Paul Eubanks at Tennessee Archaeology Awareness Month posters and postcards are a joint effort by the TCPA, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), and the Cave Archaeology Research Team (CART). If you would like a copy of the poster, please contact the TCPA at or Dr. This year we celebrate these seemingly enigmatic places on the ancient landscape in Tennessee and the artisans who traversed into the dark underworld to create them. While deciphering the meaning of these images is a difficult task, on-going research by CART reveals that cave art is one aspect of a larger physical landscape modification by ancient peoples in the region. Depictions of weapons are rare, but present in a small number of caves. Common motifs include meandering lines, circles, anthropomorphs, avian imagery, quadrupeds, and serpents. There is a wide range of subject matter depicted in the cave art of Tennessee. This tradition continued through the Woodland Period however, artisans decorated a majority of caves in Tennessee during the Mississippian period between A.D. At nearly 6,000 years old it suggests ancient cave art was practiced at a very early date. Direct AMS radiocarbon dating of the pictographs yielded an age of 4980☛P. The oldest dated cave art in the region comes from 48 th Unnamed Cave where charcoal images of an anthropomorph and quadruped were created ( see an image of the pictograph here). These caves, like Mud Glyph Cave, are very elaborate, sometimes including organized compositions of hundreds of images ( learn more about recent research at Mud Glyph cave here). Mud glyphs represent a unique category of cave art in which motifs are traced into the pliable mud on cave walls and banks. Painted caves in Tennessee primarily consist of images rendered in black using charcoal pigments like those found along the walls of Dunbar Cave State Park. Or, they can be dry-applied as a kind of “chalk” or pencil. Pigments can be ground, mixed with a liquid, and applied as a kind of wet paint. Pictographs are paintings or drawings made with common mineral earths and other natural compounds. Petroglyphs, or rock engravings, like those found at 12th Unnamed Cave and Devil Step Hollow were scratched into the walls using a hammerstone or other durable tool. Three different production techniques have been identified. In these underworld spaces they created myriad images of humans, animals, celestial beings, and otherworldly creatures. Indigenous artisans in Tennessee made their mark within the deepest stretches of caves, beyond the reach of natural light, illuminating their path and work by the faint light of rivercane torches. This number will no doubt increase as their team continues to explore the dark zone areas of caves throughout the region. In Tennessee alone, 55 cave art sites have been identified. This multidisciplinary team of archaeologists and geologists are experienced cavers who bring together a range of expertise including detailed mapping, photogrammetry, 3D modeling, and chemical analyses to understand these unique archaeological spaces. In 1996, Jan Simek at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) formed the Cave Archaeology Research Team (CART) with the goal of identifying, documenting, and protecting cave archaeological sites across the Southeast. Since the discovery of Mud Glyph Cave in 1980 there have been systematic and organized efforts to locate and record Tennessee’s dark zone cave art sites. Early peoples ventured into these locales for several reasons including chert and mineral mining, habitation, exploration, and in many cases, they decorated the deep interior with art. Request a copy from is one of the richest karst regions in North America and exhibits a deep-rooted tradition of exploitation dating back to the Archaic. 2021 Tennessee Archaeology Awareness Month poster.
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