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The Oldest Enigma of Humanity: The Key to the Mystery of the Paleolithic Cave Paintings

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Thirty thousand years ago our prehistoric ancestors painted perfect images of animals on walls of tortuous caves, most often without any light. How was this possible? What meaning and messages did the cavemen want these paintings to convey? In addition, how did these perfect drawings come about at a time when man’s sole purpose was surviving? And why, some ten thousand years later, did startlingly similar animal paintings appear once again, on dark cave walls?

Scholars and archaeologists have for centuries pored over these works of art, speculating and hoping to come away with the key to the mystery. No one until now has ever come close to elucidating either their origin or their meaning.

In their stunning book and for the first time, David and Lefrère, after working together for years, give us a new understanding of an art lost in time, revealing what had until recently remained unexplainable—the oldest enigma in humanity has been solved.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 16, 2013

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Bertrand David

3 books4 followers

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5 stars
57 (34%)
4 stars
59 (35%)
3 stars
36 (21%)
2 stars
7 (4%)
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5 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
Profile Image for Christine.
7,195 reviews565 followers
March 30, 2017
Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley.

I have never seen the Lascaux Cave paintings, at least not the real ones. I did see the traveling reconstruction exhibit, which was very cool. But truth be told, I have never really thought about cave paintings very much, outside of abstract desire to see them.

David and Lefrere, however, seem to have spent a significant about of time thinking about cave paintings. This is a good thing.

In this short book, it is possible to read this in an hour or so, David and Lefrere make a pretty good case for the cave paintings’ creation – both the how and the why.

The theory about the why is one of those moments that at first seems so out there but makes such prefect sense when they lay out the details and take the reader along with them on the journey of discovery.

I am not entirely sure if I fully believe all the why part of the theory. While the authors make a very good case, there are too many variables that can be called into account. The process of how the art made it on to the wall – the “technology”/technique – of the animals on the walls of the cave.

The book is very readable because the structure is done in steps. The reader goes on the journey of discovery with the authors.
Profile Image for Daphne.
571 reviews72 followers
November 4, 2015
This was right on the verge of being a 5 star book for me. The information inside is a paradigm shift in how we view humanities first artistic endeavor through painting/drawing on a 2-d surface (at least that we know of because it has survived). I've been reading and looking through these images for years, but the conclusions drawn by the authors have completely changed how we need to understand them. I can't believe a book less than 200 pages was able to teach me SO freaking much, and change the way I view the world in a small way.

I had to lower the rating for 4 stars because there was, I felt, an excessive amount of ego stroking involved by the author for his discovery. It struck me as more of a Victorian way of expressing how awesome he was at figuring something out. One could probably making a drinking game with one shot for each time the authors brings up the fact that no other scientists had even thought of his conclusion before. I completely understand and respect the thrill of discovery, but there was a tad too much hubris and ego stroking by the author for my tastes.
Profile Image for Esra M..
64 reviews57 followers
July 9, 2015
Mağara resimlerinin o merak uyandıran dünyasına bir kapı araladım bu kitapla. Bu resimlerin nasıl yapıldığına kadar gelen kısım -desenlerin özellikleri, hangi mağaralarda olduğu, mağara içindeki konumları vb- çeşitli olasılıkların değerlendirildiği ve okuru üzerine düşünmeye iten en doyurucu bölümdü. Yazarı bu kitabı yazmaya iten nasıl yapıldığı kısmı ise hem her yönüyle beni tatmin etmezken hem de yazarın buluşunun altını defalarca çizip diğer olasılıkları adeta küçümsemesiyle kitaba karşı ilk başlardaki olumlu bakışımı desteklemedi. Yine de ilgi çekici bir konu hakkında düşünmemi sağlayıp farklı okumalara sevk etmesi açısından okumaya değer bir kitap olduğunu düşünüyorum.
Profile Image for Rex Fuller.
Author 7 books182 followers
September 7, 2019
Even if we don't know which is which most of us recognize photos of the cave drawings of bulls, horses, deer, and bison at Lascaux and Altamira. And we've probably wondered a little how the people who made them managed to do it. How did they carry enough fuel and then keep firelight burning long enough without using up the oxygen? How did they choose their surfaces and their pigments? How did they make them so beautiful?

