Cave Art

358 Pages·2017·34.74 MB·English

by  Bruno David

1. Head of a rhinoceros from The Three Rhinoceroses Frieze in the cave of Rouffignac, France.
The art remains undated, but through stylistic associations with other, dated Ice Age sites of
Western Europe is thought by some researchers to be about 15,000 years old.
About the Author
Bruno David is Associate Professor in archaeology at the Monash Indigenous Centre, Monash
University, Australia. His books include Hiri (with Robert Skelly, 2017), the World Archaeological
Congress Handbook of Landscape Archaeology (co-edited with Julian Thomas, 2008), The Social
Archaeology of Australian Indigenous Societies (co-edited with Bryce Barker and Ian McNiven,
2006), Landscapes, Rock-Art and the Dreaming (2002), and Inscribed Landscapes (co-edited with
Meredith Wilson, 2002). In 1994 he was awarded the inaugural Antiquity Prize for his work on the
archaeology of meaning in rock art, in 2007 the Australian Archaeological Association's Bruce
Veitch Award for Excellence in Indigenous Engagement, and in 2013 the Ben Cullen Prize for
writings on the social construction of caves and rockshelters. His current research involves
working in partnership with Indigenous communities in northern Australia and Papua New Guinea,
exploring the historical connections that people have formed with places and documenting the
antiquity of rock art and its meaning to local communities today.
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Other titles of interest published by
Thames & Hudson include:
The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art
Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos and the Realm of the
Gods
The Complete World of Human Evolution
The Complete Ice Age: How Climate Change Shaped the World
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Contents
Chapter 1
Introduction
Chapter 2
Discovery
Chapter 3
The methods of cave art research
Chapter 4
The beginnings of art
Chapter 5
The earliest art of modern humans
Chapter 6
The art of the Ice Age in Western Europe
Chapter 7
Beyond the European Ice Age
Notes
List of illustrations
Acknowledgments
Index
Copyright
For my dear little boy Jasper, who brings joy all day long
Chapter 1: Introduction
In theory, artists can depict anything they wish, but they don’t. Claire
Smith, former President of the World Archaeological Congress1
In 1979 a remarkable discovery deep in the jungles of Guatemala
revealed to the world a hitherto unknown underground realm of Maya art.
The cave of Naj Tunich [2], in use during the first millennium AD, enticed
professional archaeologists and the public alike to imagine a new kind of
ancient Maya pilgrimage across cosmic layers beneath an emerald green
rainforest roof. Amid hanging stalactites and cavernous passageways,
stone altars, smashed ceramic vessels, glyphic inscriptions and
curvilinear drawings of women, men and sacred beings in distinctive,
contemplative Maya pose [3] gave testimony to a sacred landscape that
had remained preserved for centuries. Maya ethnography and ancient
writings enabled the art and rituals to be deciphered, a knowledge to
which we will return in the final chapter of this book.