Over 100 engravings have been identified on an 8 meter long panel in a cave in Tarragona. The images are exceptional both for their uniqueness and their state of preservation.
We know that ancient artists were exacting observers of the natural world. But it is mind bending that they may have had a written time keeping system 20,000 years ago.
Comedian Michael Che offered up his opinion about our recent discovery of massive cave art in Alabama during an early May 2022 Saturday Night Live show: “Archaeologists have discovered thousand-year-old drawings in caves in Alabama. Guys, they’re bad,” he joked during his segment of Weekend Update. We appreciate the joke! The laugh line comes in at about 1 minute 15 seconds in the video below.
Founding board member emeritus Dr Jan Simek has a new book about cave art in the Southeastern United States. Dr David Whitley gives us a detailed review. A Dark Pathway: Precontact Native American Mud Glyphs from 1st Unnamed Cave, Tennessee, by Jan F. Simek. 2022. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. xviii+195 pp., 85 b&w and 19 color figures, 14 tables, bibliography, index. ISBN 9781621907176, hardcover. By David S. Whitley Rock Art Research Institute University of the Witwatersrand “Mud glyph” and “1st Unnamed Cave” are not particularly inspiring terms that, at first glance, might promote reading this book. Yet these very earthy, workman-like words in the sub-title exactly belie the careful, compelling and in fact exciting study detailed in this volume. Anyone interested in the Native American symbolic and spiritual world will benefit from and enjoy this book; it should be required reading for those concerned with the indigenous southeastern US...
Indisputable evidence proves Indigenous Americans ventured as far as 3 miles into southeastern caves 5,000 years before the invention of electric light. Native Americans were excellent cave explorers.