The author studied and worked in drawing, painting, and illustrating for many years and saw more difficult questions right off the bat. He instantly understood the drawings show a specific style but could not fathom where it came from or how it was taught. Learning that the drawings had been scientifically dated to span some twenty-five thousand years, and cover dozens of sites all across Europe, he was mystified as to how the knowledge and techniques were passed along for many generations and across so many cultures. Most confounding of all, seeing no first or second drafts among the cave paintings and no false starts, he wondered how the cave artists never made mistakes.

These mysteries captivated him and he set about solving them. This could have been a dry academic treatise but it reads more like a detective story. It's a brief but compelling look at maybe the one most positive proof that art is human. Highly recommended.
1 review
January 9, 2018
Some lovely photos inside. Sadly the book lacked an index, a bibliography and endorsements by the scientific world. It did however contain some moments of amazing arrogance, such as the comment that the Chauvet cave replica makers should pay heed to the authors’ “discoveries”.
Profile Image for Daniel Wikström.
13 reviews1 follower
September 29, 2020
Bertrand David explores cave paintings around France that have been estimated to be between 25-35. 000 years old. What David wants to know is how humans during that age made art, and most importantly why people in the paleolithic era even bothered with committing to art at all. And while other scientists have studied the cave paintings for decades, almost none of them have tried to understand the purpose of them.

It is a pretty soft read for anyone with an academic background, but it is very engaging and exciting, since David goes through some breakthroughs in the understanding why the paintings exists. It also to some extent ponders the question of what art is, and its relation to humanity. Is art and culture just something nice to have to the side of all the things that "truly matters", or is it one of the things that define humans all throughout history?

This book is a great example of how humanities can be a way to play with different perspectives in studies, and how practical experimentation and sudden realization is a key part of what makes studies in the humanities interesting.
Profile Image for Cem.
182 reviews3 followers
Read
September 9, 2019
Çok tatlı kitap. Okuyunuz.
Profile Image for MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm.
130 reviews1 follower
June 7, 2017
This book completely blew me away. I've always had a fascination with the Paleolithic cave paintings and all the questions that they raise. Why? What? How? This book seeks to answer them, especially the HOW. The time, research, AND experiments that went into it are a testament to the authors brilliance. At first I was skeptical, but the more I read, the more I felt that this was the right answer. I could imagine my ancestors crawling into the darkest pits of caves, seeking the perfect spots for their work. I hope someday to attempt something like it myself. I feel that it would be a truly spiritual experience.
10 reviews1 follower
October 10, 2017
Save your $$$

Asks a lot of questions but answers none. Goes from cave drawings to understanding photos; from SW France to Indonesian natives. Questions why no lines under bison to imitate ground. Questions conceptualization of 3 dimensional world to 2. Every kid draws stick figures with no line under
Profile Image for Paprika.
121 reviews17 followers
July 22, 2022
Mağara sanatı üzerine iki soruyu yanıtlamaya çalışıyor Bertrand David: nasıl ve neden.
Bu sanatın tekniğini çok doyurucu bir şekilde açıklıyor. Simgesel anlamları için de gördüğüm en akla uygun fikri ortaya atıyor. Kesinlikle harika bir okumaydı.
Profile Image for Christine Davis Mantai.
113 reviews2 followers
October 28, 2021
There’s a big problem with this guy’s theory, interesting as it is. The need to carve up the silhouette figures ..: absolutely no evidence of these?
67 reviews17 followers
April 18, 2019
A careful description that explains how the author Bertrand David intuited how ancient cave art was most likely done. He carefully separates the speculations about the "why" from the more certain "how." At no point did I feel like I was missing out on images from a hard copy book. When I wanted to go deeper and see examples of particular cave paintings, I googled the images easily. Bertrand David's ideas will integrate into art history books going forward. Spoiler below:

..........................

