Chapter 7
In a Child’s Eyes: Human Origins and
Paleolithic Life in Children’s Book
Illustrations
Nena Galanidou
1. Pictures to catch children’s imaginations
In June 2005 the pop star Madonna launched the fifth and last
of her series of picture books for children, inspired by Hebrew Kabbalah
texts. Her books have been translated into 30 languages and are on sale
in 100 countries, with print runs of anything between a few hundred and
many hundreds of thousands (BBC news online). Amongst professional
producers and distributors of children’s books, reactions to her work have
been mixed. Madonna is not the only high-profile member of an entirely
different profession to have set up a sideline in children’s literature. The
modern western world could be said to regard writing a children’s book
as a ‘rite of passage’ conferring greater moral respectability upon the
writer: by writing for an audience regarded as innocent and pure, he or
she lays claim to a personal association with these qualities. Zelizer (1985)
describes this view as ‘romanticized and sacralized’. Madonna’s literary
rivals have included politicians, football players, media figures and even
mobsters (MacPherson 2004). There is also, of course, money to be made.
Within what is now a globalized and highly commercial market, publishers will accept any children’s book that will sell.
It is upon this same market that children’s books written (or
supposedly written) principally in order to educate must be launched. In
this chapter I shall be discussing children’s books that belong to the educational genre consisting of visual and textual narratives about human
origins and life during the Paleolithic. Inspired by palaeoanthropological
findings, these books are meant to educate children by introducing them
informally to various aspects of early human prehistory. Their power lies
in the fact that their vivid verbal and pictorial renditions of the history
of early humanity lend flesh and color to what are to many perhaps the
most distant and least attractive of archaeological finds: the lithic artifacts,
bones and human fossils found in Pliocene and Pleistocene strata. A strong
publishing house will translate and release such texts to many countries,
making them, like Madonna’s books, part of a global culture; throughout
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Chapter 7 - Nena Galanidou
Europe and on both sides of the Atlantic, parents or teachers in search of
a book of this sort are bound to come across some of the same titles. It is
the books they buy that will guide their children on their mental voyage
through the Paleolithic and cultivate their ideas about a heritage shared
by all modern humans, irrespective of race, nationality or religion. My critical examination of the portrayal of early prehistoric life and the history of
human evolution offered by these texts will focus upon that inordinately
powerful component of a children’s book: the illustrations.
During the 1990s historians of science came increasingly to examine the visual imagery of geology and paleontology and to challenge the
role of illustrations in shaping their discourse (e.g. Baigrie 1996; Gould
1993, 1997; Haraway 1989; Rudwick 1992). Within the same vein, Stephanie Moser’s pioneering research into the history of visual representations
of the archaeological ‘deep past’ and ‘otherness’ has shown that a large
part of the repertoire of attributes depicted can be traced back to classical and medieval times (1992, 1998). Her work has had a radical effect
upon the ways in which we now approach the visual imagery produced
and consumed in contexts as disparate as museum dioramas, archaeology
textbooks, advertising and mass culture. Diane Gifford-Gonzalez (1993),
Clive Gamble (1998) and V. Stoczkowski (1994, 1997) have also offered
incisive critical insights into the content of ‘scientific’ illustrations and
their effect in shaping views about human origins and the Early Stone Age.
Gamble observes that visual representations can restrict the development
of multiple alternative views about the past:
These are powerful, arresting images that shoulder aside
alternative visions. Their power is such that the scenes which
are commonly reconstructed become the only ones we will see of
human origins. So, our experience of the remote past is controlled
neither by the evidence we can dig up nor by the scientific analyses
we can perform on it, but instead by what we already expect to
see of it. (Gamble 1998: x)
Gifford-Gonzalez has called for a reflective collaboration between
scientists and artists in order radically to expand the range of possible
pasts represented in scenes of prehistoric life, incorporating alternative
views about social roles and about the assignment of activities according
to gender and age (1993: 38).
The methodological and interpretive repercussions of the work
that I have mentioned are profound. It can no longer be regarded as acceptable automatically to view any visual imagery of the ‘deep past’ as
neutral or objective. The illustrators of children’s books often draw upon a
‘pool’ of visual sources created in connection with institutions whose status
appears to validate these images: museums, cultural heritage sites and
textbooks, for example. Other sources may well be pictures downloaded
from the web, or other children’s books. I believe it to be important at this
point that we should expand the work described above to take in visual
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Human Origins and Paleolithic Life in Children’s Book Illustrations
imagery designed for children. My subject will be the stories that this
imagery tells children about the Paleolithic and the ideas with which it
makes them familiar. The many illustrations that I have examined in this
connection share, as will be seen, a limited number of themes. I shall be
examining and comparing the illustrations that have become the ‘canonical’ icons (sensu Gould 1997) of the Paleolithic and those alternative visual
representations that have sought to establish new possibilities.
2. The sample of books examined
The sample studied consists of 31 books published between 1979
and 2005 (Table 1). Classified as ‘educational books’, they were distributed
worldwide through museum shops and bookshops. They target various
age groups from preschool to adolescence. Their contents include text, illustrations, glossaries, instructions to parents and teachers, cards to cut
out, adhesives, games and other proposed activities intended to allow the
embedded information to be assimilated in a creative and entertaining
way. The illustrations variously consist of photographs of archaeological
or ethnographic material, color drawings and sketches. I have chosen here
to deal with ‘illustrated’ books; in other words, those whose visual images
are intended to illustrate the text, but are not supposed to be mutually
connected (Cianciolo 1997; see also section on picture books in Egoff et al.
1996).1 In terms of content, the sample examined may be divided into two
categories.
The first of these contains 27 titles (1–27, Table 1). Some are parts
of series dealing with natural or cultural history; some are stand-alone
publications by specialists (25–27, Table 1) or non-specialists. The idea
with which these books deal is anatomical and cultural change over the
course of time. Most of them organize their material in historical order,
the earlier stages of evolution being followed by later periods. According
to the weight, scope and priorities of their authors and publishers, the
departure point of these historical accounts may be the Big Bang, the
dinosaurs, the earliest primates, the australopithecines, the genus Homo
or the beginning of the modern human adventure. In a few instances
thematic organization takes the place of a strictly historical account (18,
Table 1). Most treatments of this sort aim to make children’s encounter
with the past more interesting to them by answering the questions that
they are supposed to be most likely to ask (did Paleolithic people really live
in caves? did they eat chocolate? did they go to the doctor?) In such cases
illustrations representing separate periods of prehistory (8, 9, Table 1) are
These are distinguished from ‘picture books’, defined as books in which
illustrations visually weave the fabric of the story on a canvas provided by the
author (Marantz 1983). Picture books about the Paleolithic are treated in Galanidou
(forthcoming).
