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The Cave and the Cathedral: How a Real-Life Indiana Jones and a Renegade Scholar Decoded the Ancient Art of Man
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264 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2009
About the author
Amir D. Aczel
32 books160 followersAmir Aczel was an Israeli-born American author of popular science and mathematics books. He was a lecturer in mathematics and history of mathematics.
He studied at the University of California, Berkeley. Getting graduating with a BA in mathematics in 1975, received a Master of Science in 1976 and several years later accomplished his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Oregon. He died in Nîmes, France in 2015.
He studied at the University of California, Berkeley. Getting graduating with a BA in mathematics in 1975, received a Master of Science in 1976 and several years later accomplished his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Oregon. He died in Nîmes, France in 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 30, 2009
Actually, this is NOT a "Goodread." Usually I don’t bother to review books I do not like, but I feel so strongly about the subject of Aczel’s book--the prehistoric painted caves of Europe--that I feel I have to warn unwary readers about this book. It seems to be directed toward a general audience yet dresses itself up as a scholarly work. Its dogmatism is illogical and offensive.
In between narratives about his personal visits to caves (two of which I myself have visited, Niaux and Pech Merle) and to other places such as the northernmost native village of Alaska, Aczel tries to survey and pick apart earlier actual experts on the caves, of which he demonstrably is not, as well as to promote the outdated, neoFreudian, structuralist theories of André Leroi-Gourhan, theories which are based on a pseudoscientific reasoning that posits that each “sign [in the caves:] has one of two meanings: male or female,” as do the incredible, numinous depictions of animals and a few humans and human-animal figures. When you realize that for Leroi-Gourhan bisons are female and horses are male, with similar divisions for the other animals, you begin to understand how preposterous his ideas are.
Meanwhile, Aczel discredits the theory of today’s foremost expert on the subject, Jean Clottes (with David Lewis-Williams), that the art represents shamanism. Like Leroi-Gourhan, Clottes and Lewis-Williams feel compelled to bolster their theory with science (in The Shamans of Prehistory: Trance and Magic in the Painted Caves), a fact Aczel conveniently ignores, just as he shows an egregious ignorance about shamanism (did he even read Mircea Eliade’s great work, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, on the subject? There is no indication he did). Calling their theory "ludicrous,"Aczel claims Clottes and Lewis-Williams maintain “the purpose of all Paleolithic cave art was shamanistic,” yet they clearly say, “it would be naive to hope for one complete explanation of parietal art” (The Shamans of Prehistory). Sadly, Aczel is just that naive.
Aczel would have been far better off providing a survey of the history of modern exploration and ideas about European prehistoric cave art, a description of his own experience, and an explanation of his own original thoughts on the topic. Apparently he has none. His book has almost nothing of the cathedral of his title and not enough of the cave.
Having said this, I must say I agree that the Cro-Magnons depicted a dichotomist world of binary oppositions--archetypes in other words. I do not agree that these archetypes were all sexual, far from it. If you want a much better introduction to Cro-Magnon art, read Journey Through the Ice Age, by Paul G. Bahn and Jean Vertut.
In between narratives about his personal visits to caves (two of which I myself have visited, Niaux and Pech Merle) and to other places such as the northernmost native village of Alaska, Aczel tries to survey and pick apart earlier actual experts on the caves, of which he demonstrably is not, as well as to promote the outdated, neoFreudian, structuralist theories of André Leroi-Gourhan, theories which are based on a pseudoscientific reasoning that posits that each “sign [in the caves:] has one of two meanings: male or female,” as do the incredible, numinous depictions of animals and a few humans and human-animal figures. When you realize that for Leroi-Gourhan bisons are female and horses are male, with similar divisions for the other animals, you begin to understand how preposterous his ideas are.
Meanwhile, Aczel discredits the theory of today’s foremost expert on the subject, Jean Clottes (with David Lewis-Williams), that the art represents shamanism. Like Leroi-Gourhan, Clottes and Lewis-Williams feel compelled to bolster their theory with science (in The Shamans of Prehistory: Trance and Magic in the Painted Caves), a fact Aczel conveniently ignores, just as he shows an egregious ignorance about shamanism (did he even read Mircea Eliade’s great work, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, on the subject? There is no indication he did). Calling their theory "ludicrous,"Aczel claims Clottes and Lewis-Williams maintain “the purpose of all Paleolithic cave art was shamanistic,” yet they clearly say, “it would be naive to hope for one complete explanation of parietal art” (The Shamans of Prehistory). Sadly, Aczel is just that naive.