Spoiler Alert: My Opinion on the "Why" Speculation

We spend more modern resources on education than burial. Although the explanation David offers has a thoughtful basis, my intuition would be that we are looking at the work of teachers, history teachers augmenting their oral history stories with a really OLD school slide projector, a really OLD school chalkboard, a really OLD school Powerpoint, a really OLD school movie projector. How David intuited the method of making the images included his role as a teacher of others in the technique, so there is definitely a transmission aspect. I think it highly unlikely that the OLD school teachers would not have also done similar or different images in less durable materials that did not last until the present. Cave symbols might even be rudimentary math lessons or ways of reckoning seasons or dates. I am no scholar or specialist, but teaching has a greater societal value than necropolis building. Hand prints might represent a social contract or a way of voting or a pledge. People determined to survive in hard times do not tend to over-invest in the dead but use the stories and memories to inform the next generations. So, I turn the orientation around from having markers for the dead or symbols for the dead to instead inform the present and future about the past. A teacher often will superimpose today's lesson on a chalkboard with little regard to the faint markings of yesterday's calcium carbonate markings. Many teachers like to draw while teaching - - -we talk, we use our arms, we draw, and maybe even sing or play music. We also want the respect of our students and we don't want the shame of drawing clumsy images on the chalkboard - - - the teacher's satchel has the method and the clay object. This OLD school xerox machine technique might have heightened interest and awe and respect from the students. We use what tools we have, whatever the weather, to teach. We draw images in the dirt - - not available on a snowy or muddy day. We tell stories with dried leaves and pine cones, and we tell stories with sketches. Other OLD school classrooms were likely less durable, but we know that oral histories were valued as important to preliterate peoples. I vote for signing, sketching, community, sharing happening in the caves, and perhaps social agreements with hand prints. Just throwing it out there. . . A wishful thinking speculation that I think is less likely but not impossible. . . .perhaps some instruction was also given on stewardship and species lost to over-hunting. Instead of instructions on how to hunt - - perhaps the lessons were also about how to not over-hunt.
Profile Image for Semih.
111 reviews
October 31, 2021
Uzun süredir okuduğum kitaplar arasında tüylerimi diken diken eden, tam olarak duvara çarpmış etkisi yapan tek kitap. Karikatürize edilmiş kapak resmi ve genelde enteresan bilgilerin verildiği, kültür tarihiyle alakalı yazılan kitapların bulunduğu kırkmerak serisinden çıkmış bir kitabın bu denli önemli bir tarihöncesi ilişkili konuda bu denli paradigma değiştiren bir hipotez ortaya atması ve belki de bütün tarihöncesi mağara resimlerine bakış ve yorumları altüst etmesi kitabın en çarpıcı yönlerinden birisi. Belirtmeliyim ki ben kitapta bahsi geçen tekniği kabul ettim. Ve yine de resimlere daha az hayranlık beslemiyorum.

Birçok mağara resminde kusursuz teknikle çizilmiş kusursuz konturlu hayvanlar var. Bu resimlerin çizilebilmesi için neredeyse M.Ö 35.000 - M.Ö 10.000 seneleri arasında 25.000 sene boyunca sürecek, sürdürülebilmiş bir üslup bulunması gerekiyor çünkü Avrupa'daki bu resimlerdeki üsluplar neredeyse her mağarada birbiriyle tekniksel açıdan örtüşüyor. Kusursuz konturlar, az miktarda eklenmiş detaylar ve sonradan eklenmişi gibi görünen gözler... Bazı hayvanların yan yana çizilmiş görselleri ne kadar animasyon etkisi olarak yorumlansa da kitap bambaşka bir tez öneriyor. Keza ters dönmüş ve tavana tırmanan yarım at için de, üst üste çizilmiş ve yaparken hiç utanmadan diğer sanatçının(!) eserini çekinmeden mahvederek çizilmiş hayvan resimleri için de.

