The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists

by Gregory Curtis

In his new book, Gregory Curtis introduces us to the spectacular cave paintings of France and Spain—to the men and women who rediscovered them, to the varied theories about their origins, to their remarkable beauty and their continuing fascination.

He takes us with him on his own journey of discovery, making us see the astonishing sophistication and power of the paintings, telling us what is known about their creators, the Cro-Magnon people who settled the area some 40,000 years ago.

Beginning in 1879 with Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, who found the astonishing paintings on the ceiling of a cave at Altamira, Curtis takes us among the scholars of prehistory, the archaeologists, the art historians who devoted their lives to studying and writing about the paintings. Among the famous Abbé Henri Breuil, who lay on his back in damp caves lit only by a lantern held patiently aloft by his faithful—and silent—female assistant, to produce the exquisite tracings that are the most reproduced renderings of the art; Max Raphael, the art historian who first understood that the animals on the walls were not single portraits but part of larger compositions; the beautiful Annette Lamming-Emperaire, resistance fighter turned archaeologist, whose doctoral thesis was so important that all theory since has flowed from her work; Jean Clottes and others still working as new caves and information come to light.

In his own search for the caves’ meaning, Curtis takes us through the major theories—that the art was part of fertility or hunting rituals, or used for religious or shamanistic purposes, or was clan mythology—examining the ways in which ethnography, archaeology, and religion have influenced the thinking about the cave paintings over time.

The Cave Painters is rich in detail, personalities, and history—and permeated with the mystery at the core of this art created so many thousands of years ago by human beings who had developed, perhaps for the first time, both the ability for abstract thought and a profound and beautiful way to express it.

Genres: History, Art, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Prehistory, Anthropology, Science

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

If, like myself, you are a neophyte at thinking about prehistory, then I have a proposition for you: Try to imagine 30,000 years of human history. And not abstractly, not by simply saying, "Thirty thousand years. Wow. That's a long time," but by really considering the march of 30,000 years.

In relation to the span of a single human life, a few decades ago seems like a long time. For the more historically-minded, a few centuries or even a millennium might constitute "a long time". The geologist or astronomer, of course, trumps everybody by paying attention to non-human processes that occur over the course of millions and billions of years. But for most of us, the single human life constitutes the basic unit of our reference to time. Given our relatively short life spans, we don't have to imagine very far back and we're already sighing, "That was a long time ago." Think of some commonly referenced "ancient" cultures. Roman civilization developed a little more than 2,500 years ago. The Greek cultures, beginning with the Minoans, arose almost 5,000 years ago; the Egyptians about 500 to 1,000 years before that. The Sumerians sprang up over 7,000 years ago, and while they are commonly attributed with developing the technology of the written word, they did not do so until around 5,500 years ago.

So think about the fact that humans have only been writing and leaving written records for around 6,000 years. Those written records have allowed us to compile a history of what we call civilization -- of human struggle, development, failure, and achievement over millennia. But our reliance on the written record has also allowed us to popularly conceive of people who lived before the development of writing as a bunch of cave-dwelling, stone-throwing, big brow-having brutes…cavemen, right? Writing so constructs our paradigm that even the adjective we use to describe these people, "prehistoric," means "before the written record". But, in fact, our prehistoric ancestors were not Neanderthal-ish brutes. (Side note: Even Neanderthals were not Neanderthal-ish brutes.) Homo sapiens, as in upright-walking, big brain-having, tool-making yous and mes, date to 200,000 years ago according to DNA evidence. So what, precisely, were we doing for all of those 194,000 years that we weren't writing?

Gregory Curtis explores a partial answer to this mammoth question in The Cave Painters. From 40,000 to around 10,000 years ago in southern France and parts of Spain, at least one group of successive generations of humans painted (and engraved) in caves. It is universally observed by those in a position to make the observation, that these paintings are works of great beauty, subtlety and accomplishment, that they were created by highly skilled abstract thinkers, and that they belong to a single tradition. For 30,000 years, a continuous culture found merit and purpose, perhaps even joy, in decorating remote caves in which they did not live. 30,000 years! One culture. Rome, Egypt and China start to look like small potatoes when we think prehistorically.