1
147
148
A. Balfour, W. Webb
Collective
6 British Museum Activity M. Corbishley
Book: Prehistoric Britain
7 L’ Aube des civilisations B. Andre-Salvini, S. Cluzan,
N. Corradini, C.
Louboutin & MH. Marino
M. Welply
J. Woodcock, J.
James, M. Bergin
M. Berger
5 Eyewitness Guide Early P. Wilkinson
People
4 Early Humans: A Prehistoric World
P. Gouletquer
3 Le Livre des prèmiers
hommes
C. Ranzi, S. Pérols,
C. Jégou, M. Mallard, D. Grant, R.
Charman
Fergus Fleming & G. Smith, B. Hersey,
Paul Dowswell
R. McCaig, K. Tomlins, G. Wood
2 Stone Age Sentinel
P. Joubert
Illustrator
L.R. Nougiet
Author/
Editor
1 La Vie Privée des Hommes. Les Temps Prehistoriques
Title
1994
(1991,
1992)
1989
1989
1987
1989
(1984)
1998
2001
(1979)
Year
Table 1. The sample of illustrated children’s books examined
Athens
London
London
London
France
UK
Athens
Place
Delithanasis
(Gallimard
- Larousse)
The Trustees
of the British
Museum
Dorling Kindersley
Child’s play
International
Gallimard
Usborne
Kedros (Hachette, Paris)
Published by
Author (Head of
Education, English
Heritage)
Nick Merriman
Author (C.N.R.S.)
Jonathan Cotton
Author (Honorary
Archaeology Professor,
Univ. of Toulouse)
Archaeological/
Editorial Consultant & Affiliation
Continued on next page…
French
English
English
English
French
English
French
Written
in
Chapter 7 - Nena Galanidou
G. Wood
S. Tourret, A.
McBride, P. Bull, J.
Haysom, J. James &
D. Salariya
12 Stone Age Times
149
Collective
14 Mon Premier Larousse
de l’Histoire
M-C Lemayer, B.
Alunni & V. Stetten
16 L’imagerie des dinosaures et de la préhistoire
É. Beaumont
F. Bartsota
15 Short-short stories for
S. Bitsa
the very-very early times
A-M. Lelorrain
K. Vigestad
13 Min første bok om Stein- C. Lindström
alderen
C. Maynard
G.Vergés & O.
Vergés
11 La prehistoria y el anti- M. Rius
guo Egipto
P. Roxbee Cox &
S. Reid
10 Who were the first
people
S. Carter, J. Baker
I. Thompson
C. Hurdman
9 What do we know about M. Corbishley
Prehistoric People
8 Step into the Stone Age
Table 1- continued
2000
2005
2002
2001
1995
1994
1994
1994
1998
Lorenz Books -- English
Anness Publishing
Athens
Athens
Athens
Norway
London
Athens
London
English
French
Danish?
English
Modern Times
(Fleurus)
Paul Bahn
Nick Merriman &
Anne Millard
Author (Head of
Education English
Heritage)
Robin Holgate (Luton
Museum)
Continued on next page…
French
Benaki Museum Greek
Educational
Programs
Larousse
N.W. Damm &
Søn
Kingfisher
Kedros (ParSpanish
ramón Ediciones)
Usborne
Hemel
Simon & Schus- English
Hempstead ter Young Books
New York
Human Origins and Paleolithic Life in Children’s Book Illustrations
150
Collective
20 The Stone Age News
C. Ranzi
22 Homo settanta milioni
d’anni fa
C. Ranzi
A. Veaux, B. Veillon
21 Explorers -- Discovering Catherine
the world
Loizeau
F. MacDonald
I. Chamberlain, J.
Fisher, C. Forsey, D.
Guerrier, C. Hook, R.
Lindsay, P. Werner
19 À la rencontre des hom- Z-L. Crepaux, P.
mes prehistoriques
Picq, B. Garel, C.
Powels
F. Chandler, S. Ta- Collective
plin & J. Bingham
18 Usborne World History:
Prehistoric World
J. Field, R. Hook, J.
James, S. Lafford, S.
Marsh, T. Riley, M.
Sanders, P. Sarson,
R. Sheffield, S.
Stitt, M. White, J.
Woodcock
Illustrator
P. Brooks
Author/
Editor
17 Prehistoric Peoples
Title
Table 1 continued…
1986
(1982)
1999
1998
1998
(1997)
2000
2000
Year
Athens
France
London,
Boston,
Sydney
Athens
London
London
Place
English
English
Written
in
Gnosis (Rizzoli
- Milano)
Bayard Presse
Jeune
Walker Books
Frédéric Serre (French
National Museum of
Natural History)
Alison Roberts
(Ashmolean Museum
Oxford)
David Norman (Sedwick Museum of Earth
Sciences Cambridge),
Anne Millard (archaeologist)
Archaeological/
Editorial Consultant & Affiliation
Continued on next page…
Italian
French
English
Patakis (Nathan) French
Usborne
Lorenz Books
Published by
Chapter 7 - Nena Galanidou
P. Lauber
151
P. Picq
V. French
Ε. & Ε. Binder
27 Lucy et son temps
28 From Zero to Ten - The
Story of Numbers
29 The mastered fire
31 L’imagerie des inventions
B. Delf
E. & E. Binder
R. Collins
N. Verrechia
P. Simmon & M.- C. Hus-David, I.
L. Bouet
Misso, I. Rognoni, S.
Beaujard
30 In the Beginning: The
R. Platt
Nearly Complete History
of Almost Everything
P. Valavanis
26 The Hill with the Hidden Secrets
A. Ganosi
L. Karali-Gianna- K. Gouma
kopoulou
Isabella Benekou
25 Young Archaeologists
researching for human
prints in the environment
24 Once upon a time in the Marina Plati
Stone Age
23 Painters of the Caves
Table 1 continued…
2002
1995
1982
2000
2001
(1995)
1995
1998
1996
1998
France
English
Altberliner
Verlag
Zero to Ten Ltd.