Eğer bu çizimin tekniği zor olsaydı 25.000 sene boyunca devam edemez, basitleşir, yazıda olduğu gibi sembollere dönüşürdü. O halde çok kolay olmalı diyor resimleri yapmak. O kadar kolay olmalı ki amorf yüzeylere de kolayca çizilebilmeli, perspektif etkisi verilmiş bir biçim de tereddütsüz çizilebilmeli. Bunu nasıl yaptıklarını sekiz yaşındaki çocuğumu yatırırken fark ettim diyor. Ve bir anda keşfin ışığı, "acaba"sı çakıyor.

Bütün akıl yürütmeler ve test süreçleri bir bilimsel düşüncenin ortaya çıkışını ve de hipotezin sağlamasının araştırılmasını anlatıyor. Yazarın heyecanıyla biz de heyecanlanıyoruz ve sürekli acaba acaba acaba diye sorup düşünüyoruz. Ben denemedeki dinamizmi de çok beğendim yazarın sorgulamalarını ve sorduğu soruları da.

Çok gariptir ki literatürde ne kendisine ne de hipotezine dair hiç bilgi bulamadım. İnternette bu seviyede çarpıcı bir görüşe dair ortaya atılmış bir tez ya da antitezle de karşılaşmadım. Senelerdir varsayılan tüm düşüncelerin ötesindeki bir teknikle yapılan bu resimlerin nedeni için ise başka teorilerden çok da öne çıkmayan bir başka teori ile noktayı koyduğunda biz de akıl süzgecimizden geçiriyoruz acaba bizim toplumumuz ve yaşayanlara/yaşama duyduğumuz hisleri onlar da taşıyor, bizim çektiğimiz acılara bizim gibi katlanıp bazı şeyleri kalıcı hale getirmeye çalışıyorlar mıydı diye.
Profile Image for Roger Neyman.
68 reviews3 followers
December 17, 2017
Just in case the meaning of my 4-star rating is misunderstood, I really liked this book. (I don't give out 5-star ratings lightly.)

As an artist who had encountered the mystery of cave paintings, David was struck that they were paradoxically too perfect, and too simple, and puzzled over how they came to be produced. He imagined himself in the place of the artists - and thereby uncovered the best explanation for how they were produced, in spite of not being 'an expert' in the field. It's a wonderful testimony to the permeability of the sciences.

The text includes a short, well-written introduction to the topic of paleolithic cave paintings of animals, puts forth a convincing argument about the methodology by which they were produced, and, as a bonus, offers what I think is a highly plausible theory of what the paintings signified.

I read the hardcover edition, and that is the one I recommend. It has color plates of some of the cave paintings discussed.