That's the amazing news. The sad news? Scholars don't know why these folks painted, what purpose the paintings served, or how the artists thought about them. For the layperson, it is perhaps the most frustrating aspect of The Cave Painters to realize that the subject of meaning carries little intellectual weight with scholars of these paintings. They cannot know the meaning of the paintings, and so they prefer to not even ask the question. I suppose pondering meaning in such a situation is as self-indulgent and masturbatory as asking you to imagine 30,000 years, or of pondering the march of human history, or of simply marveling at the length of our stay here on earth. These considerations do not bring us closer to answering anything.

One of my favorite professors would remark that, just as some food tastes good, some thoughts think good. I cannot vouch for the practical utility of wondering why the cave painters painted or of growing overawed at the length of human (pre)history. But holy cow these thoughts think good. And what they lack in practical value, they make up for in psychological and spiritual worth or even in productive value. It does something humbling and yet invigorating to a person to consider how long we've been around and how little we know about ourselves. It provokes thoughts of some distant future where scholars busy themselves studying our cities, now in hopeless ruin, but never ask why we built them. And I can't help but think that considering our evanescence inspires the same kind of drive to memorialize existence that, in some measure, contributes to everything man has ever created, including cave paintings, including cities, including the written word.

[Bryn Greenwood]

A lot of interesting stuff here, if your want a deep dive into cave painting. Fair warning: some of it is outdated. For example the author states confidently that there was no interbreeding between modern humans and Neanderthals, but in the 19 years since publication, proof of hybrid individuals has been discovered.

[Gabriella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This the most well-written (non-fiction) history book I've read in a long time! The author brought tens of thousands of years of prehistory and its accompanying archaeological research to life, and the stories he told were moving and profound. I can't really find the words to describe this book. It's incredible to read about the people who made those paintings between 32,000-18,000 years ago. Without these paintings, it's likely that we would have assumed their culture was "primitive" compared to our own. The beauty, complexity, and technical skill of the artworks that remain exposes that argument as being pretty flimsy. What were the stories and meaning behind it all? How did their culture last for tens of thousands of years? It is just extraordinary.

I would recommend this book to anyone - it is so well-written, passionate, and compelling. It makes you aware of the huge stretch of deep time that precedes us, and how much mystery remains in our world. 10/10

[Christopher Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subject matter is fascinating to me so right off the bat the book was going to get 3 stars minimum. I do have some critiques but in this case I'm not entirely sure my critiques are fair, so by all means take my review with a grain of salt.

First off, based on the cover the title and the synopsis, this book seems like it was written about the people who were painting in caves some 40 thousand years ago. Problem is, that's not at all what the book is about, the book was about the discovery and the academic study of these works of art found around Europe and mostly France through the last 100 years. The book details the theories about the significance of the works and the meaning behind them from the many different people who have studied and attempted to make sense of the cave paintings. Now this is a wildly interesting story and filled with people vehemently defending their positions and ideas, the issue is this book is not at all about the cave painters, its about the study of the cave painters. A more accurate title would be "The Cave Painters, the Quest for Understanding and Meaning in Ancient Art." I hope this doesn't seem like a semantic criticism, I honestly believe I signed up for an entirely different book based on its marketing.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly the book at times seems to be a recounting of specific artworks and without pictures of each painting such breakdowns and analysis only lead the reader to put the book down and start searching for a good image of the work being talked about. Overall I did enjoy the book and definitely recommend it to other readers, I guess my issue with it stem from the way it was organized and marketed.

[Jolene Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am headed to see one of these caves in person and was recommended this book. Normally this isn’t something I’d be picking up on my own but I really glad I did.

