This volume covers Chinese art during the reign of the Sui and Tang Dynasties during which the various disciplines of plastic and performing arts all entered a stage of unprecedented prosperity and development. It also traces new explorations in calligraphy, painting, and mural art and highlights architectural achievements during the historic period. A General History of Chinese Art comprises six volumes with a total of nine parts spanning from the Prehistoric Era until the 3rd year of Xuantong during the Qing Dynasty (1911). The work provides a comprehensive compilation of in-depth studies of the development of art throughout the subsequent reign of Chinese dynasties and explores the emergence of a wide range of artistic categories such as but not limited to music, dance, acrobatics, singing, story telling, painting, calligraphy, sculpture, architecture, and crafts. Unlike previous reference books, A General History of Chinese Art offers a broader overview of the notion of Chinese art by asserting a more diverse and less material understanding of arts, as has often been the case in Western scholarship.

In 1950, Dana Lamb, an explorer of some notoriety, stumbled on a Maya ruin in the tropical forests of northern Guatemala. Lamb failed to record the location of the site he called Laxtunich, turning his find into the mystery at the center of this book. The lintels he discovered there, long since looted, are probably of a set with two others that are among the masterworks of Maya sculpture from the Classic period. Using fieldwork, physical evidence, and Lamb's expedition notes, the authors identify a small area with archaeological sites where the carvings were likely produced. Remarkably, the vividly colored lintels, replete with dynastic and cosmic information, can be assigned to a carver, Mayuy, who sculpted his name on two of them. To an extent nearly unique in ancient America, Mayuy can be studied over time as his style developed and his artistic ambition grew. An in-depth analysis of Laxtunich Lintel 1 examines how Mayuy grafted celestial, seasonal, and divine identities onto a local magnate and his overlord from the kingdom of Yaxchilan, Mexico. This volume contextualizes the lintels and points the way to their reprovenancing and, as an ultimate aim, repatriation to Guatemala.

Memory and Agency in Ancient China offers a novel perspective on China's material culture. The volume explores the complex 'life histories' of selected objects, whose trajectories as ginle objects ('biographies') and object types ('lineages') cut across both temporal and physical space. The essays, written by a team of international scholars, analyse the objects in an effort to understand how they were shaped by the constraints of their social, political and aesthetic contexts, just as they were also guided by individual preference and capricious memory. They also demonstrate how objects were capable of effecting change. Ranging chronologically from the Neolithic to the present, and spatially from northern to southern mainland China and Taiwan, this book highlights the varied approaches that archaeologists and art historians use when attempting to reconstruct object trajectories. It also showcases the challenges they face, particularly with the unearthing of objects from archaeological contexts that, paradoxically, come to represent the earliest known point of their 'post-recovery lives'.

The catalogue for the exciting exhibition at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, Masters of Fire presents a comprehensive overview of the little-known yet extraordinary Chalcolithic culture, which existed in the southern Levant from 4500-3600 bce. Masters of Fire focuses on the people of the southern Levant who harnessed the power of metallurgy during the fourth millennium bce. Artisans produced extraordinary copper objects while other craftsmen molded pottery and stone into complex anthropomorphic burial containers, statuettes, and ritual objects. Taken together, these artifacts reveal the first stratified culture known in the ancient Near East. Highlights of the exhibition include a selection of material from the Nahal Mishmar hoard, an unprecedented collection of copper prestige and ritual objects, organic materials from the Cave of the Warrior, and an exceptional group of ritual figurines. Contributors include Thomas E. Levy, Daniel M. Master, Osnat Misch-Brandl, Yorke M. Rowan, Michael Sebbane, Dina Shalem, and Orit Shamir. Cover photograph (c) Bruce M. White, 2016

Images of the Ice Age, here in its third edition, is the most complete study available of the world's earliest imagery, presenting a fascinating and up-to-date account of the art of our Ice Age ancestors. Authoritative and wide-ranging, it covers not only the magnificent cave art of famous sites such as Lascaux, Altamira, and Chauvet, but also other less well-known sites around the world, art discovered in the open air, and the thousands of incredible pieces of portable art in bone, antler, ivory, and stone produced in the same period. In doing so, the book summarizes all the major worldwide research into Ice Age art both past and present, exploring the controversial history of the art's discovery and acceptance, including the methods used for recording and dating, the faking of decorated objects and caves, and the wide range of theories that have been applied to this artistic corpus. Lavishly illustrated and highly accessible, Images of the Ice Age provides a visual feast and an absorbing synthesis of this crucial aspect of human history, offering a unique opportunity to appreciate universally important works of art, many of which can never be accessible to the public, and which represent the very earliest evidence of artistic expression.

