape representations were also considered. It was found that landscape representation has been the focus for most artists because of its link to their normal lives. In the primitive caves, illustrations of plants and animals were found covering caves' walls. Landscape backgrounds were used in the ancient Egyptian civilisation and lost its significance in the Greece style to reappear with the Roman artists with special concern and perspective. The Renaissance era witnessed more progress in landscape paintings' subjects and perspective. Baroque paintings initiated the focus on independent landscape paintings to be crystalised in the Romantic paintings and later o...