[Reya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mixture of history, mystery, and speculation, The Cave Painters is a fascinating and engrossing journey through the history of the study of Europe’s Paleolithic cave art. It begins with an introduction for context, which lays out what we know about the history of humans, focusing on the Paleolithic era. Most of the book deals with the past 100 years or so of study and discovery, since it took us some time to realize that these cave paintings were from the Stone Age in the first place! The idea was first put forth in 1880 and, as so often happens with new ideas in archaeology and elsewhere, met with ridicule. As technology and archaeological techniques evolved, we learned more about the paintings, the people who made them, and were able to formulate different theories about their creation, composition, and meaning.

This is much more than a dry history of cave art’s study. For one, the author beautifully interweaves stories and personalities of the scientists with the work they did to learn more about the cave art. Cultural context, professional competition, and personal eccentricities are of course always an influence on any scientist’s work, and it is truly entertaining to learn about the colorful characters and their interactions with one another.

Another endearing feature of the book is the author’s voice. There is no doubt he is passionate about art; his sense of awe and wonder about these prehistoric masterpieces comes through on every page. In one chapter, Curtis describes visiting the cave Les Trois-Freres with the prehistorian Robert Begouen; his wonder, admiration, and curiosity leaps from the page in his descriptions and curiosity. I have always dreamed of visiting a cave such as this, so I enjoyed very much reading about the author’s experience and feelings, which I believe would be similar to my own.

In addition, I found Curtis’s speculation and personal anecdotes humble, often lighthearted, and thought-provoking. For instance, consider the span of years from Chauvet (32,000 years ago) to Lascaux (18,000 years ago), yet the remarkable similarity of their art. Lascaux is almost as far removed from Chauvet as it is to us today! It’s truly amazing to think a tradition could last 14,000 years, when today’s trends in women’s fashion change every season. He points out that they must have had a very stable, successful society and a strong, classical artistic tradition, like ancient Greece or Egypt (my addition), where their art changed little over long spans of time. He also shares his frustration with the forever serious nature of the art’s interpretation; some of the art could have meant to be rather funny or comical if you allow yourself to see it that way. He presents his ideas in a “what if” and “why not” way; after all, will we ever really know for sure?

I always find frustration lurking in the background with the subject of prehistory, for it’s incredibly fascinating to me yet despite our advancing technology, will always be mysterious and at some level, speculation. Barring invention of a time machine, we will never know the whole picture of who these people were, why they created the art, and what it meant in the context of their culture. In our modern civilization, it’s so difficult to imagine their world, where animals dominated the vast land and humans were only a sparse sprinkling across the landscape. Yet were those humans so different than we are today? They seemed to have the desire to understand their world and preserve their ideas and traditions for future generations in art 32,000 years ago, just as we still do today. Their art was so beautiful and sensitive, I must agree with Picasso when, after touring Lascaux, he said, “We have learned nothing in twelve thousand years.” Later dating showed some of the paintings in that cave to be even older than previously thought. As Curtis says, “It turns out we have learned nothing in 18,600 years.”

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fascinating, I immediately want to read another book to learn more (one with more pictures!) Includes a lot of history of science which focuses on the archaeologists and the different flawed interpretations and theories that have come and gone over the past 150 or so years since the cave paintings were discovered and first recognized for what they are. I was less interested in the scientists, but his context helped make clear why interpretation and analogy can be dangerous, and just how little we know about prehistoric people. The whole subject is mind blowing to me. People 30,000 years ago made paintings and engravings that are still extremely beautiful and moving to modern humans! Crazy!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this book had more pictures of the art that was described in the book. Other than that, it was very good and engaging.

[Tim Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressive book on Paleolithic European cave painting, with black and white illustrations and photos, color photos, and even a cave map. Though I had read some on cave painting prior to this in _Color: A Natural History of the Palette_ by Victoria Finlay and _Europe: A Natural History_ by Tim Flannery, both books I highly recommend, I was blown away by all that I learned in _The Cave Painters_.

