Publisher Description

The Cave Painters is a vivid introduction to the spectacular cave paintings of France and Spain—the individuals who rediscovered them, theories about their origins, their splendor and mystery. Gregory Curtis makes us see the astonishing sophistication and power of the paintings and tells us what is known about their creators, the Cro-Magnon people of some 40,000 years ago. He takes us through various theories—that the art was part of fertility or hunting rituals, or used for religious purposes, or was clan mythology—examining the ways interpretations have changed over time. Rich in detail, personalities, and history, The Cave Painters is above all permeated with awe for those distant humans who developed—perhaps for the first time—both the ability for abstract thought and a profound and beautiful way to express it.

Author Biography

Gregory Curtis is the author of Disarmed: The Story of the Venus de Milo. He was the editor of Texas Monthly from 1981 until 2000. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, Time, and RollingStone, among other publications. A graduate of Rice University and San Francisco State College, he lives with his wife in Austin, Texas.

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Naked Cave Man

Chapter 1
The Seductive Axe; The Well-Clothed Arrivals

Chapter 2
A Skeptic Admits His Error; The Passion of Miss Mary E. Boyle

Chapter 3
Noble Robot, an Inquiring Dog; The Abbé's Sermons on the Mount

Chapter 4
The Great Black Cow; How to Paint a Horse

Chapter 5
A Stormy Drama Among Bison; The Golden Section

Chapter 6
A Lively but Unreliable Creation; Quaint, Symbolic Arrows

Chapter 7
The Trident-Shaped Cave; Pairing, Not Coupling

Chapter 8
Three Brothers in a Boat; The Sorcerer

Chapter 9
A Passage Underwater; The Skull on a Rock

Chapter 10
Strange, Stylized Women; The World Below the World

Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Review

"Fascinating. . . . We will be arguing about these glorious creations for many years to come." —The Washington Post Book World"The beauty of the cave art moves Curtis deeply, and his writing preserves that passionate response." —Seattle Times"Curtis is a good storyteller, and he has good stories to tell about eccentrics of all sorts." —The Christian Science Monitor"A fascinating survey of the rival theories. . . . [Readers will be] swept up in the beauty of the cave paintings and the persuasive pull of his prose." —Richmond Times-Dispatch

Long Description

"The Cave Painters "is a vivid introduction to the spectacular cave paintings of France and Spain--the individuals who rediscovered them, theories about their origins, their splendor and mystery. Gergory Curtis makes us see the astonishing sophistication and power of the paintings and tells us what is known about their creators, the Cro-Magnon people of some 40,000 years ago. He takes us through various theories--that the art was part of fertility or hunting rituals, or used for religious purposes, or was clan mythology--examining the ways interpretations have changed over time. Rich in detail, personalities, and history, "The Cave Painters "is above all permeated with awe for those distant humans who developed--perhaps for the first time--both the ability for abstract thought and a profound and beautiful way to express it.

Review Quote

"For centuries, people have been going into caves in France and Spain, looking at the 30,000-year-old pictures painted there and asking, 'What can they be?'

Excerpt from Book

Introduction The Naked Cave Man This book began in 1986 when my daughter Vivian saw a statue she called "a naked cave man." For several days we had been riding on horseback across the Dordogne, the lovely area of river valleys, rolling hills, and thick forests in south-central France. It was late spring, just before the arrival of the swarms of rowers, hikers, and campers that descend on the region each summer. I did not know at the time that in eons past this appealing landscape had also attracted groups of the earliest humans. Their ancient campsites, usually found under the rock overhangs in the limestone cliffs that line the rivers, have kept archaeologists happily busy since they were first discovered more than 150 years ago. As the archaeologists dig deeper, they find layer upon layer of occupation, the date of each layer receding further into the past. Occasionally, in the upper levels, which can be 15,000 to 20,000 years old, these digs turn up tiny beads patiently crafted from ivory, an engraving of an animal on a rock, or some reindeer''s teeth with a hole drilled at the root that were once part of a necklace. The people who made these delicate objects were the same ones who ventured into the caverns in the hillsides, sometimes crawling through narrow passages for hundreds of yards, to create the paintings, engravings, and bas-relief sculptures that still touch the soul of everyone who sees them. During our trip Vivian and I stopped at Les Eyzies-de-Tyac, a village on the banks of the V

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