What Is Paleolithic Art?
Cave Paintings and the Dawn of Human Creativity
Was it a trick of the light that drew our Stone Age ancestors into caves to paint in charcoal and red hematite, to watch the heads of lions, likenesses of bison, horses, and aurochs in the reliefs of the walls, as they flickered by firelight? Or was it something deeper – a creative impulse, a spiritual dawn, a shamanistic conception of the world efflorescing in the dark, dank spaces beneath the surface of the earth where the spirits were literally at hand? In this book, Jean Clottes, one of the most renowned figures in the study of cave paintings, pursues an answer to this "why" of Paleolithic art. While other books focus on particular sites and surveys, Clottes's work is a contemplative journey across the world, a personal reflection on how we have viewed these paintings in the past, what we learn from looking at them across geographies, and what these paintings may have meant – what function they may have served – for their artists. Steeped in Clottes's shamanistic theories of cave painting, "What Is Paleolithic Art?" travels from well-known Ice Age sites like Chauvet, Altamira, and Lascaux to visits with contemporary aboriginal artists, evoking a continuum between the cave paintings of our prehistoric past and the living rock art of today. Clottes's work lifts us from the darkness of our Paleolithic origins to reveal, by firelight, how we think, why we create, why we believe, and who we are.
About the Author
Jean Clottes is a prominent French archaeologist and former general inspector for archaeology and scientific advisor for prehistoric art at the French Ministry of Culture. He is the author of "Cave Art", among other books.
Reviews
"What gives this art its power, Clottes says, is that it makes us dream" – "New York Times"
"It is shamanism that, according to Clottes, is the key to understanding the Paleolithic practices of what he calls Homo spiritualis, who chose to descend into the underworld, seek a trance state, and enter into contact with spirits" – "Le Monde", on the French edition
"The deep understanding, love, and empathy that Clottes has for the art, imagination, and spiritual world of our Ice Age ancestors is so great that this book is a must-read" – Lawrence Guy Strauss, University of New Mexico, "Journal of Anthropological Research", on the French edition
"Clottes is the leading Paleolithic archaeologist and perhaps the most famous archaeologist in the world. This alone makes 'What Is Paleolithic Art?' noteworthy. But the topic is also one that generates interest beyond the archaeological profession, especially inasmuch as his expansive discussion emphasizes shamanism as the likely origin for this art, and partly bases this conclusion on comparisons and analogies with ethnographic cases... Very readable and appealing" – David S. Whitley, author of "Cave Paintings and the Human Spirit: The Origin of Creativity and Belief"
"Clottes has probably seen more rock art around the world than anyone else, and this gives him an unusually broad perspective on the questions raised by the prehistoric cave art of his native France. Not everyone agrees with the shamanistic interpretations toward which he leans, but this very accessible discussion of both French cave art specifically and of rock art in general is wide-ranging, and his is certainly a point of view which anyone interested in Paleolithic art should know about" – Ian Tattersall, author of "The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack and Other Cautionary Tales from Human Evolution"