The author looked at cave painting from an art historian’s perspective and an archaeologist’s perspective. Curtis discussed the cave art in terms of conventions that lasted for thousands of years in terms of composition of individual forms, themes, and entire scenes, how like with classical Greek public art, they express “the unified beliefs of a whole society” and given the cave paintings possess classical ideas, grace, confidence, and dignity, “they feel familiar and appear to be a direct part of our heritage.”

I had no idea that not only was their such a consistent unity in themes, in how animals were painted or engraved, across time and space, but how long the cave painting culture lasted. It lasted more than 20,000 years, longer even than Western culture (“assuming that it began in the eastern Mediterranean around 2000 BC, is barely 4,000 years old”). Though the famous painted caves might appear more or less from the same time, Chauvet dates from 32,000 years ago while famed Lascaux dates to 18,000 years ago, yet someone from Lascaux “apparently would be able to drop into the world of Chauvet, understand it immediately, and join in.”

At the same time, I had no idea how relatively limited the geographic area of the painted caves was; it was an area of southern France and northern Spain, with the majority of the caves discussed in the book in France. The author gives a tour of many of the most famous and noteworthy painted caves, from a very detailed tour and history with a map of Lascaux, discussing its Chinese horses, its Hall of the Bulls, the Unicorn, and the Shaft Scene at Lascaux, to the hunting lions as well as the actual bear skulls of Chauvet, to the “weighty, yet delicately curving bison in Altamira and Font-de-Gaume” to privately owned Les Trois-Frères (which the author personally toured), with its unique clay bison sculptures, its strange cave lion engraving, and the enigmatic Sorcerer of Les Trois-Frères.

The author did a detailed look at many of the famous people associated with the study of cave art, both “dirt archaeologists” and art historians. People looked at include Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola of Spain, “the man who was the first to understand what the cave paintings were, the man who was the first to comprehend that they had been made by prehistoric people,” a man who “had offered the world a great treasure and the world had responded by calling him a liar and a scoundrel,” a man whose vindication only came after his death; Henri Breuil (a French priest turned expert on cave art, a towering figure in the history of the discipline whose shadow can be felt throughout the book, who for “the first half of the twentieth century…reigned as the Pope of Prehistory”); Anette Laming-Emperaire (who made a huge contribution by noting and studying the group of various figures in prehistoric art, as prior to her work no one had particularly noticed that there were even groupings of different species; she also raised important concerns with using ethnography of modern stone age peoples, discussing where it can be useful and where it can be as the author wrote “dangerously misleading”); André Leroi-Gourhan (who did pioneering work in creating a systematic and statistical study of cave art including a stroke-by-stroke analysis of how the paintings were created and an analysis of “the position of the paintings relative to one another and to their locations in the caves,” as well making an enormous change from excavating vertically to excavating horizontally at a dig site, a “simple idea” that “produced profound results”; a “modern scientist explores a cave thinking like Leroi-Gourhan”); and Jean Clottes (who did important work on the underwater Cosquer cave, discovered in 1985 near Marseille, on Chauvet Cave, discovered in 1994, had a major role in debunking ideas that cave art became less primitive over time when he showed that Chauvet art was quite sophisticated, but became tied to a controversial shamanistic interpretation of cave art with South African anthropologist David Lewis-Willaims in 1996).

There is also early on a discussion of the animals illustrated in cave art, such as lions and bears (appearing “frequently in the paintings of Chauvet but become rare in the caves painted thousands of years later”), horses (at Lascaux “are the dominant animal in the cave and constitute over half of the one thousand or so paintings and engravings”), and the woolly mammoth (these “animals with their long, curved tusks, appear frequently on the walls of the painted caves and in engravings on bone and ivory”).

Very readable, has an index, notes, and an extensive bibliography.