Erevnites (Fontaine, Mango)
Αkritas
Akritas
Fleurus
French
English
German
English
French
Greek
Greek
Goulandris
Greek
Foundation-Museum of Cycladic
Art
National Geographic Society
London,
Dorling KinderNew York, sley
Stuttgart
E. Germany
Slough
(UK)
Athens
Athens
Athens
Athens
Washington
Author
Author (Lecturer Univ.
of Athens)
Author (Professor,
University of Athens)
Ian Tattersall
(American Museum of
Natural History)
Human Origins and Paleolithic Life in Children’s Book Illustrations
Chapter 7 - Nena Galanidou
sometimes presented as parts of a single topic. For example, the heading
‘Where did prehistoric people live?’ is illustrated with a Paleolithic cave,
a Neolithic house and an Amerindian tepee.
The second category contains 4 books that contain representations
of Paleolithic life while also dealing with other topics (28–31, Table 1).
Inherent in these books is a diachronic view of the past: they see the Paleolithic as the very starting point of human history. Amongst these books,
however, only 30 (Table 1), attempts to divide the Paleolithic by reference
to species, technology or geography, or in any other manner. In the other
texts this period is treated only as a prelude to the core theme of the book
and is given no more than a couple of pages or a handful of images. The
visual reconstructions employed embody a fixed sense of ‘primitiveness’.
They do so by reproducing the visual tradition of the Greek mythical
hero Herakles (Moser 1998: 29–30) (28, Table 1), by indicating an amount
of body hair that would not currently be regarded as usual, or by other
means. For instance, The Mastered Fire (29, Table 1), a book that aims
to describe human use of fire from its very early discovery (Fig. 1) to the
use of electric power, evokes primitivity by depicting half-naked cave oc-
Fig. 1. A Paleolithic cave scene from ‘The Mastered Fire’, © Synchroni
Epochi (reproduced with permission).
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Human Origins and Paleolithic Life in Children’s Book Illustrations
cupants (all males being bearded) dressed in animal skins and a cuisine
consisting of wild animals (Fig. 1). Drawing upon the comic tradition and
deliberately using anachronisms, the illustrator contrasts a modern frying pan with elements of prehistoric hunter gatherer life (Fig. 2) in order
visually to explain why natural fire was sought after and how its controlled
use improved daily life in the ‘deep past’.
3. Images of power and the power of images
Illustrations have a central place in ‘educational books’, particularly those intended for a younger audience. In such books pictures typically
take up far more space than text.2 In recent years both visual artists and
researchers in psychology and education have asserted the many benefits
of this balance. As well as supplying visual cues as to the content of the
text, illustrations are seen as cultivating aesthetic education, emotional
development, the ability to consider concepts theoretically and a sense of
space. Let us now consider the function of such illustrations as a ‘visual
context for learning’ (Kiefer 1995, 7) about our Paleolithic heritage.
Whatever their size or number, illustrations are powerful media
that mobilize a child’s visual sense and direct the mental connection
between what is narrated and what is portrayed. The components of
an illustration (its lines, its colors, its proportions, its perspective, the
characters and activities depicted and their location in the foreground or
the background of a scene) combine to constitute a visual language that
transmits a specific message about the past. The artist attempts to make
the vocabulary of this language, its visual images, clear and attractive in
order deliberately to create a lasting effect (perhaps dramatic, perhaps
humorous) that will familiarize young readers with evolutionary concepts
such as anatomic differentiation and cultural strategies for survival. The
text may thus be the recipe, but it is the illustration that transmits its
flavor.
Discussing Paleolithic imagery, Gifford-Gonzalez draws an analytical distinction between ‘anatomic reconstructions’ (visual representations
of early humans’ soft tissues based upon the fossil evidence) and ‘dioramic
representations’ (scenes depicting early humans carrying out activities
in natural settings) (1993: 26–27). An illustration whose representation
of hominid anatomy is faithful to the existing evidence may nonetheless
depict its subjects within anachronistic or ideologically biased scenes. Many
This is best exemplified by a series of books, all entitled ‘The Imagery of…’, the
first component of whose titles expresses the aim of transmitting educational
material in visual form. Originally published in French, this series has also been
translated into other languages. Paleolithic images appear in two books in this
series; one deals specifically with prehistoric life (16, Table 1), while the other
includes images depicting inventions (31, Table 1).
2 153
Chapter 7 - Nena Galanidou
illustrators who take great care over anatomical details seem to lose all
inhibition when they come to depict certain living scenes, discarding the
primary evidence in favor of powerful visual traditions. During the early
1980s, for example, the scientific illustrator Carlo Ranzi produced a series
of what were then credible anatomical reconstructions of the hominid line,
based upon a lengthy and meticulous study of the paleontological record.
Ranzi’s image of the creator of the parietal imagery at the Upper Paleolithic cave of Niaux in France (3, 22, Table 1), however, predictably depicts
an old male. Despite its painstaking anatomical correctness, this image
has given rise to considerable conflict, since it perpetuates a narrow and
androcentric reading of the Paleolithic record (Conkey 1997, Conkey et al.
1997). Another example is the ‘ladder of human evolution’, which puts in
an appearance in most of the children’s books in our sample. This image
classically compresses many thousands of years of evolution and multiple
genetic processes into the linear march of a male figure from ‘primitivity’
to ‘civilization’, the figure’s anatomical features and technological achievements being shown as gradually evolving towards perfection in the form
of a modern white male. Gould has dealt with this image extensively in
his discussion of canonical icons of human evolution (1997). Here we need
merely note that whereas its anatomical reconstruction of hominids may
indeed in many respects be accurate, its message is a distorted one. Human evolution was neither a linear event nor a men-only club and it is
not helpful light-heartedly to represent it as such.
Following a different analytical path, Costall and Richards (chapter 3) argue that illustrators tend to convey a sense of ‘pastness’ by using
a few visual elements linked to the past as its icons in the present. Three
types of illustration that may employ this approach are discussed: (a) the
purely decorative use of ancient motifs around page borders to create an
atmosphere of antiquity, (b) pictures that directly represent the content of
the text step by step, and (c) illustrations that expand upon the author’s
text to present their own version of the subject, in which case the visual
and textual narratives may not coincide. The second and third types may
be identified as Gifford-Gonzalez’s dioramic representations. Since in the
‘educational books’ that we are examining anatomical reconstructions
almost always appear within such representations, we shall now examine
the dioramic representations of five hominid groups (classified by genus
or species) within our sample.3 My quantification of these in Table 2 takes
the illustration as its basic analytical unit, bearing in mind that an illustration may consist of multiple smaller scenes.
