ROCEEH Communications
ROCEEH Communications is an open access series, published by the research center "The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans" (ROCEEH) of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. This series serves to disseminate research papers and conference proceedings on topics about the early history of humankind between 3 million and 20,000 years before present in Africa and Eurasia.
The focus of the series is on contributions to human expansions of cultural performances, resource space and spatial distribution as well as a systemic understanding of human evolution. The series brings together works with disciplinary and interdisciplinary, theoretical and case study approaches from four allied fields which together form the basis of the research center:
- Archaeology – focusing on the origins of cultural development and the process of its unfolding up to early artistic expressions at the end of the Paleolithic
- Paleoenvironmental research – investigating the development of habitats and resource spaces of early humans
- Paleoanthropology – examining the biological and social evolution of humans as carriers of culture, who also shaped and used resource spaces
- Geography – serving the spatial analysis of the developmental history and its representation, the digital humanities and related information sciences.
Series Editors
Nicholas J. Conard
Miriam Noël Haidle
Volker Hochschild
Friedemann Schrenk
Published so far
Images, Gestures, Voices, Lives. What Can We Learn from Paleolithic Art?
The concept of ‘Palaeolithic art’ and its study have changed considerably in recent decades. The modern notion of ‘art’ is cross-culturally and diachronically problematic. The phenomenon cannot be reduced to material visual culture, but also has acoustic, haptic and other dynamic aspects. It must be understood as a variety of processes that can encompass both the everyday and the extraordinary. In this volume, archaeologists, philosophers and anthropologists approach ‘Palaeolithic art’ from different perspectives, including its conceptualisation, aesthetics, relations to art history and art brut. The contributions deal with the challenge of materiality, evolutionary aspects, physical re-enactment by actors, digital technologies as a means of interpreting art objects, and the protection of cultural heritage. The volume offers innovative insights into past practices and contemporary ideas and approaches related to Palaeolithic art, based on careful empirical research combined with reflective and sophisticated theoretical approaches.
