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Sacred landscapes of the south-eastern USA: prehistoric rock and cave art in Tennessee

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Jan F. Simek ,
Alan Cressler ,
Nicholas P. Herrmann  and
Sarah C. Sherwood
Jan F. Simek
Affiliation:
1Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, 252 South Stadium Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA (Email: jsimek@utk.edu)
Alan Cressler
Affiliation:
2United States Geological Survey, Atlanta, GA 30360, USA (Email: alan.cressler@gmail.com)
Nicholas P. Herrmann
Affiliation:
3Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA (Email: herrmann@anthro.msstate.edu)
Sarah C. Sherwood
Affiliation:
4Environmental Studies Program, Sewanee: the University of the South, Sewanee, TN 37383, USA (Email: sherwood@sewanee.edu)
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Abstract

Systematic field exploration in Tennessee has located a wealth of new rock art—some deep in caves, some in the open air. The authors show that these have a different repertoire and use of colour, and a different distribution in the landscape—the open sites up high and the caves down low. The landscape has been reorganised on cosmological terms by the pre-Columbian societies. This research offers an exemplary rationale for reading rock art beyond the image and the site.

Keywords

North Americasouth-east USATennesseeMississippianrock artcave art
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 336 , 1 June 2013 , pp. 430 - 446
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2013

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