Illustrations that are supposed to represent the Stone Age in general rather than
any specific species, or that represent species long vanished from the literature
(e.g. archanthropus, pithecanthropus, paranthropus), are not included in my
discussion.
3
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Human Origins and Paleolithic Life in Children’s Book Illustrations
4. The Paleolithic for children
4.1 Canonical icons
There is a striking similarity, both thematic and structural, between the dioramic representations used in connection with each hominid
species depicted by the books listed in Table 1. Several key themes appear
repeatedly in the illustrators’ depictions of change (whether evolutionary
or cultural) through time. At each new stage of human evolution a particular combination of attributes appears, incorporating any spectacular
archaeological findings (new anatomical traits, activities, living environments, elements of architecture, clothing, equipment or other technological
achievements).
Australopithecines are portrayed in woodland or open savannah.
They stand upright and have small hairy bodies and apelike faces (Fig. 3).
Their tools consist of their hands, wooden sticks, large bones and un-worked
stones. They walk, gather plants for food, crush fruit and nuts, catch small
Fig. 2. The discovery of fire scene from ‘The Mastered Fire’, © Synchroni
Epochi (reproduced with permission).
155
Number of
Books
14
10
12
11
16
Number of
scenes
33
20
56
69
102
Australopithecines
Homo hablis
Homo erectus
156
Homo neanderthalensis
Homo sapiens
593
285
304
89
110
Number of
individuals
400 (67.45%)
218 (76.5%)
240 (79%)
67 (75.3%)
78 (70.9%)
Adult males
96 (16.19%)
28 (9.8%)
29 (9.5%)
8 (8.9%)
16 (14.55%)
97(16.36%)
39 (13.7%)
35 (11.5%)
14 (15.8%)
16 (14.55%)
Adult females Children total
Table 2. Numerical description of the illustrations and percentages of individuals by species and social category. Images
with no clear indication as to the period, species (i.e. referring to the Stone Age in general or using coarse temporal
groupings (e.g. before the discovery of the fire and after it), or sex (i.e. they are portrayed in such a manner as to
leave no hint about it) are excluded from totals in this table.
Chapter 7 - Nena Galanidou
Human Origins and Paleolithic Life in Children’s Book Illustrations
game, reptiles and ants, compete for carcasses with other large carnivores
and are threatened by them. Australopithecine illustrations depicting
other animals almost invariably show lions and other great cats in the
foreground, zebras in the background and vultures sitting in trees. The
great cats’ visually dominant position and size within the composition
express their aggressive intentions and the threat that they pose to the
australopithecines. Three of our illustrations depict the Laetoli footprints;
unlike many other dioramic representations, these are cautious in their
interpretation. Only one shows the prints in the process of being made,
by an adult and a child (5, Table 1). Over 70% of the hominids portrayed
are adult males. Of the remaining 30% half are females (denoted by larger
breasts, less ventral hair and sometimes an infant in arms) and half are
Fig. 3. The australopithecine scene from ‘My first History Larousse’ (in
Greek) (c) 2003, METAIHMIO publications (for the Greek language),
title of the original French edition: ‘Mon Premier Larousse de l’Histoire’
© Larousse / VUEF 2002 for all over the world (reproduced with
permission).
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Chapter 7 - Nena Galanidou
children (Table 2). Even those illustrations that fall within the comic
tradition (Moser and Gamble 1997), as does that in Fig. 3, insist upon the
hardship of australopithecine life, aggressive scenes of conflict between
members of the species or between them and other large carnivores being
popular.
Homo habilis generally appears in open valleys whose background
of high mountains or steep slopes calls to mind the Oldowai gorge and
other present-day East African landscapes. Illustrators of these hominids
are not in agreement regarding their anatomy: some draw them with
apelike facial traits and hairy bodies, whilst others imagine them with
little body hair (5, Table 1) or more ‘human’ faces (12, 17, Table 1). Interestingly, these differences show no temporal progression indicative of a
trend in received opinion; regardless of the date of the illustration, the
choice between these types appears to depend solely upon the illustrator’s
preconceptions. Habilines are, however, always shown naked. They make
stone tools, build huts out of branches and stones, gather food, scavenge,
track and kill game of various sizes, butcher carcasses and contest the
ownership of food with other primates. The archetypal theme that invariably appears is tool–making, or, as some authors prefer to describe it,
tool-inventing. Illustrations belonging to the comic tradition (Moser and
Gamble 1997) may resort to anachronism, depicting Homo habilis, for
example, as a workman carrying a modern toolbox and a stone tool (14,
Table 1). Those that adhere to the archaeological tradition (ibid.) depict
a male adult knapping stone (1, 2, 5, 16, 17, 18, 22, Table 1) or teaching
younger hominids to do so (1, Table 1). The habiline tool inventory is depicted as containing not only stone tools, but bone hammers, sharpened
sticks and large pieces of unworked wood used as walking sticks. The
illustrations in our sample depict a total of 88 individuals, 75% of whom
are male. Images of females (again identified by their less abundant body
hair, larger breasts and association with infants) are conspicuously rare
(9.1%). Typically pictured in or near huts, reinforcing the view that women
belong at home and men outdoors, they are never shown making tools.
Children (15.9%) are depicted as smaller adults, but without attributes
designed to identify gender. Shown in close proximity to females and thus
to huts, they help adults and consume food.
Images of Homo erectus may or may not depict hairy bodies and
apelike faces. Illustrators differentiate these hominids from others not
by anatomical but by cultural traits: living in caves and discovering and
using fire. Visual narratives often explain how their subjects observed
naturally produced fire, mastered it and used it to protect themselves
from wild beasts and to improve the ways in which they ate and lived.
The great cats make an occasional appearance, but the animals vital to
erectus imagery are big pachyderms, depicted as the quarry of choice in
communal hunting scenes set in the shallow waters of a wetland landscape. Caves, open or stone-lined hearths, hand axes, wooden spears and
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Human Origins and Paleolithic Life in Children’s Book Illustrations
the occasional leather skin worn on some part of the body appear as the
emblems of a species more culturally advanced than its predecessors.
Erectus life overall is depicted as less precarious and dramatic than that
of the earlier hominids. Despite these changes in the visual vocabulary,
the male erectus is obviously still in charge. 78.8% of the individuals portrayed are male, and it is they who achieve technological advances and
ensure the survival of the group. Males collect raw stone and transform
it into tools, train their young in their methods, discover and use fire
and go out together to hunt large game. Meanwhile their females (9.6%),
distinguished by curvy bodies, larger breasts and long hair, carry babies
and maintain hearths. Children are a little more numerous than females
(11.6%). As with the earlier groups, they are identifiable as children by
their smaller stature, but no visual cues establish their sex.
