Stone Age Portable Rock Art: Cracking Open the Code

Can old stones talk? Yes, but not so much of themselves as lifeless bits of crystalline rock, rather through the art created by our Stone Age ancestors. They have left this for us to appreciate but for too long their portable rock art has been ignored or deprecated as meaningless, or even non-existent. The image that researchers of prehistory have passed down to us is of fearsome hunters, with brute mentalities, dressed in rough and ready skins, with little self-expression, minimal intelligence and, more to the point, they are devoid of any humour; ART! However, the issue is that it is not that the humour, self-expression, sarcasm, wit and art did not exist, it is just that those researchers who should know better lacked the latter and were just not appreciating it. Most of the art now left to us is from flint and chert knapping, while woodworking, as equally as important, has rotted away; but lest we forget, stone technology has been around for at least 90% of hominin & human existence. So, please join me on a journey of discovery through this ancient artform as I uncover and investigate the arty secrets, seeing how certain inspired ancestors wanted to be seen, as creative, imaginative, emotional beings - just like us!