For over 60 years, spectacular discoveries have been made on a wooded hillside at Snettisham, overlooking the northwest Norfolk coast, close to Hunstanton. The location of the discoveries, at Ken Hill, is known as the ‘gold field’ because of the large number of gold and silver alloy neck-rings (‘torcs’) and coins recovered from the site. Known as the ‘Snettisham Treasure’, these objects represent one of the largest collections of prehistoric precious metal objects ever discovered, and one of the largest concentrations of Celtic art. The objects were found in at least 14 separate hoards buried between 150 BC and AD 100 – spanning the late Iron Age and early Roman periods, but with a peak of activity during the late Iron Age. The objects from Snettisham are widely known, but the site has never been fully published. This book is the first comprehensive account of the discoveries and excavations at the site and presents a full catalogue of the finds. The majority are in the British Museum, with a significant collection also held by Norwich Castle Museum. The book also presents the results of extensive scientific analysis, revealing new and exciting details about how torcs were manufactured. The final section places Snettisham in its wider social and landscape context. The authors argue that each hoard represents different collection and depositional histories. The repeated, yet varied, acts of deposition at the site were part of creating, negotiating and reinforcing social structures, as well as performing and creating social change.

Our Voices: Indigeneity and Architecture is an exciting advance in the field of architecture offering multiple indigenous perspectives on architecture and design theory and practice. Indigenous authors from Aotearoa NZ, Canada, Australia, and the USA explore the making and keeping of places and spaces which are informed by indigenous values and identities. The lack of publications to date offering an indigenous lens on the field of architecture belies the rich expertise found in indigenous communities in all four countries. This expertise is made richer by the fact that this indigenous expertise combines both architecture and design professional practice, that for the most part is informed by Western thought and practice, with a frame of reference that roots this architecture in the indigenous places in which it sits.

Focusing on stunning paintings and engravings from around the world, Powerful Pictures interrogates the driving forces behind global rock art research. Many of the rock art motifs featured in the 16 chapters of this book were created by indigenous hunter-gatherer groups, and it sheds new light on non-Western rituals and worldviews, many of which are threatened or on the point of extinction. Stemming from a conference in Val Camonica in northern Italy, the book is arranged by continent, although it tackles how early research in some countries (e.g., Sweden, France, Spain, the USA, Canada, South Africa) influenced the trajectory of archaeological investigations in others (e.g., Australia, India, Mexico, Germany, Mongolia, Russia). All of the contributing authors have vast experience working with rock art and Indigenous communities, many of them holding posts in prestigious university departments around the world. The book will be of particular interest to professional historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists, and indeed anyone who is interested in art, symbolism, and the past.

This book examines ancient figurines from several world areas to address recurring challenges in the interpretation of prehistoric art. Sometimes figurines from one context are perceived to resemble those from another. Richard G. Lesure asks whether such resemblances play a role in our interpretations. Early interpreters seized on the idea that figurines were recurringly female and constructed the fanciful myth of a primordial Neolithic Goddess. Contemporary practice instead rejects interpretive leaps across contexts. Dr. Lesure offers a middle path: a new framework for assessing the relevance of particular comparisons. He develops the argument in case studies that consider figurines from Paleolithic Europe, the Neolithic Near East, and Formative Mesoamerica.

A beautiful and simple introduction to the Book of Kells, one of the world's most famous illuminated manuscripts, with a newly-expanded colour plate section. Here George Otto Simms, a world-renowned authority on the Book of Kells, reveals the mysteries hidden in this magnificent manuscript. He introduces the monks who made the book and guides the reader through the intricate detail of this ancient and exotic book. Also available in French, German, Spanish and Japanese.

