Texas Archeological Society Annual Meeting 2015

Banquet Speaker

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Jean Clottes back to Texas as our Banquet speaker for the 86th Annual TAS meeting.

As most of you know, Dr. Clottes is a world renowned expert on prehistoric rock art and has joined us before to discuss rock art in France. This year he is with us to present a program on his latest research on Rock Art and Tribal Art in India. According to Clottes, thousands of painted sites can be found in India and particularly in the center of the country. The spectacular images he will discuss were painted or engraved over a long period of time, dating back to 10,000 years ago.

Dr. Clottes and his associate, Dr. Meenakshi Dubey-Pathak have recorded many rock art sites deep in the jungles of central India, where cultural and natural contexts have been well preserved due to their remote settings. They observed ceremonies that are still taking place in the painted shelters and were able to study local tribes and collect detailed testimonies on rapidly vanishing practices and age-old traditions that explain the deeper meanings of the rock art images.

“In the earliest paintings from the Mesolithic period, hunting was most often represented, as well as dancing and animals like peacocks. In the Neolithic/Chalcolithic, cattle took over in the imagery as they were people’s riches and were so to speak part of the family. In troubled Historical times, the themes mentioned were still represented but warriors, weapons and fighting became prevalent in the art,” said Clottes. “The most obvious purpose for the paintings is about the beneficial power of the images. They are indeed images for the spirits and for the gods, but also for the tribal people themselves who ask for protection from the gods through their paintings and the ceremonial practices that surround them.”

Dr. Clottes studied at Toulouse University (1950-1957) and received his PhD in Prehistory in 1975. He was appointed Director of Prehistoric Antiquities for Midi-Pyrenees in 1971. In 1992 he was appointed General Inspector for Archaeology at the Ministry of Culture in France and in 1993 became the Scientific Advisor for everything relating to prehistoric rock art, a position he held until his official retirement in July 1999. He is currently the editor of the International Newsletter on Rock Ara (INORA). He is also an international expert for rock art with ICOMOS (The International Council on Monuments and Sites) and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

He has published or edited 31 books and more than 500 papers on the subject of rock art. Five of his books (and many papers) have been published in English including The Cave Beneath the Sea (Harry Abrams, 1996); The Shamans of Prehistory, with D. Lewis-Williams (Harry Abrams 1998); World Rock Art (Getty Foundation, 2002); Chauvet Cave: The Art of Earliest times (ed) (The University of Utah Press, 2003); and Cave Art (Phaidon, 2008, 2010).

Dr. Clottes will also be appearing at the Second Annual TAS Book Festival sponsored by JTAH from 5:00 – 5:50 on Saturday, October 24th, immediately preceding the Banquet. He will discuss his most recent book, published in French with his associate, Dr. Dubey-Pathak and entitled “Des Images pour les Dieux. Art rupestre et Art tribal dans le Centre de l’Inde”.

 

If you have any questions please contact event Co-Chairs Linda Gorski at president@txhas.org or Kathleen Hughes at hughes.kathleen@yahoo.com We look forward to seeing you soon!