Aczel would have been far better off providing a survey of the history of modern exploration and ideas about European prehistoric cave art, a description of his own experience, and an explanation of his own original thoughts on the topic. Apparently he has none. His book has almost nothing of the cathedral of his title and not enough of the cave.
Having said this, I must say I agree that the Cro-Magnons depicted a dichotomist world of binary oppositions--archetypes in other words. I do not agree that these archetypes were all sexual, far from it. If you want a much better introduction to Cro-Magnon art, read Journey Through the Ice Age, by Paul G. Bahn and Jean Vertut.
October 17, 2017
It's surprising to me how passionate some other reviewers are that Aczel's interpretation is wrong and that the art must have shamanistic meaning. Across the distance of time, any assignment of meaning is a wild guess — and Aczel makes that clear. I find his personal opinion compelling that the art is more likely symbolic and represents a dualistic view of the world with male and female alignment. Otherwise, if this represents hopes and fears of hunters, why would the animals actually hunted by early humans be so under-represented.
In any case, what strikes me as incredible is that for tens of thousands of years, not much happened. Your life would be the same as your ancestors. Same art, same religious beliefs. Contrasted with modernity and the current rate of change in the world, that's hard to imagine.
In any case, what strikes me as incredible is that for tens of thousands of years, not much happened. Your life would be the same as your ancestors. Same art, same religious beliefs. Contrasted with modernity and the current rate of change in the world, that's hard to imagine.
February 23, 2025
I could only get through the first eight chapters before being overwhelmed with people’s and place names, dates, and eras. The stories are interesting and maybe someone with a historian’s mind could handle it all. I also thought that the author supported some assumptions that were not well supported, e.g., that because Cro-Magnon people buried their dead they believed in an afterlife. Perhaps the Cro-Magnon simply didn’t want their dead to be eaten by scavengers; or some other reason.
November 29, 2017
Based on several negative reviews, I was a bit leery of this book. I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I have a casual interest in history and found this book to be a very fun read. It wasn't too scientific in detail.
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January 18, 2021A breezy quasi-touristic tour through the scientific theories behind the amazing art of the caves. The book's short, unpretentious, and the author has an obvious love for the paintings. I enjoyed it.
March 6, 2023
A fascinating journey through the paleolithic cave arts of France and Spain, and the theories trying to decipher their enduring mystery. Would have given it a 5 -star, had it not been for some redundant chapters that could have been presented more succinctly.
April 28, 2015
Amir Aczel specializes in accessible popular science books. His background in mathematics and statistics did not, however, prepare him well for the subject of the meaning of prehistoric cave art. To start with, the title is really false advertising. I was halfway through the book before I could figure out that the "Indiana Jones" of the title was the short and elderly Abbe Breuil, a pioneer in the field. The "renegade scholar" seems to have enjoyed a successful life in French academia. And the cathedral of the title refers to the fact that we can learn about the lives of prehistoric people only in the way that visitors from outer space could learn about the fact of Medieval villagers by studying cathedrals.
Much of the book is travelogue rather than a discussion of art, and some of the destinations seem only barely related to the subject. For instance, although the book is mainly about European cave art, the author drags in a famous African rock painting, the "White Lady". It had been noticed that this figure shows some similarities to the frescoes of Knosssos... so off goes the author to Greece. He dislikes one of the theories about cave art which posits a shamanistic origin for the paintings... so off he goes to Alaska. Idem ditto for Australia. All very fun and well, especially if you can deduct this as business expenses, but it doesn't bring the reader any closer to an understanding of cave art.
When the author finally got round to announcing -drum roll, please- the "decoding" of paleolithic art, I was underwhelmed. His favorite theory seems to be based on an arbitrary division of cave art signs in "female" and "male", and on the observation that bisons and horses seem to be occur as pairs. I never understood why and how the signs were assigned a "male" and "female" nature. Also, just by looking at the reproductions of the cave paintings, it was clear that there are many ways of making animal pairings. I can not opine about the value of this theory, but I can say that it was not well explained or defended. The author seemed to get hot under the collar about anyone who disagreed with this theory.