Two of our erectus scenes belong to the comic tradition (14, 29,
Table 1), but most follow the archaeological tradition, within which a single
image has proved paramount. Maurice Wilson’s painting of Homo erectus
in the Choukoutien cave, commissioned in 1950 by the British Museum of
Natural History (Moser 1998, Fig. 6.8), is clearly the source of the erectus
scenes in books 3, 7, 17, 18, 22 and 25 (Table 1). Although the illustrators
in our sample have variously reshuffled roles and activities, changed the
number of individuals depicted, shown different prey species being carried
to the cave and moved the interior of the cave into the foreground, all have
fallen back upon the comfort and safety of this iconic view of erectus life.
More than half a century after Wilson decided upon the core composition
and main themes of his interpretation, they remain dynamically present in
the visual material through which our children learn about this period.
Illustrations of Homo neanderthalensis emphasize the distinctive
anatomical and physiognomic characteristics of this species along with
its technology, adoption of clothing and habit of living in caves. Depictions
of the first composite tools (wooden spears onto which stone points have
been hafted) convey the message that Neanderthals were more advanced
than earlier species. H. neanderthalensis is shown engaged in a variety of
activities: everyday tasks (almost invariably depicted as taking place in
caves), hunting and trapping game, fighting and participating in rituals.
Portrayed as a competitor for the same habitat, as a cult object and as the
quarry in hunting scenes, the animal integral to Neanderthal imagery is
the bear.
It is in the Neanderthal scenes that depictions of elderly individuals, distinguished by their white hair (and, in the case of the men, beards),
first appear (12, 17, 25, Table 1). Despite this expansion, the demographic
composition of these pictures remains unnaturally skewed: 9.8% of the
individuals pictured are female and 13.7% are children, while 76.5% are
male (Table 2). Clearly superior in more than number, men are shown
taking the initiative in every activity depicted, watched by females whose
only function appears to be childcare. The prevalence of images of this
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sort cannot but convey a lasting impression of the overriding importance
of the Paleolithic male.
Of the many ubiquitous Neanderthal images, perhaps the most
iconic is the burial scene. Within our sample, the superficial details attached to this image vary according to the artist. The burial is shown taking
place at different seasons and is drawn from different perspectives; the
grave, which may be oval, rectangular or circular, may be depicted inside
a cave or outdoors, and is attended by anything from two to sixteen people
whose sex and age vary. The core elements of this composition are, however, invariable and transmitted with strict care. The deceased is always
male. Buried in a foetal position with tools and animal bones around it,
his body is adorned with flowers or ochre. More recent images add a goat’s
horn to these offerings (e.g. 18, Table 1). The faces of those attending the
burial express sorrow and pain at the loss of a companion, conveying the
message that Neanderthals shared close emotional ties. Three other images (18, 22, 25, Table 1) illustrate these ties by depicting members of a
Neanderthal group caring for an older and less able person. Both groups
of images reveal the significant impact of the Shanidar cave findings upon
the Neanderthal imagery purveyed to children.
The iconography of Homo sapiens overwhelmingly refers to cultur­al
traits and activities that may be divided into three key areas: everyday
life in camps, big game hunting and cave paintings. Caves are no longer
the exclusive setting for everyday activities; more often than not these
are shown taking place in open-air camps consisting of shelters made of
wood, bone and hides. Here the illustrators have clearly based their ideas
upon Amerindian tepees, the Upper Paleolithic mammoth-bone dwellings
whose remains were found on the Russian plains and the Leroi-Gourhan
reconstructions of the structures at Pincevent. Although the ‘architectural’
background to our illustrations has changed, the division of labor by gender
has not. Men (almost always bearded) manufacture tools, return from the
hunt carrying game, butcher carcasses and build shelters. Women (with
long hair) carry babies, collect firewood, keep hearths alight, cut or cook
meat and stitch hides. The same division applies to children, who are
generally seen watching or helping with the activities carried on by adults
of their own sex, holding small animals or greeting male hunters on their
return from a successful hunt (for instance see Dommasnes, chapter 13,
Fig. 2). Visual representations of big game hunting show all-male parties
either in action or immediately after the hunt; their prey is a mammoth,
an elephant or a bear. Most images produced during the 1990s show Upper Paleolithic men and women wearing clothes inspired by ethnographic
records of more recent hunter-gatherer attire: skin or fur loincloths, dresses
or trousers. Some of the Upper Paleolithic women appear to have acquired
an unmistakable erotic charge. With long, sexy legs and perky breasts,
they could clearly be supposed to excite male desire (e.g. 19, Table 1).
Typical divisions by gender may be observed in the dioramic rep160
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resentation of Pincevent published under the heading ‘Summer on the
banks of the river Seine’ (7, Table 1). The 20 individuals portrayed here
include five boys, 11 men, one person whose sex is uncertain and only three
women, none of whom is in the foreground. One woman is brushing her
hair while she watches a party of men engaged in various crafts; another
is working a hide with a stone tool, while the third, who is surrounded
by children as she puts a hot stone into a container full of some liquid,
is presumably cooking. In this illustration the women are distinguished
by their long hair and dresses. All but one of the men, who are bearded
and wear trousers, are either making or carrying some sort of tool. This
image is reminiscent of the reconstruction of Pincevent at Le Thot, the
Cro-Magnon theme park 5km from Lascaux II in SW France, although it
depicts a greater range of individuals and activities.
Two of our examples depict Upper Paleolithic cave images in the
context of male ceremonial activity (18, 23, Table 1). In every other case
they are represented during the process of creation. The iconography of
this theme is monotonous and repetitive, insistently purveying an androcentric interpretation of what many consider to have been the dawn
of human artistic expression. Cave paintings or engravings are seen as
the creations of one or more bearded men (e.g. Fig. 4). The male ‘artist’,
assisted either by another man or by a figure of uncertain sex, stands on
the cave floor or on a wooden platform or stepladder. The primacy of the
male is reinforced by the positioning of these male creators at the centre
or in the foreground of these scenes. Children, if present, are depicted in
ancillary roles: watching the adults, playing or leaving hand stencils on the
cave walls. The role of women, where present, is standard and unchanging: they are there to crush ochre for paint or to light the cave by holding
a lamp or firebrand.
