New Releases by Jean Clottes

The noted archaeologist explores the varieties of prehistoric cave art across the world and offers surprising insights into its purpose and meaning. What drew our Stone Age ancestors into caves to paint in charcoal and red hematite, to watch the likenesses of lions, bison, horses, and aurochs as they flickered by firelight? Was it a creative impulse, a spiritual dawn, a shamanistic conception of the world? In this book, Jean Clottes, one of the most renowned figures in the study of cave paintings, pursues an answer to the "why" of Paleolithic art. Discussing sites and surveys across the world, Clottes offers personal reflections on how we have viewed these paintings in the past, what we learn from looking at them across geographies, and what these paintings may have meant—and what function they may have served—for their artists. Steeped in Clottes''s shamanistic theories of cave painting, What Is Paleolithic Art? travels from well-known Ice Age sites like Chauvet, Altamira, and Lascaux to visits with contemporary aboriginal artists, evoking a continuum between the cave paintings of our prehistoric past and the living rock art of today. Clottes''s work lifts us from the darkness of our Paleolithic origins to reveal surprising insights into how we think, why we create, why we believe, and who we are

"The discovery of the Chauvet Cave in France's Ardeche Valley in December 1994 by speleologists Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel, and Christian Hillaire was a remarkable event. The incredible age of the cave paintings, which dated back 35,000 years, and their exceptionally high quality were the source of both astonishment and admiration. No other major site exists that is as close in age to the arrival of modern humans in Europe." "Several years ago, a team of specialists from many different disciplines, led by Jean Clottes, began the first detailed scientific study of the cave. The cave has slowly revealed many of the secrets of its origins: its dating, the traces left by animals and humans, the artistic techniques that were used, and the themes of the paintings and engravings." "All of these discoveries are published together here for the first time, accompanied by hundreds of color illustrations that allow the public to share not only this new knowledge but also the thrill and fascination of looking into the deep time of an ancient world."--Jacket.

In 1991, a professional diver named Henri Cosquer discovered a wealth of prehistoric art in a cave near Marseilles, France. The opening to the cave, once several miles inland from the Mediterranean, became submerged when the sea began to rise at the end of the last ice age, about 12,000 years ago. Since that time, no human had entered this deep cavern or seen the paintings and engravings of animals, human hands, and signs that cover the walls and ceilings until Cosquer swam cautiously up the flooded entrance passage. News of Cosquer's extraordinary find flashed around the world. The French Ministry of Culture immediately sent two eminent archaeologists, Jean Clottes and Jean Courtin, to study the cave. Assisted by teams of specialists, they carried out two diving missions to the site, in 1991 and 1992. This book describes what they found and provides the first complete photographic documentation of this incredible site, one of the major decorated caves of Europe. Because charcoal and charcoal pigment were found in such abundance at the site, and because the archaeological context was undisturbed, Cosquer is now one of the most thoroughly and firmly dated Paleolithic caves in the world. Thanks to a series of twelve radiocarbon dates, we know that the images at Cosquer were made during two different eras. The stenciled hands are extremely ancient, created about 27,000 years ago. The land animals - cold-loving plains horses, ibex, chamois, aurochs, and the huge ice-age deer called megaloceros - are some 18,500 years old. There are also marine animals, very unusual subjects in Paleolithic art: they include seals, great auks (penguin-like birds that are now extinct), and mysterious images that may represent fish and jellyfish. . Throughout this fascinating book, which includes notes, a full bibliography, and a glossary of 125 key terms, the Cosquer cave is discussed in relation to other prehistoric decorated caves in Europe. The authors judiciously speculate on the meaning of the ancient images and what they can tell us not only about the lost world of our remote ancestors but about the origins of mythmaking, symboling, and artmaking - in other words, of being truly human.

This new title presents an unparalleled selection of over 300 works made between 35,000 and 11,000 years ago, featuring the earliest known evidence of human creativity. The artworks range from spectacular cave paintings to small, delicate sculptures. CAVE ART explores the origins of human artistic endeavour from key sites such as Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain, as well as less-known locations. The works featured in the book have been selected, sequenced, and described by one of the world's most respected experts on prehistoric art, Jean Clottes. The book includes examples of open-air rock art made after the last ice age at sites around the world, and includes a chronology, maps, a glossary, and a list of sites open to the public.