Includes bibliographical references (pages [271]-286) and index.

Two red dots -- Once upon a time in Africa ... -- Glimmers of a modern mind -- Intermittent signals -- Welcome to the Ice Age -- Venuses, lion-men, and signs beyond the mundane world -- Life and death in the first villages -- How to make cave art -- Signs across the ages : the many styles of the oldest art -- Of animals and humans and strange tableaux -- Patterns : trading signs and sharing symbols -- Chicken or egg : a brief history of language, brains, and writing -- The lady of St. Germain-la-Rivi�ere and her mysterious necklace -- Through the eyes of the ancestors : a rock art epiphany -- Feather or weapon : the real-world meanings of cave signs -- Seeing the unseen world : visions, shamans, and the seven signs.

"An 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 archaeologist Genevieve von Petzinger as she travels to the open-air rock art sites of northern Portugal and the dark depths of a remote cave in Spain that can only be reached by sliding face-first through the mud. She looks past the beautiful horses, powerful bison, graceful ibex, and faceless humans in the ancient paintings, examining 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. Her book starts to crack the code on the first form of graphic communication. 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"--Provided by publisher.