FASCINATING STILL IN SPITE OF ITS AGE

JEAN CLOTTES — DAVID LEWIS-WILLIAMS

THE SHAMANS OF PREHISTORY, TRANCE AND MAGIC IN THE PAINTED CAVES

1996

WHAT CAN WE THINK OF IT 20 YEARS LATER?

This book is fundamental because of its content. I am going to follow some threads coming out of the book and I will show one or two elements that are missing, and that causes a few widening research questions to be missed. The book could have been really revolutionary if it had included the couple of points I will bring forward. In fact, when it was published these questions were already important, though I will use all that has been discovered since 1996 to argue my various points, and research in this field has been galloping over the last ten years.

First the timeline. It is clear in the book but not repeated enough and it is not indicated page 54 on the chronological table: the peak of the Ice Age is 21,000 years ago, and I prefer counting from year 0 of our era, hence it is 19,000 BCE. That means the Magdalenian period which is essential in the book is after that peak…