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Specifically, in legal action, ‘speak and act with authority on behalf of another by deputed right, by 1500. The legislative sense ‘be accredited deputy’ (for a body of people) in a legislative assembly’ is attested from 1650’s. Meaning ‘serve as a specimen or example of’ was acquired by 1858, in sciences and research methodology. In Old French (12 th – 13 th cent.), the verb representer was to present, show, portray, since the 12 th cent. The noun representacion or representation designated the act of presenting (letters, documents, evidence) for view, since the mid 13 th century. In Middle French (late 14 th cent.), the verb representen meant to ‘show, display, express; bring to mind by description, and ‘to symbolize as a sign or symbol of something else, something abstract; serve as an act of embodiment of; also to be a representative of the authority of another. The noun representation was an act of evoking the thought or idea of someone or something, depiction in a work of art (both 1370), group of people authorized to speak for others politically (2nd half of the 14th cent.), legal right to succession in place of the deceased ( c 1393), image which stands for a person or thing, symbol (late 15th cent.), act of playing the part of or imitating someone, aspect or appearance (both 1538), presentation of a certain state or condition (1539). II. B. Prehistorical Roots of Representation in Art First representational activity has been recorded in rock, cave and sculpture art, coinciding the appearance of Homo Sapiens. While Hominid evolution stretches back in time some three million years, between 75,000 and 100,000 years ago, a genetic variant Homo Sapiens most probably appeared that was associated with a change in brain structure and function, providing an adaptive survival advantage leading toward modern humans. New evidence indicates that a small fraction of Neanderthal DNA was absorbed into the Homo sapiens population. The proposed genetic alterations that produced modern humans may have taken thousands of years to spread and multiply within a small population. The close forebears of modern humans are estimated to number only about 20,000 persons, sometimes separated through population bottlenecks. Homo sapiens was early an endangered species. The capacity of early humans for self-conscious awareness, anticipation, abstraction, affect regulation, imagination, innovation, and communication must have been vital to their survival and eventual domination. Fully upright, with hands free to grasp and explore, able to symbolize, recall and anticipate, humans were no longer bound rigidly to instinct (Blum 2011). The earliest known rock art was found in Africa, dated to about 75,000 years ago, and this capacity for symbolic representation seems to have survived in some of the hominids who migrated to Eurasia. In the Aurignacian era of 40,000–28,000 years ago, painting, sculpture, engraving, ceramics, musical instruments, complicated tools, weapons, and decorative personal adornments were created.
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