Rocks of Ages: Developing Rock Art Tourism in Israel presents the findings of an interdisciplinary project aimed at safeguarding the future of this unique resource. Cultural heritage in the Negev desert region of Israel is potentially under threat from a number of social, political and economic activities such as militarization, settlement and tourism, resulting in significant environmental change. The cultural heritage and archaeology extend back at least a quarter of a million years but also include a unique engraved rock art assemblage that dates to at least 3000 BCE. These engravings form a clear association with other relic monuments including prehistoric and protohistoric settlements, agricultural and irrigation regimes, and the remnants of a nomadic way of life. But how can this unique cultural heritage survive in the long-term? In December 2017, an international conference was held at Mitzpe Ramon attended by academics, heritage professionals and individuals from the tourism industry. The meeting centered on the dissemination of the findings from the Integrative Multilateral Planning to Advance Rock Art Tourism (IMPART) research project. Formed from an interdisciplinary team of Israeli-Italian scholars, the IMPART researchers collaborated to conduct archaeo-ecological and socio-touristic research with the goal of establishing an authoritative set of sustainable best practices for effectively valorizing Negev rock art. Based on the successful outcome of this research dynamic, the book is organized into 12 thought-provoking chapters that identify and analyze the cultural heritage, archaeology and tourism geographies that fill the multilayered Negev landscape. The focus throughout is to find ways to preserve this unique heritage for future generations while striking a balance between these fragile resources and the pressures for development of the desert.

Rock art--prehistoric pictures--gives us lively and captivating images of animals and people painted and carved in caves and on open rock surfaces. It is all too easy to guess at the meanings the images carry. This pioneering set of essays instead explores how we can reliably learn from rock art as a material record of distant times by adapting the proven methods of archaeology to the special subject of rock art.

In late nineteenth-century France, when Charles Darwin's theories of evolution had finally begun to permeate French culture and society, several academic artists turned to a relatively new sub-genre of history painting, the prehistoric-themed subject. This artistic interest in Darwin's theories was manifested as paintings and sculptures of prehistoric humanity engaged in physical conflict with each other or other animals, struggling for food, or hunting-all nineteenth-century popular understandings of "survival of the fittest." This book examines how this sub-genre captured the imagination of French Salon painters from the 1880s to early 1900s, in particular that of Fernand Cormon (1845-1924), one of the foremost academic painters during the final quarter of the nineteenth century. A central argument of this book concerns the unique interpretation of prehistoric humanity that Cormon visualized in his paintings. While the vast majority of prehistoric-themed images made by his salon colleagues focused on violence, combat, and sexual conquest, Cormon's paintings depict a conflict-free humanity, in which collaboration and cooperation dominate, rather than physical struggle. This study probes the French intellectual understanding and appropriation of Darwin's theories and considers how the French (mis)translation of The Origin of Species by Clemence-Auguste Royer, the first French translator of the text-along with Neo-Lamarckism and republican ideology in Third Republic France-may have collectively shaped Cormon's representation of early humanity. The art press overwhelmingly favored Cormon's visualization of the prehistoric world over that of his Salon peers. Through extended analysis of the art criticism concerning Cormon's work, Shalon Parker argues that critics' very clear preference for Cormon's paintings was rooted in their awareness that he utilized the sub-genre of the prehistoric as a forum in which to reimagine and revive academic figurative painting at a time when the critical reception of Salon art had reached its nadir. Additionally, this study provides a broad overview of the visual models, in particular the anthropological and ethnographic texts and imagery, most readily available to Cormon as sources for shaping his vision of the prehistoric world.

This book provides a general self-reflexive review and critical analysis of Scandinavian rock art from the standpoint of Chris Tilley’s research in this area over the last thirty years. It offers a novel alternative theoretical perspective stressing the significance of visual narrative structure and rhythm, using musical analogies, putting particular emphasis on the embodied perception of images in a landscape context. Part I reviews the major theories and interpretative perspectives put forward to understand the images, in historical perspective, and provides a critique discussing each of the main types of motifs occurring on the rocks. Part II outlines an innovative theoretical and methodological perspective for their study stressing sequence and relationality in bodily movement from rock to rock. Part III is a detailed case study and analysis of a series of rocks from northern Bohuslän in western Sweden. The conclusions reflect on the theoretical and methodological approach being taken in relation to the disciplinary practices involved in rock art research, and its future.