Within our sample, women do not only appear to make up a
strangely small proportion of the Upper Paleolithic population, 16.19%,
compared to 67.45% for men (Table 2), but are also seen to be of very
little importance to the immediate survival of the group, being of use only
where babies, children and domestic activities are concerned. Apparently
innocent scenes depicting the life of modern humans during the Paleolithic
thus impart an arbitrary (given the evidence) and yet extremely powerful
sense of gender roles and the hierarchies of social relationships at this
time. Men are invariably seen as of prime importance, at the top of these
hierarchies. By far the largest figure in the cover illustration of book 4
(Table 1) is a male hunter who dominates the picture’s foreground at centre
stage. He is preparing his spear while teaching a young boy his hafting
technique. Over towards the left-hand corner of this picture a secondary
male actor is returning from hunting with his prize, a young deer, while
to the left of the central male figure another hunter (male, to judge by his
attire) bearing a spear carries another dead animal on his back. Women,
half naked and far smaller than the men, appear only in the background
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of this illustration, under a sheltering rock, where they cook, knap stones
and work a hide. It is interesting to note the way in which illustrations
such as this use the presence or absence of body and facial hair to signify
degrees of evolution and, by extension, of cultural development. In scenes
depicting early hominids greater amounts of hair would appear to signify
an earlier stage of evolution. Representations of Upper Paleolithic hominids, however, appear to suggest that a male fashion for beards marked
the heyday of Paleolithic cultural achievement.
These, then, are the principal differences common to our illustrators’ visual reconstructions of the evolution of hominids through time. We
may note that even though our illustrations attribute different cultural
traits, environmental backgrounds and anatomical details to different
Fig. 4. The Upper Paleolithic cave painting scene from ‘My first History
Larousse’ (in Greek) © 2003, METAIHMIO publications (for the Greek
language), title of the original French edition: ‘Mon Premier Larousse
de l’Histoire’ © Larousse / VUEF 2002 for all over the world (reproduced
with permission).
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species, the gender roles portrayed remain constant. The Paleolithic imagery with which children are made familiar currently represents their
male ancestors as responsible not only for ritual but for the technological
innovations and subsistence activities vital to the immediate and longterm survival of their group; female ancestors, meanwhile, are associated
solely with their reproductive functions and with subsidiary subsistence
activities. This association is strengthened by the fact that illustrations
of big-game hunting are given pride of place, while the gathering of plant
foods is an extremely unusual subject. Men in their prime are portrayed
as strong, active defenders, food providers and innovators who behave courageously outside the confines of the campsite, while women are generally
seen as clinging to the safety of the camp. Children do little to contribute
to the welfare of the group, but receive valuable teaching for the future
from male adults. Rarely shown playing, children are, like women, invariably excluded from ritual scenes, which of course imply some degree of
sophistication and spirituality. Division of labor by gender, a concept that
is not given any particular emphasis in scenes of early hominid life, is an
immutable feature of Upper Paleolithic scenes, so that these illustrations
perpetuate an association between men and culture and between women
and biology (Conkey 1997). It is thus that we may purvey to our children
a false statement that echoes and serves androcentric Western 19th and
20th century stereotypes.
4.2 The seeds of change
From the late 1980s onwards the reverberations from palaeoanthropological debates as to the contributions of various social groups to the
history of human evolution started to have some effect upon the imagery of
‘educational books’. Illustrations began to include women participating in
big-game hunting (6, Table 1) and in ritual (18, Table 1), making baskets
from reeds, hunting seabirds with slings (both in 18, Table 1) and gathering
plants for food (10, 14, Table 1). Men were shown collecting shellfish and
exchanging blades for seashells (10 and 18 respectively, Table 1). These
images give some grounds for optimism. This is not, however, so much
because they express any genuine alternative to received ideas regarding
gender roles during this period as because they have expanded the range
of activities conventionally depicted. The visual vocabulary of these images
conveys contradictory and confusing messages to children. Women continue
to constitute a ridiculously small proportion of the figures in any scene,
and although their activities are now seen as more diverse, any figure seen
to express ingenuity or to take a principal role in safeguarding a group’s
short- and long-term survival is still invariably male. The cover illustration of a British Museum activity book (6, Table 1) eloquently expresses
these contradictions. It depicts a deer-hunting scene that includes a female
hunter. Despite her inclusion in this scene, the rhythm and arrangement
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of this hunting party are immediately expressive of gender difference. The
men, already efficiently prepared to shoot, have dynamically approached
the quarry, while the woman stands behind them beginning to take aim.
The message that this image conveys to a child must inevitably be that
the men are leading and protecting their female companion.
Sometimes contradictions between the visual and the textual narrative suggest that an attempt at reform has been made by the author, but
not by the illustrator. The best examples of this are seen in book 10 (Table
1), which is remarkable for its thoughtful approach to the minor details of
everyday life. Its illustrations show children playing, swimming, making
tools and asking for food, men washing animal blood off their clothes in
a river and women gathering fruit. One is tempted to suspect, however,
that this approach derived rather from the author than from the illustrator. Two examples will clarify this point. On page 6, the caption ‘This
girl will go hunting with her parents when she is older’ (a statement that
immediately expands the perceived range of female activities is applied
to a less than innovative picture of a girl cutting up animal skins to make
clothes. A few pages later, on page 13, the caption ‘This man is pretending
to make a bone tool. He is really about to have a nap’, a statement that
humorously plays down the respect conventionally accorded to the image
of the male Paleolithic craftsman, accompanies a picture of a bearded male
figure who is clearly performing hard and serious work upon a deer antler.
These pictures are accompanied by the usual ladder of human evolution, a
scene in which a male party hunts mammoths, Paleolithic parietal imagery
incorporating the stereotype of the male artist and his female assistant
and other canonical icons of the Paleolithic. This suggests that even where
innovative ideas drive the author they may all too easily be neutralized
by existing visual traditions in iconography that prove stronger than any
force for change.
