Rock Art

A Dark Pathway
A Dark Pathway book review
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...
Rock Eagle Effigy Mound
Updates to our public rock art sites
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Looking for a weekend rock art get away? We've made some updates to our public rock art sites interactive map. All the sites on the list are actively managed for public visitation. Changes include a new site Rock Hawk, direction maps to Rock Eagle and Serpent Mound, better access to embedded VR models in Chauvet, Mt Irish and The Great Gallery of Horseshoe Canyon.
San Juan County Petroglyphs
Southern Utah Petroglyph Boulders
We have loaded a VR model of petroglyph boulders in Utah optimized for the Oculus headset.
Stephen Alvarez works in an unnamed cave
Native American Cave Art Over 1000-Years-Old Revealed by 3D Scans
Giant Cave Art images discovered using 3D modeling. This expands our knowledge of the Woodland Culture world view.
Maya writing in Naj Tunich Cave
Naj Tunich Cave Maya pictographs
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The Maya pictographs in Naj Tunich Cave rocked the world of Maya archaeology when they were discovered.
A Southeastern Cave Entrance
Indigenous Cave Explorers of the 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.
Esplanade Polychrome style
Esplanade Polychrome style is known from only a handful of rock art sites in Mojave County Arizona.
Serranía de la Lindosa, Columbia
Are the Serranía de la Lindosa paintings 12,000 years old?
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Are the Serrania de la Lindosa Colombia paintings 12,000 years old? They could be but why are they so well preserved?
Paenl of the Four Horses
Panel of the Four Horses, Chauvet in VR
The panel of the Four Horses in Chauvet Pont d'Arc cave is now online in VR
pictograph handprint in El Castillo
Dating Rock Art, How Old Is It?
paintings in El Castillo in Spain are more than 40,000 years old, much older than previously suspected