This is the first of about four books I intend to read on the topic of Neolithic art and it's implications about the human mind. Perhaps it would have been better to read one of the others first, because this one is written partly in response to the failure of all the others to come up with a plausible explanation of how the paintings were actually done.
Profile Image for David.
4 reviews23 followers
August 30, 2022
Enjoyed it. I mostly see it as entertainment. The big first “how”-part of the book was a bit too repetitive and lengthy sometimes. There’s a bit too much ego tripping about the originality about the “how” - also, it seems ludicrous that they claim to have discovered this how-theory. There are too few reservations made throughout the book, for my taste, as well - heaps of “looking for evidence”/logic that supports their case. The why-theory was speculative of course, but quite intriguing too! As food for thought, lightweight art history/science and entertainment, recommended.
Profile Image for Michael.
90 reviews13 followers
August 25, 2020
Fascinating and enjoyable; I can't claim to be well versed enough in the topic to say that it is undoubtedly true or utter nonsense, but the subject matter and the theories about it are engrossing, well thought out, and well argued. Early humanity is fascinating in itself. Add to it the mystery of the cave paintings and how they persisted virtually unchanged for 30,000 years, and you have the makings of a great book.
Profile Image for Robert.
1,342 reviews3 followers
November 13, 2017
This presents an interesting new theory on the production methods and purpose of Paleolithic cave paintings. I was irritated by the author's limited understanding of optics and pretty basic use of light and shadow. He does eventually work out the basics, but it took some time. His final conclusion was novel, but not compelling, though no other theory quite fits, either.
7 reviews1 follower
September 4, 2018
I’ve heard of and seen pictures of the cave paintings, but didn’t know much about them. I found this book very easy to read, gave a lot about their locations (geographical and within the caves), and about their artistry. Mr Bertrand’s hypothesis is reasonable, especially since it was replicated and was a simple solution for relatively simple people.
Profile Image for pluto (elif).
118 reviews
January 19, 2024
3,5* dersi almaya başladığım ilk haftalarda okusam çok daha eğlenceli bir okuma olurdu ama tracing tekniği benim de aklımdan hiç geçmemiş bir yöntemdi, neredeyse tek başına tüm soruları cevaplaması tarih öncesi mağara resimlerine tamamen farklı bir gözle bakmama sebep oldu.
129 reviews2 followers
May 13, 2017
brief, enjoyable yarn, captures the entire field. Taken aback by the revelation. Brilliant!
6 reviews
January 3, 2020
He has an interesting theory on how some of the art may have been, as well as a less plausible theory about why. Worth reading.
Profile Image for Katriena Knights.
Author 42 books26 followers
February 14, 2020
A really, really interesting, logical, viable theory regarding why and how Paleolithic cave paintings were made.
Profile Image for Kevin Marshall.
Author 30 books
April 10, 2020
If you have any interest in the cave paintings found in France and Spain dating back 10,000's of years this book is a must. Written by an illustrator, it looks at the mechanics and purpose of these works.
Even if you disagree with the findings, I suggest you will be astonished.
Profile Image for Pennylin.
190 reviews
July 13, 2020
I thought the main argument portion of the book was just terrific, but I didn't follow them down the path that they took for the last few chapters. Overall I think it's excellent.
Profile Image for Al Bità.
377 reviews53 followers
October 3, 2016
Around about the late 19th-c and into the 20th-c CE a number of caves were discovered in Europe which contained some of the most astonishing paintings ever seen. After elimination of possible fraud, datings of these wonderful works have placed them tens of thousands of years in the past: from the Chauvet caves (dated to 32,000 BCE — the oldest, discovered in 1994 CE, yet containing perhaps the most realistic and most accomplished paintings yet discovered) to Lascaux (dated to 17,000 BCE — discovered in 1940 CE, and perhaps the most well-known of all) — and they are all similar in subject and technique.

Located in the darkest recesses of the caves, where no natural light is available, these awe-inspiring paintings (aka “parietal” art) resonate strongly with us today. They are achingly beautiful; and quite mysterious… Equally astonishing, however, is the time-frame: just taking the datings of the Chauvet and Lascaux caves, we have a period of 15,000 years during which the same type of paintings were created!

If this intrigues you (and it should!) you might find this book an interesting read indeed. The work purports to have rediscovered the technique whereby this art was achieved — and it is much simpler than one might imagine. The authors take their time in developing and then testing their theories, and it does seem that their arguments are quite plausible. They present their findings in a chatty style, recreating the process of discovery and testing in a kind of detective work; unfortunately this gives the work a kind of self-deprecatory air (Davis is a painter and designer, and Lefrère is a professor of medicine, an essayist and historian, so they are appropriately deferential to the archaeologists' and palaeontologists' toes they might be inadvertently treading on…) — but they are confident enough to suggest that they are correct in their assumptions about the art.

The authors may very well be correct in solving how these paintings were achieved, but as to whether they have resolved the why of the enigma that surrounds the works is another question. Here one can only speculate.

In my case, I am tempted to think that the works radiate a kind of peace and tranquillity; so perhaps the story might go something like this: once our artist(s) and their companions had found their caves, explored them, and ensured they were safe havens, the discovery of their technique allowed them to surround themselves with safe images of the real (and potentially dangerous) animals that existed in their world outside their caves. They surrounded themselves with comforting and reassuring images which provided no threat.

