Rock Art and its Legacy in Myth and Art : Petroglyphs from Eurasia, Arabia and Northern Africa

Rock art is mankind’s oldest artistic expression. The first creation of rock carvings (petroglyphs) and rock paintings (pictographs) by Homo sapiens represented on multiple counts a quantum leap in mental performance.

In Rock Art and its Legacy in Myth and Art Christoph Baumer tells the story of these remarkable creations of early human imagination in Eurasia, Arabia and the Sahara. Petroglyphs not only reflect societal and economic adaptations to climate changes but also encapsulate the worldviews, myths and rituals that prevailed for tens of thousands of years, and even down to the present. In a final chapter the artist Therese Weber describes the work of contemporary artists from different cultures who engage with rock art and introduces her own work which is inspired by her exploration of petroglyphs. Vividly illustrated throughout with 340 full colour images and 10 maps, this book is a celebration of the legacy of petroglyphs as a means of expression and of recording events and coded messages, as well as a source of inspiration for modern-day artists.