Heidi Paulsen, age 17, of Gadsden, Ala., for her question:

JUST WHAT IS NEOLITHIC ART?

Neolithic art is the architecture and art of prehistoric times, which ran from about 7000 B.C. to about 2000 B.C. It began at the time man first started making permanent places to live and it ended as the Bronze Age dawned.

Marking the period architecturally are stone monuments called menhirs that can be found in Brittany in France and the stone circles of England. The most important of these are at Stonehenge, dating from about 2800 B.C. to about 1100 B.C. They are also called megaliths. They represent the start of architecture in the West.

Neolithic art also includes pottery that has been found from the Middle East through North Africa and from the Mediterranean to Europe and the British Isles. The pots are rather plain, with simple decorations of triangles, wavy lines, spinals and other geometric forms.

Depending on the culture of the people, the pottery was cast in forms that looked like baskets, gourds, bells or leather sacks.