Beautifully illustrated in colour with many rare and unique photographs, prints, and drawings, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art presents the first balanced and truly world-wide survey of prehistoric art. The book also offers the first detailed account of how the world of scholarship became aware of the existence of prehistoric art, reproducing the very earliest drawings by explorers and surveyors from the 1600s onwards to create a unique pictorial as well as discursive resource. With this powerful combination of illustration and analysis, Paul Bahn describes what prehistoric art is and the different ways in which it can shed light on the lives and preoccupations of our ancestors: sexual, humorous, social, economic, and religious.
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'Paul Bahn's expertise gives a welcome global perspective to prehistoric art and provides plenty of surprises, even for those with some knowledge of the subject.' The Financial Times
'Presents the first balanced and truly world-wide survey of prehistoric art.' Art Book Review Quarterly
' … the most comprehensive treatise on prehistoric art to date … lucid and descriptive, satisfying to the advanced anthropologist or artist while quite comprehensible to uninitiated readers … highly recommended'. Choice
' … beautifully edited … Bahn has authored a book that will be useful to nonspecialist professionals and students with interests in the fasinating subject of parietal art.' American Antiquity
'Presents the first balanced and truly world-wide survey of prehistoric art.' Art Book Review Quarterly
' … the most comprehensive treatise on prehistoric art to date … lucid and descriptive, satisfying to the advanced anthropologist or artist while quite comprehensible to uninitiated readers … highly recommended'. Choice
' … beautifully edited … Bahn has authored a book that will be useful to nonspecialist professionals and students with interests in the fasinating subject of parietal art.' American Antiquity
Book Description
Beautifully illustrated in colour with rare and unique photographs, prints and drawings, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art presents the first truly world-wide survey of prehistoric art.
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First Sentence
With the obvious exception of caves blocked since the Ice Age, sites and objects buried by deposits (which had to be excavated), and areas no longer frequented by humans (deep jungle, remote desert), prehistoric art was never really 'discovered' at all. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
With the obvious exception of caves blocked since the Ice Age, sites and objects buried by deposits (which had to be excavated), and areas no longer frequented by humans (deep jungle, remote desert), prehistoric art was never really 'discovered' at all. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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38 of 40 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding survey of the history of prehistoric art.
6 Oct 1999
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Few scholars could deign to undertake a survey of the world's prehistoric art, but Bahn is well chosen. He has experienced a breadth of world rock art equaled by few others. But, it is his command of history and literature that distinguish this book. The first 70 pages define the study of prehistoric art and survey the history of rock art research on each continent. For example, Chinese philosopher Han Fei produced the earliest written account about 2,300 years ago (much of the world's prehistoric art is younger than this). Modern scholars, on the other hand, only "discovered" Chinese rock art about 1950. Two-thirds of the book is devoted to Art on Rocks and Walls, rock art. Bahn leads the reader through the amazing array of rock art around the world and through time, skipping from place-to-place, style-to-style, and culture-to-culture while holding the reader's interest. He takes the reader through the science of dating and style. He turns to literal interpretations of vulvas and sex, human portraiture, zoophilia, and birth. Violence and warfare, sound and music, humor-the vast array of human experiences are revealed in his survey of rock art through the art itself. The reader learns not so much about the art of any one people as about how humans see and experience the world. Bahn's volume on prehistoric art is not the final word on the subject, but it is a valuable contribution to the literature. His survey of works predating 1900 alone makes this book and invaluable addition to one's library.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Artistic Wonder
18 May 2010
By Ann B. Keller
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Outstanding book. From Nine Mile Canyon in Utah to ancient drawings and paintings captured in Sefar, Algeria and Arnhem Land in Australia, Paul Bahn delights us with incredible images from our prehistoric past. Petroglyphs of emus, sheep, birdmen, bison, cup marks and shamen leap off the pages of this book, surrounded by riveting historical commentary, including paint pigment details, stories and folktales that help bring the pictures to life. Excellent resource for any library and fascinating coffee table book, too. Students of art, art history and anthropology will adore it.
31 of 87 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too Politically Correct
11 May 1999
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This is a lovely book, but is so politically correct that it is obnoxious. The primitive art of Australian aborigines, for example, is given as much, if not more, coverage than that of Europe and the Middle East. There is too much emphasis on the peripheral in a misguided attempt to be "fair," with a corresponding reduction in coverage for the prehistoric art of peoples who eventually created civilizations.
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