Finally, the writing is not very inspired. For instance, twice he writes about someone "serving" with the French resistance. That is an odd term - it makes it sound like the French resistance was just another branch of the military. One serves with the Marines, but one participates in the Resistance. Similarly, he uses the word "inspect" for viewing cave art, which is, again, a strange way of describing an aesthetic experience.
Much of the book is travelogue rather than a discussion of art, and some of the destinations seem only barely related to the subject. For instance, although the book is mainly about European cave art, the author drags in a famous African rock painting, the "White Lady". It had been noticed that this figure shows some similarities to the frescoes of Knosssos... so off goes the author to Greece. He dislikes one of the theories about cave art which posits a shamanistic origin for the paintings... so off he goes to Alaska. Idem ditto for Australia. All very fun and well, especially if you can deduct this as business expenses, but it doesn't bring the reader any closer to an understanding of cave art.
When the author finally got round to announcing -drum roll, please- the "decoding" of paleolithic art, I was underwhelmed. His favorite theory seems to be based on an arbitrary division of cave art signs in "female" and "male", and on the observation that bisons and horses seem to be occur as pairs. I never understood why and how the signs were assigned a "male" and "female" nature. Also, just by looking at the reproductions of the cave paintings, it was clear that there are many ways of making animal pairings. I can not opine about the value of this theory, but I can say that it was not well explained or defended. The author seemed to get hot under the collar about anyone who disagreed with this theory.
Finally, the writing is not very inspired. For instance, twice he writes about someone "serving" with the French resistance. That is an odd term - it makes it sound like the French resistance was just another branch of the military. One serves with the Marines, but one participates in the Resistance. Similarly, he uses the word "inspect" for viewing cave art, which is, again, a strange way of describing an aesthetic experience.
September 2, 2016
I picked this up because it was displayed at the library in the new books sections when I was feeling nostalgic about touring prehistoric caves in France. You should pick it up to flip through the glossy photos in one section in the middle, and then find some other book to read about the caves, because this one was poorly written and edited--to the extent that even though I was reading fairly quickly, it was easy to see where a paragraph had been cut and then pasted in a few paragraphs later.
The subtitle ("How a Real-Life Indiana Jones and a Renegade Scholar Decoded the Ancient Art of Man") makes this book sound far more interesting than it is. Perhaps Breuil was like Indiana Jones, but there wasn't anything in this book that showed how.
The entire argument was to uphold an earlier theory about cave art and to take apart later work, but I found it unconvincing. That the endnotes are littered with "ibid" goes to show that Aczel was just rehashing other people's ideas for paragraphs at a time.
While it's clear that this author has visited many caves and has very strong opinions, it's not clear why we should take this work seriously. He spends pages describing the discredited idea of interviewing current-day "primitive" peoples to gain insight into cave art... before then himself explaining why he doesn't find it useful. This kind of move not only gives the book more bulk than weight, and also indicates the kind of audience he's imagining for this book: dilettantes.
Which, granted, in the field of prehistoric caves, I most certainly am. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't appreciate some solid research and scholarship.
The subtitle ("How a Real-Life Indiana Jones and a Renegade Scholar Decoded the Ancient Art of Man") makes this book sound far more interesting than it is. Perhaps Breuil was like Indiana Jones, but there wasn't anything in this book that showed how.
The entire argument was to uphold an earlier theory about cave art and to take apart later work, but I found it unconvincing. That the endnotes are littered with "ibid" goes to show that Aczel was just rehashing other people's ideas for paragraphs at a time.
While it's clear that this author has visited many caves and has very strong opinions, it's not clear why we should take this work seriously. He spends pages describing the discredited idea of interviewing current-day "primitive" peoples to gain insight into cave art... before then himself explaining why he doesn't find it useful. This kind of move not only gives the book more bulk than weight, and also indicates the kind of audience he's imagining for this book: dilettantes.
Which, granted, in the field of prehistoric caves, I most certainly am. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't appreciate some solid research and scholarship.
