Largest series of engravings ever found inside a cave in North America, some of which depict figures nearly 2 meters long. They would belong to the Woodland period
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himA series of giant glyphs dating back to the first millennium AD probably depicting Native American spirits of the underworld - they are the largest rock figures in North America just discovered in Alabama thanks to a powerful advanced photography technique.
The news is a study published in the journal Antiquity by researchers from the University of Tennessee (UTK), authors of the sensational discovery in a limestone cave in the northern Alabama countryside, known to science only as the "19th unnamed cave". Here, hundreds of sculpted figures are carved into the ceiling of the "dark zone" filled with stalactites and stalagmites just beyond the entrance light.
And now, according to experts, who used a process known as 3D photogrammetry, the newly discovered engravings were made during the period of the Woodland (of the woods), typical of a pre-Columbian civilization that developed in North America approximately between 1000 BC and 1400 AD
The carvings, some of which extend up to 2 meters in length, depict various figures, including what appear to be people wearing Native American clothing, such as headdresses, and carrying a rattle or weapon. Specifically, the study describes five of the larger figures found on the cave ceiling, four of which appear to be people wearing insignia, while the fifth is a coiled snake, possibly a diamond-backed rattlesnake.
They are either people dressed in insignia to look like spirits, or they are spirits, explains archaeologist Jan Simek, a professor of anthropology at the University of Tennessee and lead author of the study.
The images described in the document are almost invisible to the naked eye, in a place never thought to host life-size rock art. At over 400 square meters, the height of the cave chamber is so low that modern speleologists have to crouch or lie down to see it.
©A. Cressler
The cave, discovered in the 90s, is part of thousands of caves along the southern portion of the Appalachian Plateau, which stretches from southern Pennsylvania to Alabama. Its precise location has never been revealed, as researchers keep it closely guarded secret.
?: Archaeologists have discovered the largest known Native American cave art images. The massive artwork, found in…
Posted by Antiquity Journal on Wednesday, May 4, 2022
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Fonti: Antiquity Journal / National Geographic
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