Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T03:55:41.468Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

1st Unnamed Cave: a Mississippian period cave art site in east Tennessee, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Charles H. Faulkner  and
Jan F. Simek
Charles H. Faulkner
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996, USA
Jan F. Simek
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The well-protected walls and floors of deep caves are some of the few places where human markings on soft materials — sands, muds, clays — survive archaeologically. Since 1979, a special group of caves in the eastern United States has been reported with ‘mud-glyphs’ or prehistoric drawings etched in wet mud. Here, the seventh of these mud-glyph caves is described; once again, its iconography connects it to the ‘Southern Cult’ or ‘Southeast Ceremonial Complex’ of the Mississippian period.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 70 , Issue 270 , December 1996 , pp. 774 - 784
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Davis, D. B. & Haskins, V.. 1993. A preliminary investigation of Mississippian mud glyphs in a Warren County cave. Paper presented at the Eastern States Rock Art Conference, Natural Bridges State Park (KY).Google Scholar
Faulkner, C.H. (ed.). 1986. The prehistoric Native American art of Mud Glyph Cave. Knoxville (TN): University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Faulkner, C.H. 1988. A study of seven southeastern glyph caves, North American Archaeologist 9(3): 223-46.Google Scholar
Faulkner, C.H. 1994. Discovery of a new ‘mud glyph cave’; in Middle Tennessee, Journal of the Cumberland Spelean Association 1(1):24–9.Google Scholar
Faulkner, C.H. 1995. Radiocarbon date from Warsaw Cave, Journal of the Cumberland Spelean Association 2(1):25–7.Google Scholar
Kneberg, M. D. 1959. Engraved shell gorgets and their associations, Tennessee Archaeologist 15(1): 1–39.Google Scholar
Lewis, T. & Kneberg, M. D.. 1946. Hiwassee Island. Knoxville (TN): University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, T. & Lewis, M.. 1995. The prehistory of the Chickamauga Basin in Tennessee. Knoxville (TN): University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Phillips, P. & Brown, J. A.. 1978. Pre-Columbian shell engravings from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma. Cambridge (MA): Peabody Museum, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Simek, J. F. et al. In press. A preliminary report on the archaeology of a new Mississippian cave art site in East Tennessee, Southeastern Archaeology.Google Scholar
Waring, A.J. & Holder, P.. 1945. A prehistoric ceremonial complex in the southeastern United States, American Anthropologist 47(1):1–34.Google Scholar