Dimensions
233 x 280 x 18mm
The cave art and carved objects left by our Ice-Age ancestors have enthralled all who have seen them with their sophistication and sheer beauty. They provide a tantalizing glimpse of our ancient past and form our most direct link with the beliefs and preoccupations of Palaeolithic people - highlighting their acute powers of observation, their astonishing mastery of a wide range of artistic techniques and their sophisticated adaptation to, and incorporation of, the natural shapes of the walls, bones and stones on which they drew. But Palaeolithic art is perverse - every new piece of the jigsaw raises fresh questions and casts doubt on the conclusions already reached. And new discoveries are made every year, each more tantalizing than the last.
Tracing Palaeolithic art from its first discovery to the latest scientific analyses, Paul Bahn takes us into the mysterious and fascinating world of the Ice Age. With the staggering images of Jean Vertut, whose innovative photography of the caves of France and Spain has never been surpassed, this is the closest most of us will ever get to the mysterious and remarkable art - and lives - of our ancestors.
