SAJ pal and contributor Neil Mortimer, formerly editor of the mighty Third Stone magazine, and veteran author-researcher Paul Devereux have joined forces as editors of Time and Mind, a new ‘Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture’.
As you would hope with such a high pedigree, the first issue is packed with thought-provoking material. The opening paper by David Whitley perfectly encapsulates the journal’s themes: looking at North American rock art depictions of big horn sheep ranging from 11,000 to 150 years old, Whitley asks whether evidence exists for a continuity of meaning in the engravings. i.e., was a Numic artist-shaman working 11,000 years ago – at the end of the Pleistocene period when mammoths stomped the lands – thinking the same thing as their 19th century counterpart, and even more strikingly, their own counterparts painting cave interiors 35,000 years ago? You’ll have to read the piece to find out.
Elsewhere Israeli psychedelic psychologist Benny Shanon considers an entheogenic reading of the Old Testament (picked up last week by the Guardian); the redoubtable Jeremy Harte stalks the Devil on Dartmoor; Neil Mortimer interviews British archaeologist and painter Peter Fowler and we get an update on the fast developing findings in the field of archaeo-acoustics.
Mind expanding stuff presented in a sober and sophisticated academic journal format, Time and Mind will be published thrice annually. I already can’t wait for issue two.
The entire first issue is available to download as part of a free trial here, where you can also subscribe.