Jean Clottes is a prominent French archaeologist and former general inspector for archaeology and scientific advisor for prehistoric art at the French Ministry of Culture. He is the author of Cave Art, among other books. Oliver Y. Martin is a lecturer in the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Robert D. Martin is curator emeritus in the Integrative Research Center at the Field Museum, Chicago.
Clottes has been looking at and thinking about the cave paintings of ice age Europe for almost half a century. I can t imagine anyone has a greater knowledge about the paintings, carvings, sculptures, and their associated archaeology than this great prehistorian. It s not just greater knowledge, but an emotional response: I ve seen tears come into his eyes as he was describing a painting that he must have seen and talked about many times before, and that still tugged at his heart as much as his brain. Clottes s enormous depth of learning and affection emanate from every page of this book. --Steven Mithen, University of Reading New Scientist