What Are The Ancients Trying To Tell Us?
‘Why would the Cro-Magnon hunter-gatherers of Europe expend so much time and effort to penetrate into deep, dark, and dangerous caverns, where they might encounter cave bears and lions or get lost and die, aided only by the dim glow of animal fat–burning stone candles, often crawling on all fours for distances of up to a mile or more underground . . . to paint amazing, haunting images of animals?’
— From The Cave and the Cathedral
Join researcher and scientist Amir D. Aczel on a time-traveling journey through the past and discover what the ancient caves of France and Spain may reveal about the origin of language, art, and human thought as he illuminates one of the greatest mysteries in anthropology.
‘A well-researched and highly readable exploration of one of the most spectacular manifestations of the unique human creative spirit–and one of its most intriguing mysteries.’
— Ian Tattersall , Curator, Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, and author of The Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know about Human Evolution
Table of Content
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
1. The Adventure of Niaux.
2. The Greatest Mystery.
3. The Neanderthal Enigma.
4. The Roots of Language.
5. Abbé Breuil.
6. Font-de-Gaume and Combarelles.
7. The Tale of a Missing Dog.
8. The Sign of the Bull and the Legend of the Minotaur.
9. Rouffignac and Pech Merle.
10. The Discovery of Lascaux.
11. The Enigma of the Pit.
12. The Groundbreaking Work of Annette Laming-Emperaire.
13. Prehistoric Objets d’Art.
14. The Sign of the Hand.
15. The Legend of the White Lady.
16. Shamans of the Tundra.
17. Stonehenge and Signs in the Sky.
18. The Mediterranean, Australia, and Patagonia.
19. Leroi-Gourhan’s Theory.
20. The Relationship between Signs and Animals.
21. The Chauvet Cave.
Notes.
References.
Illustration Credits.
Index.
About the author
Amir D. Aczel is a research fellow in the history of science at Boston University and a former visiting scholar at Harvard University. He is the author of fifteen books, including Fermat’s
Last Theorem, Descartes’s
Secret Notebook, and
The Jesuit and the Skull. He has appeared on the
CBS Evening News, CNN, CNBC, and ABC’s
Nightline, as well as NPR’s
Weekend Edition and
Morning Edition.
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