The First Signs
Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols
by Genevieve von Petzinger
One of the most significant works on our evolutionary ancestry since Richard Leakey's paradigm-shattering 'Origins', 'The First Signs' is the first-ever exploration of the little-known geometric images that accompany most cave art around the world - the first indications of symbolic meaning, intelligence, and language.
Imagine yourself as a caveman or woman. The place: Europe. The time: 25,000 years ago, the last Ice Age. In reality, you live in an open-air tent or a bone hut. But you also belong to a rich culture that creates art. In and around your cave paintings are handprints and dots, x's and triangles, parallel lines and spirals. Your people know what they mean. You also use them on tools and jewelry. And then you vanish - and with you, their meanings.
The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the World's Oldest Symbols by G. von Petzinger https://t.co/Eb39kItjVH pic.twitter.com/o4oBXvAB00
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Join renowned archaeologist Genevieve von Petzinger on an Indiana Jones-worthy adventure from the open-air rock art sites of northern Portugal to the dark depths of a remote cave in Spain that can only be reached by sliding face-first through the mud. Von Petzinger looks past the beautiful horses, powerful bison, graceful ibex, and faceless humans in the ancient paintings. Instead, she's obsessed with the abstract geometric images that accompany them, the terse symbols that appear more often than any other kinds of figures - signs that have never really been studied or explained until now.
Part travel journal, part popular science, part personal narrative, von Petzinger's groundbreaking book starts to crack the code on the first form of graphic communication. It's in her blood, as this talented scientist's grandmother served as a code-breaker at Bletchley. Discernible patterns emerge that point to abstract thought and expression, and for the first time, we can begin to understand the changes that might have been happening inside the minds of our Ice Age ancestors - offering a glimpse of when they became us.
The First Signs is available in Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle & Audio
GENEVIEVE VON PETZINGER
Genevieve von Petzinger studies cave art from the European Ice Age and has built a unique database that holds more than 5,000 signs from almost 400 sites across Europe. Her work has appeared in popular science magazines such as New Scientists and Science Illustrated. A National Geographic Emerging Explorer of 2016, she was a 2011 TED Global Fellow, a 2013-15 TED Senior Fellow and her 2015 TED talk has more than 2 million views. Genevieve von Petzinger is a member of the Bradshaw Foundation Advisory Board.
Product details:
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Atria Books (16 Jun. 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 147678549X
ISBN-13: 978-1476785493
Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 2.8 x 22.9 cm
Praise:
"The fundamental elements of the art of the Upper Paleolithic remained essentially unchanged for at least 20,000 years, five times the chronological distance that separates us from the builders of the Great Pyramids at Giza. For generations scholars have attempted to understand this slow unfolding of consciousness, this primordial flash of the human spirit that ultimately led to the creation of culture. Genevieve von Petzinger reveals that, beyond the figurative art, the iconic images of horses and bison so transcendent in their beauty, are 32 signs that may represent a vocabulary written literally in stone, symbols that offer an opening into the Paleolithic mind. This may represent one of the most extraordinary scientific insights of our time."
Wade Davis, author of The Serpent and the Rainbow, Professor of Anthropology Faculty Associate, University of British Columbia.
Visit Geometric Signs: A New Understanding by Genevieve von Petzinger
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/geometric_signs/index.php
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