Category Archives: Autonomical Cave Art

Autonomical Cave Art Books

“The Ancients Did Not Think of Themselves as Ancient.”

Thursday, December 6, 2018

Several years ago I discovered the website EarthSky.org, which keeps me up to date on the latest explorations of Mars and other planets, as well as recent hunches about the origins of the universe. Today, I saw the following posting in which researchers are speculating about the astronomical purposes of cave art:

Prehistoric cave art suggests ancient use of complex astronomy

Reinterpretations of cave art have been part of the discourse of avant-garde poetry for several decades, primarily due to the extended labor of one of the most important poet-editor-translators of the past half-century, Clayton Eshleman, who has led the way in contemporary poetry in exploring the imaginative implications of cave art for contemporary civilizations.

You can read an interview with Clayton Eshleman, published in 2009, at:

http://www.bookslut.com/features/2009_01_013889.php

A short review of Juniper Fuse appeared in the New Yorker (March 14, 2004):

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/03/15/juniper-fuse-upper-paleolithic-imagination-and-the-construction-of-the-underworld

Finally, should you wish to have an aural equivalent of a quick palate-cleansing, here is a soundtrack you might enjoy. Perhaps “the ancients,” with ears less deafened by electronically magnified soundtracks, could hear a version of this as a Winter Solstice approached.

Listen as Saturn and its moon interact