[Aykut Karabay]

Mağara resimleri üzerinden 40.000 yıl önce dünya üzerinde bulunan Cro-Magnon dünyası üzerine teoriler, çözümlemeler ve fikirler ile dolu bir kitap...

Kitap Mağara resimleri üzerine sanatın, dinin, verimliliğin, av ritüellerinin, kabile mitolojisinin kullanımına yönelik farklı teorileri, tezleri anlatıyor. Mağara resimlerinin keşfedildiği o nefes kesici anları, sonrasında yaşanan süreçleri, çözümlemeleri, farklı teorileri okuyarak hem cro magnon dünyasına, hem de resimlerin keşfediliği an'a tanık oluyorsunuz.

Resimlerin sanatsal-estetik zarafetleri, yapılma amaçları, hayvan ve insan figürleri üzerinden o dönemin toplumsal çözümlemesi, inanç dünyalarının çözümlemelerine yönelik fikirleri ve teorileri ele alan kitap, Cro magnon 'ların dünyalarının içinde sizi kısa bir gezintiye çıkarıyor.

Kitap bütün bu tezler ve çözümlemelerden sonra; Yunan Sanatçıları doğadaki formları nasıl mükemmelleştirmeye çalıştıysa, aynı şeyin mağara ressamları için de geçerli olduğunu savunuyor. Onların doğada bulunan hayvan formlarını mükemmelleştirmeye dayalı güzel ve yinelenen sanatının ilk büyük sanat olmanın yanı sıra, ilk büyük felsefe olduğunu, dünyanın kaosuna anlamlı bir düzen getirmeye yönelik bildiğimiz ilk girişim olduğunu belirtiyor. Cro Magnon insanının çalkantılı fakat verimli ve aydınlık dünyayı bırakıp, kayaların içindeki karanlık mağaralara kapanarak onların kutsal kabul ettikleri hayvanların ruhlarını çağırdıklarını savunuyor. Kendi çabalarıyla özgür kalan dünyanın altındaki başka bir dünyada, kandil ışıkları içinde yarattıkları bu ruhlar dünyasını seyre daldıklarını, ibadet halinde olduklarını savunuyor.

[Vivek Krishnan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic book that appeased my curiosity for the enigmatic history we come from. The experience of fumbling upon cave art made 20,000 years ago must have been profound and could not help but feel jealous of all the discoverers. The book offers many theories on what these cave paintings could mean, but even today, we keep searching for that was in the mind of those cave painters as they went deep into the sub-terranean to create their beautiful art.

[Ren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can see how Gregory Curtis was the editor of Texas Monthly for decades. He's an excellent writer, very accessible but also flourid when necessary, and he weaves the stories of archaeologists and the cave painters together as only an expert storyteller can. The book is a bit like a roller coaster, where it takes some time to get up the hill, but once you do it's thrill after twist after revelation. I've always had a passing interest in cave art but now it's an obsession. Thanks a lot, Greg!

[Patricia G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Aquel día de noviembre de 1879, mientras Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola permanecía estupefacto bajo el techo pintado de Altamira, fue la primera vez de la cual tenemos noticia en la que un artista de la distante Edad de Piedra conmovió la sensibilidad de una persona moderna”.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely engaging. Beautifully written. Mind-blowing.

[Giovani Guadarrama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed learning the wonders and the history impact of cave paintings especially the Lascaux. Pretty cool

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t sure how to rate this book!! In the end, I enjoyed it. The author tours us through the history of Paleolithic science, explaining how different schools of thought came to be. He is great at story-telling, and I loved how each chapter was titled in an intriguing way: e.g., “a stormy drama among bison; the golden section.”

How can we interpret and analyze ancient art? This is a tough question. The author often weighs in, deeming certain theories believable and others not worthy of our consideration. Sometimes his opinion was refreshing; other times I felt frustrated. I wanted to know the state of research, not his summary judgment.

