Visual art has one of the longest and fullest records of any human activity. Humans have been recording images of the world around them for more than 30,000 years. In Atlas of World Art (Laurence King, £75), art historian John Onians has coordinated the work of a group of anthropologists, archaeologists and art historians to compile a temporal and geographic history of art. Pictures of art, like the African masquerade shown here, take second place to detailed maps showing the cultural influences and location of key sites and artistic centres on each continent in seven different periods, from 40,000–5,000 BC to the twentieth century.