Prehistoric Art: The symbolic journey of humankind by Randall White, Abrams, $45/拢30, ISBN 0810942623 Reviewed by Paul Bahn
RANDALL White himself considers this book鈥檚 title 鈥減retentious鈥�. I consider it misleading, since the vast majority of this work deals with the Palaeolithic art of Eurasia 鈥� a tiny, if important, fraction of world prehistoric art.
And White seems not to be aware, for example, that the art in the Ignatiev cave is no longer thought to be Palaeolithic, nor that the early dates for the rock art in the Chauvet cave urgently need to be verified (19 April, p 8). And what about the stone and bone Neanderthal 鈥渕ask鈥� found at La Roche-Cotard a couple of years ago? It makes a nonsense of the view that clueless Neanderthals could only copy their cultural superiors the Cro-Magnons.
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But, of course, an early date for Chauvet is crucial to White鈥檚 preferred view of a 鈥渃ultural explosion鈥�, and the Neanderthal 鈥渕ask鈥� is highly inconvenient. Prehistoric Art does have an attractive design, and contains some fine photographs, most of which are the right way round.