Le cattedrali della preistoria. Il significato dell'arte rupestre

It's surprising to me how passionate some other reviewers are that Aczel's interpretation is wrong and that the art must have shamanistic meaning. Across the distance of time, any assignment of meaning is a wild guess — and Aczel makes that clear. I find his personal opinion compelling that the art Leggi tutto

I could only get through the first eight chapters before being overwhelmed with people’s and place names, dates, and eras. The stories are interesting and maybe someone with a historian’s mind could handle it all. I also thought that the author supported some assumptions that were not well supported Leggi tutto

Amir Aczel specializes in accessible popular science books. His background in mathematics and statistics did not, however, prepare him well for the subject of the meaning of prehistoric cave art. To start with, the title is really false advertising. I was halfway through the book before I could figu Leggi tutto

I picked this up because it was displayed at the library in the new books sections when I was feeling nostalgic about touring prehistoric caves in France. You should pick it up to flip through the glossy photos in one section in the middle, and then find some other book to read about the caves, beca Leggi tutto

Although this book was easy to read and engaging, the author seemed to be carrying a flag for both Henri Breuil and Andre Leroi-Gourhan. Except for the color plates in the center of the book, the illustrations were tiny at best and I found myself looking up the discussed imagry online to try and see Leggi tutto

I liked this one better than his book on Bourbaki because it didn't seem like it was stretching for content. There's several theories to weigh on why prehistoric Europeans may have made cave art as well as descriptions of particular caves and how each relates to the oeuvre as a whole. Overall, a fas Leggi tutto