Early rock art of the American west : the geometric enigma /

The widespread body of early rock art and abstract geometrics identified with the American West has long eluded interpretation. Though ubiquitous and ancient, this art has stymied the efforts of generations of archaeologists, art historians, epigraphists, and iconographers who have tried to elicit meaning from that range of abstract geometrics that transcend representational or naturalistic definitions. But despite the Herculean challenges entailed in recording the ubiquity and diversity of such works, Malotki (Northern Arizona Univ.) and Dissanayake (an independent scholar) have succeeded in producing a comprehensive, studied, and beautifully illustrated treatment of the most ancient and widespread abstract geometrics rendered in petroglyphic (pecked) and pictographic (painted) media throughout the American West. Their studied approach to this esoteric art form is both compelling and innovative, and constitutes one of the most thoroughgoing treatments currently available for interrogating this long-neglected and otherwise arcane medium of human expression. Drawing on the insights of ethology, cognitive archaeology, evolutionary biology, and the psychology of art and art-making, the authors succeed in building a brilliant, substantive case for the antiquity of the early geometric enigmas that span the American West, and for the psychology behind their creation. Summing Up: Essential. All readers. --Rubén G. Mendoza, California State University, Monterey Bay