Exploring the Mind of Ancient Man : Festschrift to Robert G. Bednarik
Contents: Foreword. Robert G. Bednarik and the dating of the Rock Art/Alan Watchman. 2. Formation of the International Federation of Rock Art Organisations (IFRAO)/B.K. Swartzs Jr. 3. A review of the work of Robert Bednarik/Jonathan Barnes. 4. Robert G. Bednarik and his contribution to Rock Art Research/P. Chenna Reddy. 5. The earliest manifestations of \'Art\': an attempted integration/Derek Hodgson. 6. Sketching the surface: scratched Petroglyphs at Parker Point, Dampier, Western Australia/R.G. Gunn. 7. Science and Rock Art Research of the world/John Clegg. 8. Rock Art of India: a reappraisal/Y. Mathpal. 9. Archaic minds and miniaturization: Glozel/Norman Simms. 10. About Rock Art perception and the Bushman of Southern Africa/J.B. Deregowski. 11. Methodologies and discussions on the study of Rock Art Research: perceptions for new investigational problems/Guillermo Munoz. 12. A method for studying finger flutings/Kevin Sharpe and Leslie Van Gelder. 13. The question of Palaeolithic scripts/Paul Bouissac. 14. The case for Aesthetics and Rock Art/Thomas Heyd. 15. Munda-Vedic Mleccha speakers of Saravati Civilization/S. Kalyana Raman. 16. Rock Art and cultural responses to climatic changes in the central Sahara during the Holocene/Jean-Loic Le Quellec. 17. Excavation of a Rock Shelter (No.18) in the campus of the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal/G.L. Badam, Amitava Choudhury, Aditi Sen and Hemant Dave. 18. Rock Art education and ethics/Dario Seglie. 19. Reflections on dating of Rock Art/Marvin W. Rowe. 20. Portrayal of rhinoceros in art: some questions/J. Manuel. 21. Cupules of Sandhbalda in Rairakhol Tehsil, Orissa, India/Prajnya Pratim Pradhan, Arakhita Pradhan and Kamei Athoilu Pradhan. 22. Origin of Symbolism: an Arabian perspective/Majeed Khan. 23. Musings on the Palaeolithic Fan Motif/John Feliks. 24. Indian prehistoric art: the root of the Historical Classical Art/Sundara Adiga. 25. Recording and monitoring Rock Art in Britain and Libya with 3D laser scanning/T Barnett, M Diaz-Andreu and P Longhurst. 26. New discoveries at Niaux Cave in the French Pyrenees/Jean Clottes. 27. Palaeolithic cultural change in Western Eurasia across the 40,000 BP timeline: continuities and environmental forcing/Francesco G. Fedele and Biagio Giaccio. 28. Bhimbetka Glyphs/James B. Harrod. 29. Naturalised epistemology, human models of reality, salience and cave iconography/Yann-Pierre Montelle. 30. Documentation of painted Rock Shelters at Bhimbetka, district Raisen, Madhya Pradesh/S.B. Ota and J. Manuel. 31. Scientific interpretation of Rock Art/C. Patterson. 32. Deciphering some symbols/Geometric designs in the Rock Art of Bihar and Jharkhand/A.K. Prasad. 33. Rock paintings of Geruiya Pahar, district Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India/D.P. Tewari. 34. Rock Art and sustainable indigenous Australian cultural heritage tourism/Graeme K. Ward. 35. A study of the Rock Art in the Upper Gundar Basin, Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, India/V. Selvakumar. 36. Pre-symbolic interaction and the Palaeo-ecology of religion/Jorn Greve. 37. Rock Art explores Indus History/Dhanpat Singh Dhania. 38. Some ship representations in Indian Rock Art/Alok Tripathi. Index.
"This book offers a major collection of invited papers assembled for the specific occasion of the 60th birthday of Australian researcher Robert G. Bednarik. Its widely ranging topics reflect the equally wide-ranging interests of this most productive scholar, but they are all somehow arranged around his primary focus: the mind of ancient man, how he came to be human, and what kinds of scientific methodology might be brought to bear on the ambitious task of exploring these subjects. A large number of Indian and international scholars, representing most continents, address the broad spectrum of Bednarik\'s interests, and acquaint the reader with many of the specific problems and issues surrounding questions of the origins of culture, of human realities and the evolution of human cognition. One of the most distinctive common threads in this volume is its preoccupation with prehistoric Rock Art, reflected in the majority of the contributions, which also reflect the emphasis of Bednarik\'s continuing life work." (jacket)