February 21, 2011
I give 5 stars to the subject and 2.5 to the author. The subject: the celebrated Paleolithic cave art of Lascaux, Chauvet, and others. Some art is perhaps 30,000 years old. In nearly all the caves, the rudimentary entrance art leads to a central gallery of colorful animal forms, singly and in herds, depicted on the ceilings and walls
Imagine: these central galleries are often more than a mile inside the cave, through narrow crevices that required crawling on all fours. Within these deep recesses Cro-Magnon humans painted magnificent animals, predominantly bison and horses. Sometimes, unexpectedly, a pride of lions. For the most part, these were not animals of the hunt—their food consisting mostly of smaller species—these were symbols of some sort, representing something unknown to us, something, I think, that will always hide just beyond our ken.
Any attempt to get inside this ancient mind, a mind 10-15 times older than that of the Abrahamic religions, is likely to be fraught with theories both fanciful and erudite. Aczel, of course, tries to cover them all. He has his clear favorite, and derisively dismisses those he does not favor. Aczel, however, is no anthropologist and his writing here is slovenly, repetitive, and veers off in strange asides about breakfast and travel. Aczel should stick to mathematics.
The magnificence and mystery of these caves deserved an author like Loren Eiseley, whose scholarship, imagination, and lyricism would have done them justice.
Imagine: these central galleries are often more than a mile inside the cave, through narrow crevices that required crawling on all fours. Within these deep recesses Cro-Magnon humans painted magnificent animals, predominantly bison and horses. Sometimes, unexpectedly, a pride of lions. For the most part, these were not animals of the hunt—their food consisting mostly of smaller species—these were symbols of some sort, representing something unknown to us, something, I think, that will always hide just beyond our ken.
Any attempt to get inside this ancient mind, a mind 10-15 times older than that of the Abrahamic religions, is likely to be fraught with theories both fanciful and erudite. Aczel, of course, tries to cover them all. He has his clear favorite, and derisively dismisses those he does not favor. Aczel, however, is no anthropologist and his writing here is slovenly, repetitive, and veers off in strange asides about breakfast and travel. Aczel should stick to mathematics.
The magnificence and mystery of these caves deserved an author like Loren Eiseley, whose scholarship, imagination, and lyricism would have done them justice.
January 24, 2011
Although this book was easy to read and engaging, the author seemed to be carrying a flag for both Henri Breuil and Andre Leroi-Gourhan. Except for the color plates in the center of the book, the illustrations were tiny at best and I found myself looking up the discussed imagry online to try and see what the author was refering to. I did enjoy his discriptions of the travels he made to many sites and would have liked to read more of that, but I found the book overall to be jaded toward some while putting others on a pedistal.
January 21, 2014
I liked this one better than his book on Bourbaki because it didn't seem like it was stretching for content. There's several theories to weigh on why prehistoric Europeans may have made cave art as well as descriptions of particular caves and how each relates to the oeuvre as a whole. Overall, a fascinating book that also discusses mobile art, correlations with modern primitive societies, and statistical analysis of the signs and subject matter within each cave.
May 17, 2012
liked it. Conclusions about what cave art was all about were interesting. The prose was a bit dry from time to time, and the author tried to make it an "adventure story" by personalizing it (he and his family visited the caves and he described them very evocatively). Worth reading for a new interpretation of paleolithic art.
October 1, 2012
I liked the book as it was my first introduction to cave art. It opened up a world to me that I previously hardly knew existed. I found it interesting that the paintings were designed to be in harmony with each other the the space of the cave. As others have noted I did a lot of lookups online for images. I think it's a great introduction to the topic.
June 20, 2010
An interesting though biased look at prehistoric cave art. The author does a brief overview of theories of what cave art represents while hawking his own favorite theory that the art is all about the duality of sexes.
February 14, 2012
Contained fascinating information, but the writing itself didn't do much for me - often repetitive and less-than-clearly organized. At many times, it read like an early draft of miscellaneous snips of writing instead of like a finished, polished manuscript.
September 13, 2014
This was a little stuffy in places, but the detailed descriptions, pictures, and the history was fascinating. This early cave art is truly mysterious, and a fascination to any true history buff. I would recommend it to anyone from the casual reader to the professional historian.
February 5, 2013
The content is fascinating, too bad it reads like a text book.
April 29, 2014
Boy, did this ever not live up to its title. It was sort of one man's experiences visiting the caves of France and Spain, with some history thrown in.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews