The Hunter, the Stag, and the Mother of Animals
Image, Monument, and Landscape in Ancient North Asia
Esther Jacobson-Tepfer
Reviews and Awards
CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, 2015
"Professor Jacobson-Tepfer offers to readers her outstanding first-hand knowledge and deep understanding of unique Eurasian civilizations: the societies of ancient hunters, nomadic mounted pastoralists, and their animal symbolism. Archaeology, art history, and the history of religions, including shamanism, are synthesized by using careful scientific theoretical approaches." -- Henri-Paul Francfort, Director of the French Archaeological Mission in Central Asia.
"The Hunter, the Stag, and the Mother of Animals is an important book not only in terms of its value as a scientific treatise nonpareil but also as an elegant exploration of the prehistoric human mind with implications far beyond the geographical and temporal focus of Jacobson-Tepfer's study. Her lucid, informative and entertaining writing is complemented by superb illustrations, including world-class photographs contributed by her husband, world-renowned photographer, Gary Tepfer." -- John W. Olsen, University of Arizona
'Adorned with hauntingly beautiful photos by Gary Tepfer and well-chosen line drawings illustrating key artifacts, this assessment of long-muted societies is an inspired triumph of dedicated scholarship and an inspirational work of art in its own right. It may well remain the most revealing interpretation of ancient rock art in South Siberia until the stones themselves begin to speak with human voices...Essential" -- Choice