The First Signs

The First Signs is the first-ever exploration of the little-known geometric images that accompany most cave art around the worldthe first indications of symbolic meaning, intelligence, and language. Join renowned archaeologist Genevieve von Petzinger on an Indiana Jones-worthy adventure from the open-air rock art sites of northern Portugal to the dark depths of a remote cave in Spain that can only be reached by sliding face-first through the mud. Von Petzinger looks past the beautiful horses, powerful bison, graceful ibex, and faceless humans in the ancient paintings. Instead, shes obsessed with the abstract geometric images that accompany them, the terse symbols that appear more often than any other kinds of figuressigns that have never really been studied or explained until now. Part travel journal, part popular science, part personal narrative, von Petzingers groundbreaking book starts to crack the code on the first form of graphic communication. Its in her blood, as this talented scientists grandmother served as a code-breaker at Bletchley. 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 ancestorsoffering a glimpse of when they became us.