Cave art researcher and UVic doctoral candidate Genevieve von Petzinger has created a name for herself in the world of archaeology through her study of paleolithic cave images.

“Genevieve von Petzinger studies cave art from the European Ice Age and has built a unique database that holds more than 5,000 signs from almost 400 sites across Europe. Her work has appeared in popular science magazines such as New Scientists and Science Illustrated. A National Geographic Emerging Explorer of 2016, she was a 2011 TED Global Fellow, a 2013-15 TED Senior Fellow and her 2015 TED talk has more than 2 million views.” Simonandshuster.ca

• Here is a link to her 2015 Ted Talk “Why are these 32 symbols found in caves all over Europe“.
• Her 2017 book, The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the World’s Oldest Symbols, has received positive reviews and media interest.
• You can read her 2009 Master of Arts in Anthropology thesis, Making the abstract concrete: the place of geometric signs in French upper paleolithic parietal art, made available through UVic’s open access repository, UVicspace.
• Most recently, Genevieve has been awarded a 2019 William Petrie Graduate Student Library Scholarship by UVic Libraries.

We are looking forward to seeing what is next for this prolific UVic researcher!

The UVic LIbraries ePublishing Services Team