Oddly, a lot has been discovered since the us book was written. Jarringly, he writes that Neanderthals left no trace of DNA in us (they did), had little sophisticated art or culture (they made cave art, flutes, etc), and were not human the same way we are (all evidence suggests that they were). That’s not his fault of course, but it is telling that he confidently injects his own opinion on Neanderthals, but was wrong - making me doubt the other places where he confidently injected his own opinion and may be equally wrong.

Sometimes I don’t agree with established opinion on what a particular work of art depicts. Chauvet cave has “a human woman’s legs and hips” tapering to narrow legs, attached to the head and body of a buffalo. Why is it not just a female buffalo viewed from behind...? Right next to her is a male Buffalo-man kind of thing. The “women’s” legs depicted here and there in Chauvet and other caves are impossible wide and taper to impossibly narrow ankles.... just like a buffalo. And elsewhere humans are very rarely depicted and usually as stick figures. Why would they draw only the legs and in such a stylized way that so much resembles bovids? Anyway, that is my OWN injection of my OWN unjustified opinion into interpreting cave art.

I am still looking for an AMAZING book on cave art. Seeing Pech-mèrle and Grotte du Font-Dame years ago remains one of my all time lifelong favorite memories.

Maybe one day we will know more about what this art all means.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a readable and insightful history of the study of cave painting as seen through its major practitioners, especially the Abbé Breuil, André Leroi-Gourhan, Max Raphael, Jean Clotte, and many others not so widely known outside the field. Curtis has done thorough research in the major documents, has visited many of the major caves, and has consulted directly with experts in the field, especially Jean Clotte himself, one of the chief figures in the exploration of Chauvet cave. The central chapters introduce the work of the important explorers/scientists and their professional experiences in reporting their discoveries. Curtis lays out the politics of archaeological study clearly and sympathetically, while also showing the quite steady advance of the field even over the objections of its detractors. Curtis’s combination of close study of documents and direct experience in the caves enables him to provide an intimate and detailed account of specific pieces of cave art and the feeling of slipping and sliding through wet, muddy, steep passageways in the caves he visited. Readers of an artistic rather than scientific bent will be amazed at the close description of many of the works, including an account of the stroke order of major paintings. By the end of the book, one comes away with a fuller than expected understanding of the social organization and artistic practices that produced these remarkable ancient works. Though much remains to be understood about Paleolithic cave painting, Curtis’s study shows us what an amazingly coherent view can be pieced together out of close attention to the research that has already been done.

[Antonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stand by my review when I first read the book in 2012: A wonderful book! Very well researched and well written. For lay readers, this is an excellent introduction to the art of the prehistoric caves and the Cro-Magnons painters (as well as a little about the Neanderthals who preceded and briefly co-existed with them).

Perhaps because Curtis is a journalist, not an archaeologist or anthropologist, this is an extremely readable and enjoyable book. He gives a lot of detail — as well as interesting asides and anecdotes — and includes a lot of information about the area of, and around, Les Eyzies, the area where Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons were thought to have co-existed 35,000 to 27,500 years ago. It's also the location of one of the most important caves, Font-de-Gaume. Curtis includes a great deal of information about Lascaux, Font-de-Gaume, and Chauvet — the subject of the fillm, "Cave of Forgotten Dreams."

Curtis wrote this shortly before the sequencing of the complete Neanderthal genome and so believed that we contemporary Homo sapiens share no DNA with Neanderthals. We now know that's not the case.

[Taro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it has taken me quite a while to finish this book, it was of no fault of its own. This book is great for diving into the history of discovery of the cave paintings, as well as getting an introduction into what we have found out about them until this book was published. although it is a bit dated (almost 20 years since its release) i still found it to be filled with invaluable information about the cave paintings and their anonymous artists. I have always felt a certain sentimentality to cave art, because it is proof of something fundamentally human, and seems to shorten the long and arduous time gap between us and our ancestors. It is a bridge across time, and this book did nothing short of appreciating that.

