The First Signs

Posted on by

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.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 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. Best Read [ The First Signs ] By [ Genevieve von Petzinger ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I ve been fascinated with cave art since I was about 11 or 12 years old I blame Children s Digest I don t know who started my subscription to that periodical, but it started quite an assortment of interests which I still read about whenever possible I distinctly remember a story about a young girl who fell in a hole in Spain and accidentally discovered...Review title Over promised, under deliveredA better subtitle for this book might be Unlocking the mysteries of how subtitles mislead and why It s not that Von Petzinger has written poorly, but she was unable to deliver on the unrealistic and untrue promise of the subtitle I certainly picked up the book from my library s new book shelf based on the promise of the mystery solved, and was underwhelmed by the reality of the undelivered promise So, context The first signs are geometric symbol Review title Over promised, under deliveredA better subtitle for this book might be Unlocking the mysteries of how subtitles mislead and why It s not that Von Petzinger has written poorly, but she was unable to deliver on the unrealistic and untrue promise of the subtitle I certainly picked up the book from my library s new book shelf based on the promise of the mystery solved, and was underwhelmed by the reality of the undelivered promise So, context The first signs are geometric symbols that are often part of Ice Age 10,000 years ago cave art wall paintings, which are better known for representations of large mammals mammoths, bison, horses, deer and hand prints in red and black paint Von Petzinger was intrigued by...If you are even.5% interested in cave art, this work will hook you from the very start She writes with such casual intellect, almost like she s telling you about her research over coffee on a Tuesday By the end of the book, I felt this wei...I have to admit I picked this book up under the totally unfounded assumption that it would be about the Neolithic Vinca symbols For the uninitiated, the Vinca culture is a society from the Balkans that flourished c 5700 4800 BCE, which left behind mysterious symbols on their artefacts that could well be the world s first writing system a good...I m not sure on the rating of this one It was a real drag for me to get through, but I think that was due to what else was going on in my life at the time I do feel like she should have given the relevance of the signs in the first or second chapter instead of speaking about it in the last half of the book It would have helped the book overall to understand a lot of what she was saying early on That being said, the ideas and theories that she presents boggle the mind Or at least mine As un I m not sure on the rating of this one It was a real drag for me to get through, but I think that was due to what else was going on in my life at the time I do feel like she should ha...FULL REVIEW WITH AMAZING, JAW DROPPING, HEART STOPPING GIFS HERE AT THE OLD BLOGGOHey hey, cupcakes It s been a minute Blame that chubby little muthafucka Cupid, whose golden arrow hath pierced my once frigid heart and set it ablaze with Love s undying flames Or whatever.Ahem MOVING ON.So as I ve mentioned cough whined about before, my brain has got a severe case of the Love Struck Stupids band name, write that down and my Goodreads challenge is taking a hit And, you know, my intellec FULL REVIEW WITH AMAZING, JAW DROPPING, HEART STOPPING GIFS HERE AT THE OLD BLOGGOHey hey, cupcakes It s been a minute Blame that chubby little muthafucka Cupid, whose golden arrow hath pierced my once frigid heart and set it ablaze with Love s undying flames Or whatever.Ahem MOVING ON.So as I ve mentioned cough whined about before, my brain has got a severe case of the Love Struck Stupids band name, write that down and my Goodreads challenge is taking a hit And, you know, my intellectual fortitude and general mental well being.But fear not, g...This is an extremely important book about how humans developed in our far distant past Told in an engaging, yet authoritative way, it probably is the most thought provoking book I ve read in months.cloak and dagger history, approachable read, voluminous data and information, but no new or conclusive declarations Good primer.At the intersection of art history, archaeology, semiotics, and the origin of writing lies First Signs This delightful book is scholarly yet personable, scientific but also funny Von Petzinger is a genius at distilling complex ideas and theories into a understandable and pleasant narrative she literally takes you on the same journeys that she has taken through the European countryside She describes the landscape as well as the characteristics of each cave she visits I really felt like a f At the intersection of art history, archaeology, semiotics, and the origin of writing lies First Signs This delightful book is scholarly yet personable, scientific but also funny Von Petzinger is a genius at distilling complex ideas and theories into a understandable and pleasant narrative she literally takes you on the same journeys that she has taken through the European countryside She describes the landscape as well as the characteristics of each cave she visits I really felt like a fellow explorer on the journey with this expert in paleoarchaeology I love the photos and drawings included in this book I especially love that Ms Von Petzinger includes an example of bad cave art This is something I sorely missed in art history class.As a scientist, Von Petzinger has compiled an important database of abstract signs created by prehistoric people, mostly in Europe These signs and symbols have been largely ignored in f...This book is a nonfiction delight, and well written for the layman Genevieve von Petzinger is extremely talented at writing about her research in a dynamic and captivating way I have read a lot of nonfiction where the topic is fascinating but the book gets bogged down in jargon and the authors inability to write for a wider audience I you are using an e reader, I highly recommend reading this book in a format that allows you to view the images in color.Confession In High School I was mildly This book is a nonfiction delight, and well written for the layman Genevieve von Petzinger is extremely talented at writing about her research in a dynamic and captivating way I have read a lot of nonfiction where the topic is fascinating but the book gets bogged down in jargon and the authors inability to write for a wider audience I you are using an e reader, I highly recommend reading this book in a format that allows you to view the images in color.Confession In High School I was mildly obsessed with the Clan of the Cave Bear books, but got annoyed in the sequels because a lot of the anthropology was replaced with bodice ripper love triangle drama This book totally satisfies the fascination I had fo...

The First Signs
  • English
  • 21 July 2018
  • Hardcover
  • 307 pages
  • 147678549X
  • Genevieve von Petzinger
  • The First Signs