Images of the Ice Age

The book is solidly written in a very British academic kind of style. It is a bit heavy going, but then it is a collection and review of detailed archeological/anthropological studies. The author must have spent many miserable nights away from the pub trying to write all the chapters. He is clearly also fluent in French. There is an interesting chapter on "fake" cave paintings. Who in their right mind would spend time trying to make bad replicas of ancient bison-drawings on cave walls?

Loved the images and explanations!

I am quite intrigued by early mankind and how we came to be. Until there was written language, it is hard to get insight into what those humans were thinking about. Cave art is not only a glimpse of the talent they had but also their creativity and what they deemed important. This book allows a glimpse into their interests and values.

This is a beautiful book. It is well produced and well written. It covers ancient art all across the world. The text is intelligent and exhaustive. And yet it is not the book for which I was hoping. I was hoping to find something like an atlas of palaeolithic art. I was looking for a massive picture book of the art from at least the European caves. I was looking for a compendium of elegant reproductions of the individual paintings, shown in such detail that one could study them with a magnifying glass to examine their secrets without having to visit the caves themselves. I could imagine a future set of books focusing on each section of the world which has cave art. Each of these books would be folio size and would include all of the known illustations from that section of the world: Australia, Indonesia, France, Spain, South Africa and where ever else they might be found. The reproductions would be of such a quality that scholars might gradually make sense out of these extraordianary creations. Such a set of atlases would save these paintings from future damage and provide us with enough information to begin to make sense of them. As Bahn says ( p. 341): "It is generally agreed that Palaeolithic art contains messages, no doubt of many kinds ( signatures, ownership, warnings, exhortations, demarcations, commemorations, narratives, myths, and metaphors); their basic function was probably to affect the knowledge or the behaviour of those who could read them. We, alas, do not know how to read them." But given a set of such atlases we might ultimately begin to read them. Paul G. Bahn has written a wonderful, learned book with great pictures. It is the first step to the project I was hoping to find. But there is more work to be done.

Outstanding book with the latest discoveries in ice age art, theories, and analysis. Beautiful photos of the art, along with interesting discussions of the oldest art in the world, dating methods, the art itself, and reading the messages.

Translated from the French. Did not have good syntax. Illustrations described in text difficult to locate. Author persisted in using now outdated dating schemes causing much confusion. Sorry I bought the book

Prompt fulfillment, and prompt check-in with me to see if customer was fully satisfied.

This text is esoteric by leaps and bounds and many of the interpretations of what is depicted by the “artwork” are just flat out wrong. Apparently academia has spent way too much time naval gazing and rooting around in its own laurels. I was hoping for larger color plates and a more direct description of what is portrayed. Maps would have been the obvious improvement. The cover is probably the best part of this text. The book also fails to take into account that there are more places than just Europe and the white mans world.

Great book

Perfekt leverance.

Worth to get. I like the tweaks in formatting and the smaller size works better. The new information and pictures are well thought out. I'm really happy with this book and I think everyone who loves Palaeolithic art should get it, even if you have the older edition.

Con todos mis respetos al aclamado autor y a los editores, el libro es bastante decepcionante. Para empezar la calidad de las páginas es muy mala. Tienes que pasar las páginas con cuidado de no doblarlas. De hecho, a pesar de tener más de 500 páginas, aparenta visualmente unas 200. Además el formato es pequeño. Sin meterme en el texto, que por otra parte será escrupulosamente erudito, el contenido visual es poco atractivo en cuanto a la calidad y tamaño de las fotos. De hecho, su estructura y formato me recuerda a mis libros de Historia de EGB. La calidad de las fotos es muy justita. Además, a partir de la página 343 hasta el final son notas, referencias e índices; necesario en este tipo de libros pero en este caso me parece abusivo. Piensas que tendrás un libro de más de 500 páginas con fotos y en realidad no es así. Humildemente le doy 4 estrellas por que me gusta mucho la antropología y no hay mucho material para el gran público aficionado. En definitiva, gran decepción por que esperaba algo mucho mejor. Lo elegí por delante de Cave Art de la editorial Phaydon y me he equivocado. Si lo hubiera ojeado antes en una librería posiblemente no me lo hubiera comprado. De veras que esperaba algo mejor.

This book has a good overview of Ice Age art, although I thought individual books on Chauvet, Lascaux, and others were better. Not as big as some other books on Ice Age art, which is a pity as one does appreciate the larger sizes to visually appreciate the art. The art also often doesn't take up the whole page, which I think would have improved it.