The reason I did not give it 5 stars is because, ironically, it did not have enough pictures of the art itself. I would have loved to have been provided with a picture of the painting, every time the author described it in detail. Although there were some sketches here and there, these were most often copies made by archaeologists. The one time I will say: I wish there were more pictures. Furthermore, while the history of the discovery of the caves and their paintings is important in the introduction to this subject, I fear that we spent too much time learning about the histories of the prominent figures and archaeologists, and sometimes this would veer the book off course from the main theme, which was what the cave paintings revealed about the paleolithic people. It was history that, while interesting, was nevertheless distracting.

4 out of 5 stars.

[Karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

"that they are compositions and not simply pictures of individual animals escaped the dirt of archaelogists for a generation and first occured to an art historian" (Curtis: 124)

This book discusses not only cave painters but also the people who discovered these caves. It also describes theories put forward by scholars on the meaning of the paintings and engravings, and how these were painted.

Discussing the people who discovered the caves can be a disappointment for a book whose title is The Cave Painters. In fact, there are a handful of pages describing how a cave was discovered, which may be irritating and wants you to throw the book away. Even irrelevant information is included, like the fact that one of the archaelogists lost his parents during WWI.

The book offers a chronological overview of the different theories put forward by different scholars, including one by a woman, which is nice. Having the theories in chronological order helps see the evolution in the study of cave art.  However, the book doesn't discuss the painters' sex, assuming they were all male. This was a dissapointment, as some studies have shown women could have painted these. I presume this idea came out after the book was published. Anyway, the rating for the book would have been higher if not for those long pages of detailed description of how caves were uncovered, which were a real pain in the neck to me.

[Şura Seyhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kitap mağara resimlerinin sanat olup olmadığı tartışmalarından ötede; başta Lascoux olmak üzere üç prehistorik dönem mağaralarında bulunmuş resim ve litografik çalışmların incelenmesi ve amaç olasılıkları üzerinde duruyor. Giriş- gelişme- sonuç ayrımı oldukça iyi yapılmış. İlk olarak bahsedilen 40.000 yıl önceki insanın fizyolojik özellikleri ve habitatı hakkında bilgilendirmeye yer veriyor, daha sonra bu mağaralar üzerinde çalışmış arkeologların inceleme yöntemi ve teorilerini ele alıyor. Daha sonra bu teorilerin tutarlılık ve olasılıklarından söz ediyor, bu da kitabın en sevdiğim kısmıydı; sormuş olduğu soruların yanıtını kendi de bulamamış. (arkeoloji dünyası da aynı durumda.) Sanat tarihinin geçmişteki izini sürmeyi sevenlerin mutlaka okuması gereken bir yapıt! ❤️

[Jenna Hendrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was wary because this was written by a non-scientist, but I have to admit that this was well done. It's written very well- it's so story-like that it's an actual page turner, even though it's all just data. It's a great read for understanding the history of the study of cave paintings.

However, it's important to remember this book was published in 2006. Views on Neanderthals and gender are off base according to more recent data and he continually uses the term "hunters" in lieu of Paleo-peoples, which really grinds my gears because they did more than hunt, which he admits is not even the reason behind cave paintings. So, as long as you remember that some data is out of date and this is more of a read to understand the history, then I 100% suggest this book.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the exploration of this art from 12,000 to 30,000 years ago. Not only learned about the art, its discovery, and research in general (and the book has pictures), but the deeper potential meaning of it. Why does this art appeal to us today? is a main question. The idea of a civilization of sorts in the Stone Age, 20,000 years prior to what we normally consider civilization (and while Neanderthals were still around), is immensely thought provoking. Plus, the idea of how the art was consistent in nature in that pocket of France and Spain for 1,000 generation-what does the stability of the way of life of these early people say about their way of life? Talk about being one with nature, yet having time and a place for profound art. My kind of book.

