Imagine walking through a museum filled only with masterpieces from all periods and regions in the world — going back to the dawn of man.

It's an ambitious dream that editors at publishing house Phaidon Press undertook in their new coffee table book, 30,000 Years of Art. The massive tome presents 1,000 great works of art arranged in chronological order. From a figurine carved from the tip of a mammoth tusk in southern Germany around 28,000 B.C., to artist James Turrell's unfinished Roden Crater — still being built in Arizona's Painted Desert — the book examines the vast range of human artistry.

Liane Hansen spoke with Editorial Director Amanda Renshaw about the masterpieces gathered in Phaidon's book. Renshaw describes four works from 30,000 Years of Art in detail below.

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