The fact that they were able to continue this for over 15,000 years throughout Europe might also suggest that we should re-evaluate Stone Age Homo sapiens from the traditional image usually provided by our modern media, and that they should also be understood as having peaceful, sensitive, artistic, poetical and appreciative natures. Perhaps these caves were the equivalent of our palatial residences today. Or am I being too romantic?
Profile Image for Elizabeth.
984 reviews108 followers
June 29, 2017
The Oldest Enigma of Humanity The Key to the Mystery of the Paleolithic Cave Paintings by Bertrand David
The Oldest Enigma of Humanity: The Key to the Mystery of the Paleolithic Cave Paintings
By: Bertrand David

What's it's about:

Thirty thousand years ago our prehistoric ancestors painted perfect images of animals on walls of tortuous caves, most often without any light. How was this possible? What meaning and messages did the cavemen want these paintings to convey? In addition, how did these perfect drawings come about at a time when man’s sole purpose was surviving? And why, some ten thousand years later, did startlingly similar animal paintings appear once again, on dark cave walls?

Scholars and archaeologists have for centuries pored over these works of art, speculating and hoping to come away with the key to the mystery. No one until now has ever come close to elucidating either their origin or their meaning.

In their stunning book and for the first time, David and Lefrère, after working together for years, give us a new understanding of an art lost in time, revealing what had until recently remained unexplainable—the oldest enigma in humanity has been solved.

My thoughts
DNF 100%
Just can't get in to it, have re started it four times since yesterday ,and still can't get past the chapter I'm on.
There's nothing I like about, and it's not keeping my attention at all. With that said I would like to say thinks to NetGalley for at least giving me a chance at reading it in a change for my honest opinion
Profile Image for miha.
989 reviews
January 15, 2016
Zanimivo teorijo zagovarja v knjigi.

D da so slike v jamah delali s pomočjo manjših figuric in njihovih senc. Ploščate izrezljane figurce (k je blo velik najdenih samo ploščatih, reliefnih ne komplet zaobljenih figuric - nardijo bl oster rob sence) naj bi postavl pred vir svetlobe, ogenj, oljno svetilko in potem prerisal, obrisal silhueto na steni. Ha, se loti sam slikat tko in pride do podobnih rezultatov

In precej vprašanj zadovoljivo razloži npr.
- zakaj so ble poslikane stene globlje v votlinah, kjer ni blo notr druge moteče svetlobe in tud ni blo prepiha ki bi migljal ogenj in senco...
- zakaj so vedno živali s profila, ker je tako lažje prepoznavna žival na steni
- zakaj je velik nedokončanih al pa podvojenih linij - k je delov poskuse se mu je figurca pred svetilko premaknla in nikakor ni mogu dobit nazaj v prvotni položaj da nadaljuje začeto in je ponekot podvojeno naredu linije al pa cele okončine
- zakaj so se slike prekrivale - ker je senca skrila prejšnjo sliko in je kdor je slikov ni vidu in ga tud ni motla
- zakaj so v čudnih položajih - k je zlo težko namenoma senco izostrit točno tam kjer bi želel in so pač slikal tam ko je ratala - ogenj je izbral kje bo žival upodobljena za večno :)

Na koncu knjige pa še razmišlja, da so ble mogoč živali totemi klanov, ki so bli takrat v votlini
in da so jih v globinah jame risal kot spomin na svoje umrle. Jame - pokopališča brez trupel, ampak kot kraj spominjanja - in da jih tud zato niso "uničevali" iz spoštovanja do prednikov.

Supr zanimivo - precej finih idej, ki se mi zdijo čist verjetne in sprejemljive.

fajn knigica
Profile Image for Verónica Juárez.
591 reviews39 followers
January 30, 2016
I'm not really sure if I liked this book or not, the information is interesting, the way it is treated was kind of boring for me. I have to say that I read it in audiobook format and the narrator wasn't the best either, maybe that's why I didn't enjoy the book.
Profile Image for Cooper Renner.
Author 24 books56 followers
June 18, 2016
Logical explanation for the vast expanse of time involved with the cave paintings of Europe and their remarkable consistency of style over that period. Quick and sensible reading.
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