An outstanding work that does not merely diverge from the canons
of representation, but sets new standards in australopithecine imagery,
is P. Picq’s ‘Lucy et son temps’ (27, Table 1). This book, written with the
intention of explaining evolution in an attractive and creative manner,
incorporates into its visual vocabulary alternative and entirely new ideas
about australopithecine life. Its illustrations, by P. Verrechia, do not belong to the mass-culture approach to popularizing prehistoric archaeology
amongst children seen in the last section. These pictures include eight
dioramic representations of peaceful everyday activities (such as breastfeeding, resting, bathing, grooming and cleaning up after babies) whose
impression upon the viewer has little to do with the conventional idea of
the aggressive, dangerous and generally miserable life supposedly led by
this species. This vision of australopithecine social life follows the developing trend that has modeled its ideas upon the sociobiology of chimpanzees
rather than upon that of other aggressive non-human primates such as
baboons (Tanner 1981; Hagger 1997), an approach whose visual language
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gives ‘an overall impression of a kinder, gentler hominid history’ (Zihlman
1997: 106).
While we must gratefully acknowledge the few brave attempts
made by illustrators between the early 1980s and the late 1990s to represent the Paleolithic to children in a new and more responsible manner, we
must also admit that little has changed. It would appear that the visual
vocabulary currently associated with this period is so powerful and so
deeply ingrained as to be able to throw off even conscious determination
for change. The nature of the Paleolithic record is such that this is perhaps
the only period of human prehistory whose textbooks must continuously,
rather than merely continually, be revised and updated. It is vital that the
visual imagery used to accompany these updates should keep pace with
them. Where illustration and Paleolithic archaeology meet, the former
would currently appear to be the dominant partner.
5. About illustrators
My skepticism regarding the existing canons of Paleolithic visual
imagery as seen in ‘educational books’ implies no disrespect to the illustrator. Compressing millions of years of human prehistory and of biological
and cultural processes into a drawing is no easy task. To the inherent
talent and learned skills required to fulfill it (Shulevitz 1997; Salisbury
2004), much may be added by examining the existing ‘stock’ of images.
Whether the illustrator seeks to imagine and depict soft body tissues that
no longer exist, a scene of Neanderthal life or an abstract notion such as
‘evolution’, a review of the database of existing images is an essential
first step. Just so must a scientist review the existing literature before
attempting serious scientific research on any topic.
So far, so good. The question is, however, why illustrators appear
so reluctant to move beyond this initial stage by daring to produce images
that do not conform to the existing canons. It is possible that compliance
with standard visual images is seen as necessary because every vision of
prehistory and especially of the ‘deep past’ is perforce imaginary. Reminding us of this, Gifford-Gonzalez points out the difference between images
depicting this period and scenes based on data acquired from natural
history or ethnography, in which the entities portrayed derive from some
tangible model and thus ‘embody direct experience’ (1993: 25). Paleolithic
scenes rely upon the illustrators’ own reading of the text and upon the
esoteric process of imagining the past, upon which existing images, perhaps perceived long ago in childhood, must clearly have a great effect. As
we saw in the introduction, the most controlling images are those whose
inclusion in institutional publications endows them with the entire weight
of the palaeoanthropological profession. Such images have perpetuated the
powerful and unreconstructed visual language that is currently constantly
recycled in children’s books, showing few signs of change. Perhaps it is
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time to cease to blame the illustrators for their conservatism. The time
may have come to turn our headlights upon the specialists instead.
6. About palaeoanthropologists
The books in our sample reveal an interesting publishing trend.
Only eight of them (21.62%) were written by professional archaeologists.
12 more (32.43%) acknowledge some degree of collaboration with archaeologists or physical anthropologists, whose names, however, rarely make
it onto the book’s cover. The extent of these specialists’ contributions thus
remains unclear, as does the matter of whether or not they would be prepared to endorse the final product (including its visual imagery). However
this may be, some form of scientific advice has been sought in just over
half of the cases in our sample (54%). The remaining books acknowledge
no such input. One side effect of this may be the occasional presence of
inaccuracies or anachronisms. Most common amongst these are the appearance of pottery in Paleolithic scenes (e.g. Fig. 1) and the presence of
motifs borrowed from Upper Paleolithic rock ‘art’ in what is supposed to
be the background to a Neolithic scene (e.g. 24, Table 1). Nothing in these
scenes indicates that these anachronisms are deliberate (as in Fig. 2); they
appear simply to reveal confusion regarding the technological advances
proper to various hominids and periods in human prehistory.
It may be no coincidence that all of the more thoughtful visual
imagery discussed above appears in books that acknowledge some specialist contribution (Table 1). Although it would clearly be desirable that all
‘educational books’ should be informed by professional advice, however, it
would be a mistake to believe the lack of it to be responsible for the whole
of our problem. Many of the canonical images that I have criticized were
published in books that do lay claim to some specialist endorsement. We
must thus assume either that the specialists concerned had no opportunity
to inspect these images before publication, or that they did so inspect them
and found nothing wrong with them, possibly because they were in no way
discordant with the experts’ own interpretations of the Paleolithic. The
first explanation raises the question of whether the publishing industry
ought to rethink the mechanisms whereby specialists contribute to ‘educational books’. The second reminds us that some of the many alternative
readings of the past are far more powerful than others, not because of
any outstanding interpretative value, but because their popularity and
longevity have ingrained them in so many minds. Palaeoanthropologists
concerned about social theory may well object to the form in which their
findings reach a wider audience or the way in which they are mistreated
by non-specialists (see, for example, Silverman chapter 5; Binant chapter
8; Dommasnes chapter 13), but their objections are unlikely to have much
effect upon the massive children’s book industry. Perhaps such specialists
are asking too much; perhaps they have naively failed to recognize the
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fact that this is an industry driven by profit. Where books are intended
to educate children, however, should not quality be the most important
criterion?
7. About children
Research in developmental psychology confirms that childhood,
from earliest infancy onwards, is the period during which the capacity of
the human brain to learn is at its peak. In the first section of this book, P.
Bauer and R. Fivush explore the ways in which a child’s sense of the past
and of history (initially his or her own; later that of others) is established
(chapters 1 and 2 respectively). Historical context is also important in
the process of ‘making sense’. Bruner and Haste describe this process
as a social activity: “by interacting with parents and teachers, the child
acquires a framework for interpreting experience and learns how to negotiate meaning in a manner congruent with the requirements of its own
culture, context and time” (1987: 1).