[Semih · Rating 5 out of 5]

İlk mağara resimlerinin bulunuş öyküleri eşliğinde M.Ö. 40-50 bin sene evvel yaşamış insanların zihinlerinden geçenlerin neler olabileceğini en bilinen senaryolar üzerinden ele alan, Cro Magnon öykülerini renkli resimli mağara resimleri ile destekleyerek heyecan ve gizem ile birlikte sunan, bir çırpıda okuduğum bir kitap oldu. Farklı bakış açıları görmek için farklı kitaplara başvurmak ve çekilmiş birkaç belgeseli de seyretmek gerek. Neolitik döneme gelmeden önceki mağara resimlerinin ele alındığı kitap genel olarak Avrupa'daki mağaraların keşfini anlatıyor.

[AnnMarie Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high expectations of this book, and while it was good, it wasn't great. The author makes a point in the intro of wanting the science and evidence-backed findings of the cave paintings, rather than the art history, poetic, imaginative thoughts. That said, Curtis frequently lapses into emotive paragraphs on the personal sensory experience, big leap connections to the modern world, and generally romantic blather. He tries to connect it to caves to cathedrals (chapter 4), asserts someone from 18,000 years ago could integrate into the current world (Chapter 10, big leap much?), and the longest most in-depth chapter (9) tries to link ethnography with archaeology. In other words, not science-backed at all. Furthermore, if you are going to be critical of art historians, maybe the author should have a better background in that field so he wouldn't make remarks such as the "mastery of perspective" in the cave painting would not be seen again until the Renaissance (Chapter 4), completely disregarding the Greco-Roman period. For me, the most interesting portions of the book were the sections on Max Raphael (art historian) who approached the paintings as an entire composition rather than individual elements and not primitive, and Annette Laming-Emperaire (archaeologist) who focused on the choice of animals, orientation within the compostion and within the entire cave, and repetition of each element. Overall, I found the book uneven, with dated theories toward the final chapters that no longer are relevant. Additionally, it is increases my disappointment that most of these caves are inaccessible to the larger public, unless you are writing a book.

[Edward Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book starts with a story of the author and his family going horseback riding in France and visiting the caves nearby. I was just interested in looking at the "rock art" and not reading a whole book on the history of its discovery etc.. If you just want to look at some of the art, I guess you can get it off the Web and Wikipedia. If you have time and want to be entertained, then this book has a lot added besides just the art.

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In preparation for my visit to Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, this was an appropriate and timely read. It was very short and while lacking somewhat in scholarly exactitude, it was entertaining a well as informative in providing an overview as well as theories surrounding a subject I know little about.
And also it is a good starting point for exploring more should I so choose to continue my reading as well as exploring.

[Clarissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

We may never know what meaning the prehistoric artists ascribed to their paintings, but what makes this book so delightful is the descriptions of the art. I had to read it with my tablet at hand to look up images of the art being described. There are pictures in the book including color plates, but only a few compared to what was described. Also the tablet allowed me to zoom in on the art and get better pictures of it.

[Manuela Alvarez]

Precioso libro. Grandes artistas los pintores y grabadores de las cavernas. Qué ingeniosos y atrevidos para colocarse y pintar los caballos ,bisontes , rinocerontes, leones. Y eligieron las distintas formas de las rocas para desarrollar sus pinturas de una forma excepcional. Una maravilla como lo describe su autor. Un libro muy rico que permite conocer las Seis Gigantes Cuevas y otra increíbles!! Deseando estoy conocer alguna de Francia!!!

[Debrah Roemisch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading books about the ancient cave paintings --especially those found in the Southern France and Northern Spain regions. This is probably the most interesting one I have read yet--though there are better ones for pictures. It was written in 2006 and may be a bit outdated. For example he states that there was no cross breeding between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals but we now know that is not true--but overall it is excellent.