Scholar and artist John Clegg made a pioneering contribution to the study of rock art. He was the first in the Australian academy to teach rock art research as a dedicated subject (Sydney University 1965-2000), supervising the first graduate students with such specialty, subsequently supporting their careers. He is honoured here for much more than his novelty and the contributions in this monograph pay homage to the late John Kay Clegg’s diverse influence. Rock art researchers from around the globe traverses topics such as aesthetics, the application of statistical analyses, frontier conflict and layered symbolic meanings, the deliberate use of optical illusion, and the contemporary significance of ancient and street art. They cover rock art assemblages from Columbia, South Africa, Europe and across Clegg’s beloved Australia. They interrogate descriptive and analytic concepts such as repainting, memorialisation and graffiti, as well as questioning the ethical impactions of research practices touching rock art as a part of its study. The tributes in this book are necessarily as individual as the man they honour, and John Clegg was certainly an individual. The longevity of ideas and perspectives Clegg brought to the pursuit of rock art research is demonstrated in this collection of works. Clegg’s continued relevance is testament to the value and magnitude of his contribution. He is a deserving subject for a Festschrift.

Was it a trick of the light that drew our Stone Age ancestors into caves to paint in charcoal and red hematite, to watch the heads of lions, likenesses of bison, horses, and aurochs in the reliefs of the walls, as they flickered by firelight? Or was it something deeper--a creative impulse, a spiritual dawn, a shamanistic conception of the world efflorescing in the dark, dank spaces beneath the surface of the earth where the spirits were literally at hand? In this book, Jean Clottes, one of the most renowned figures in the study of cave paintings, pursues an answer to this "why" of Paleolithic art. While other books focus on particular sites and surveys, Clottes's work is a contemplative journey across the world, a personal reflection on how we have viewed these paintings in the past, what we learn from looking at them across geographies, and what these paintings may have meant--what function they may have served--for their artists. Steeped in Clottes's shamanistic theories of cave painting, What Is Paleolithic Art? travels from well-known Ice Age sites like Chauvet, Altamira, and Lascaux to visits with contemporary aboriginal artists, evoking a continuum between the cave paintings of our prehistoric past and the living rock art of today. Clottes's work lifts us from the darkness of our Paleolithic origins to reveal, by firelight, how we think, why we create, why we believe, and who we are.

It has often been claimed that "monsters"--supernatural creatures with bodies composed from multiple species--play a significant part in the thought and imagery of all people from all times. "The Origins of Monsters" advances an alternative view. Composite figurations are intriguingly rare and isolated in the art of the prehistoric era. Instead it was with the rise of cities, elites, and cosmopolitan trade networks that "monsters" became widespread features of visual production in the ancient world. Showing how these fantastic images originated and how they were transmitted, David Wengrow identifies patterns in the records of human image-making and embarks on a search for connections between mind and culture.

Wengrow asks: Can cognitive science explain the potency of such images? Does evolutionary psychology hold a key to understanding the transmission of symbols? How is our making and perception of images influenced by institutions and technologies? Wengrow considers the work of art in the first age of mechanical reproduction, which he locates in the Middle East, where urban life began. Comparing the development and spread of fantastic imagery across a range of prehistoric and ancient societies, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and China, he explores how the visual imagination has been shaped by a complex mixture of historical and universal factors.

Examining the reasons behind the dissemination of monstrous imagery in ancient states and empires, "The Origins of Monsters" sheds light on the relationship between culture and cognition.

Why publish a Reader? Today, it is relatively easy and convenient to switch on your computer and download an academic paper. However, as many scholars have experienced, historic references are difficult to access. Moreover, some are now lost and are merely references in later papers. This can be frustrating. This book provides a series of papers from all over the world that extend as far back as the 1970s when rock art research was in its infancy. The papers presented in the Reader reflect the development in the various approaches that have influenced advancing scholarly research.