Children’s perception of pictures intended to convey information
about the past may be regarded as a similar process of ‘making sense’,
and is likewise influenced by cultural and historical constraints, by the
perceptual capacity of the individual child and by that child’s environment,
mood and state when he or she is introduced to a picture (see Costall
and Richards chapter 3). As visual aids to understanding, pictures are
part of the social activity of learning by reading. As Costall and Richards
stress,
[c]hildren develop a sense of the past not just by looking at pictures,
but becoming engaged in conversations about them…. (chapter 3:
p. 67, emphasis added)
This leads us to consider the effects upon children’s learning of
interaction with adults as they read, a topic whose importance is stressed
by R. Fivush in chapter 2. Anyone who has ever read books to preschool
children will be well aware that with adult guidance they very rapidly
develop a strong sense of the correspondence between text and image. Once
a book has been read to a child a few times, he or she will expect, as each
familiar picture is revealed, to hear exactly those words that accompanied
the picture last time. Personal experience suggests that children of this
age often ask to have their favorite stories repeated again and again in
order to clarify the visual material that accompanies them. Repetition
is an important key to the learning process. Any visual narrative of the
‘deep past’ contained in a children’s book that is seen, read and introduced
more than once thus wields considerable power, since such books target an
audience whose members learn fast and have neither the means nor the
volition to challenge the validity of what they learn. Many have argued
that the fairy tales, myths and religious legends that we tell to children
during their formative years profoundly affect their characters and their
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ideas about the world. According to Bettelheim, input of this sort ‘feeds a
child’s imagination and offers the material through which children form
their views on world’s origins and destination and the social aspirations
upon which future self-construction is founded’ (1997: 236).
Every ‘reconstruction’ of antiquity simultaneously constructs a
specific view about it (Silverman chapter 5; Economou chapter 6). The
power of the image turns hypotheses into facts and presents them to children as truths. The repetition of a single icon (or of its essentials) in many
contexts entrenches the ideas that it conveys and nurtures the unthinking
acceptance that comes with long familiarity, leaving little room for alternative ideas. Many theories concerning human origins and evolution are,
of course, of biological origin, with the result that any representation of
Paleolithic societies may easily be seen as based on powerful truths about
biology and human nature. This potential confusion is not specific to visual
material aimed at children, but it is children who are most likely to take
such messages on board wholesale. Growing up with a fixed sense of ‘who
was who’ and ‘who did what’ during early prehistory, these children will,
when they become adults, proceed in turn to guide their own children or
students according to their own ingrained sense of the ‘deep past’. A vicious circle will thus be perpetuated.
8. The way ahead
Children’s books about prehistory are only part of a far wider
debate as to how archaeology (and indeed science in general) should or
should not be popularized (see Dommasnes and Galanidou introduction;
Binant chapter 8; Boulotis chapter 9). Like adults who know nothing
about the subject, children are ill-equipped to question the validity of the
representations of the past (whether textual or visual) offered to them. I
would argue that the consumers of children’s prehistory books are particularly poorly placed to recognize its visual components as ‘imaginative
blends of scientific knowledge and artistic creativity’ (Gifford-Gonzalez
1993: 25). To the lay person (whether child, parent or teacher), the fact
that a book is being sold in the ‘educational’ section may well be enough
to make it appear to be a reliable source of information, whether or not it
has undergone scientific editing for accuracy.
At the same time there exist diverse ways of popularizing scientific findings about human origins. Archaeological and genetic research,
for instance, has had a profound effect upon the ways in which the public
experiences human evolution. It is now possible to trace the migration
paths of your own early ancestors with the help of a user-friendly package
on general sale online.4 Meanwhile, almost 150 years after the publica The Genographic Project, a joint venture by National Geographic and IBM,
costs a little over a hundred dollars and uses a fairly simple sampling procedure
4
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tion of Darwin’s theory of evolution, creationists and evolutionists in the
USA are still locked in bitter combat and extensive popular and political
support for the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools frequently baffles
and frustrates the scientific community. Darwin’s theory, though present
in educational systems throughout the western world, is taught far less
consistently than one might expect, Greek secondary education being a
case in point. All this being so, the images that we have examined must
at least be applauded for teaching the language of evolution rather than
of lightly disguised religious fundamentalism and for helping children to
visualize and understand the complex notions of evolution and change
through time. It is obvious, however, that these positive points do not and
should not render such images immune to critical scrutiny.
The visions of the past constructed and reinforced by illustrations
that belong to the canon of representation are highly debatable. These images, avowedly intended to educate, employ a limited range of iconographic
themes that confine interpretations of Paleolithic life to a few stereotypical
associations. The way in which modern publishers operate (they tend to
hold the copyright for their illustrators’ images, often release more than
one title on the same topic and sometimes authorize translators to conflate the contents of more than one book) often leads to the appearance
in several publications of identical or minimally adapted illustrations.
Far more significant than the repetition of a single image, however, is the
ubiquitous appearance in various guises of the same icon, sensu Costall
and Richards (chapter 3), and thus of the same stereotype. I have already
argued that this phenomenon has mainly to do with the limited number
of sources used by illustrators of the Paleolithic for children.
The perceived meaning of a picture is not dictated entirely by the
artist’s intentions. Every reading of an illustration must be seen within
its context. According to their background, age and educational status,
children may read and interpret images differently. It would therefore be
simplistic to regard illustrators as the active and direct transmitters and
children as the passive receptors of a single message. Further research
to explore the interaction between children and illustrations is needed.
The discrepancy between what we currently think we know about
the Paleolithic and what our ‘educational books’ are telling children about
it also derives partly from the power of the visual image. In illustrated children’s books the narrative is not simply interwoven with visual images; it
is the visual images that largely determine the narrative and the message
conveyed to children. So powerful has the limited pool of existing images
become that alternative interpretations and their visual representations
tend to fall by the wayside.
Not all of this can be blamed on the illustrators; whether direct or
to derive information about the individual’s genetic history (https://www3.
nationalgeographic.com/genographic/participate.html).
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indirect, the influence of specialists in prehistory is critical. If the publishers of children’s books are genuinely concerned about scientific accuracy,
they must cease automatically to accept offerings drawn from the usual
parochial Paleolithic image bank and insist upon consultation with specialists at every stage of publication. Without this sort of collaboration, alternative interpretations will continue to languish in obscurity. Meanwhile,
those who specialize in the social archaeology of the Paleolithic should act
upon the discomfort that they feel on passing a bookshop window filled
with dubious images endorsed by their colleagues, insisting, next time
they write a book themselves, upon commissioning new illustrations that
accurately transmit their views. Where the long and painfully restrictive
visual tradition in representing the Paleolithic is cast aside, it is entirely
possible for alternative images of the deep past to experiment in both
creativity and humor without losing a single ounce of scientific accuracy.
‘Lucy et son temps’ has proved that.
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