Abstract
The subject of the publication Prehistoric Art: The Evolution of Man and Culture is the birth of human creativity in the context of human evolution. Special attention is paid to the evolution, description and interpretation of prehistoric art.
The first part of the book presents a model of anthropogenesis and human evolution with emphasis on the origins and migration of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens). The pivotal category is the phenomenon of culture that is defined as a suprabiological adaptive strategy of the Homo species.
Therefore, the theoretic analysis focuses on everyday life of prehistoric hunters and gatherers, evolutionary changes in the Palaeolithic industry and ways of using caves and overhangs. In connection with the genesis of human creativity, the book also analyses and interprets the phenomenon of proto-art, i.e. non-utilitarian artefacts that were made during the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic.
The book thus responds to current discussions and disputations concerning the genesis of symbolic manifestations of human behaviour. For this reason, it presents drawings and paintings by anthropoids that can be viewed as evidence that it is impossible to draw a clear line between humans and greater African apes.
The book presents pieces of parietal art from the Upper Palaeolithic as the key proof of the birth or human artistic creativity and imagination, whose authenticity was still subject of scepticism, criticism and questioning at the turn of the 20th century. The book also attempts to clarify the purpose and meaning of prehistoric artefacts by the means of theories and hypotheses concerning the origin of human creativity and art.
The second part of the publication presents specific artistic manifestations from the Upper Palaeolithic (Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian) including material technology. Mobile and parietal art is systematically and chronologically classified, described and interpreted in the context of its discovery and recent findings.
The publication aspires for a deeper understanding of the genesis and development of prehistoric art as well as for identifying the human ability to reshape the world through symbols and their meaning.