Guides: ART 235: Pre-Modern Art History: Prehistoric

su:(art OR painting OR antiquities) AND (prehistoric OR paleolithic OR cave)

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The nature of Paleolithic art by R Dale Guthrie
With more than 3,000 images, The Nature of Paleolithic Art offers the most comprehensive representation of Paleolithic art ever published and a radical (and controversial) new way of interpreting it. The variety and content of these images - most of which have never been available or easily accessible to nonspecialists or even researchers - will astonish you. This wonderfully written work of natural history, of observation and evidence, tells the great story of our deepest past
The mind in the cave : consciousness and the origins of art by J David Lewis-Williams
The breathtakingly beautiful art created deep inside the caves of western Europe in the late Ice Age provokes awe and wonder in equal measure. What do these animals and symbols, depicted on the walls of caves such as Lascaux, Chauvet, and Altamira, tell us about the nature of the ancestral mind? How did these images spring, sophisticated and fully formed, seemingly from nowhere, into the human story? David Lewis-Williams skillfully interweaves a lifetime of anthropological research with the most recent neurological insights to offer a convincing account of how we became human and, in the process, began to make art.
The language of the goddess : unearthing the hidden symbols of western civilization by Marija Gimbutas
History of religious symbols about the dominance of the Great Goddess based on archaeological finds and art.

Image and Audience: rethinking prehistoric art by Richard Bradley
ISBN: 9780191569555
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
There have been many accounts of prehistoric 'art', but nearly all of them begin by assuming that the concept is a useful one. In this extensively illustrated study, Richard Bradley asks why ancient objects were created and when and how they were used. He considers how the first definitions of prehistoric artworks were made, and the ways in which they might be related to practices in the visual arts today.
Interpreting Ancient Figurines: context, comparison, and prehistoric art by Richard G. Lesure
ISBN: 9780511989124
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
This book examines ancient figurines from several world areas to address recurring challenges in the interpretation of prehistoric art. Sometimes figurines from one context are perceived to resemble those from another. Richard G. Lesure asks whether such resemblances play a role in our interpretations. Early interpreters seized on the idea that figurines were recurringly female and constructed the fanciful myth of a primordial Neolithic Goddess. Contemporary practice instead rejects interpretive leaps across contexts. Dr. Lesure offers a middle path: a new framework for assessing the relevance of particular comparisons. He develops the argument in case studies that consider figurines from Paleolithic Europe, the Neolithic Near East, and Formative Mesoamerica
Prehistoric Rock Art: polemics and progress by Paul G. Bahn
ISBN: 9780511761454
Publication Date: 2012-06-05
Paul G. Bahn provides a richly illustrated overview of prehistoric rock art and cave art from around the world. Summarizing the recent advances in our understanding of this extraordinary visual record, he discusses new discoveries, new approaches to recording and interpretation, and current problems in conservation. Bahn focuses in particular on current issues in the interpretation of rock art, notably the 'shamanic' interpretation that has been influential in recent years and that he refutes. This book is based on the Rhind Lectures that the author delivered for the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2006.