3-D Scans Reveal Gigantic Native American Cave Art in Alabama 1000 years old

3-D Scans Reveal Gigantic Native American Cave Art in Alabama

New analysis identifies four life-size human figures and an 11-foot rattlesnake drawn on the ceiling of an unnamed cavern. When I read stories like this it certainly offers some credence to the native American Indian lore of much older cultures.

www.smithsonianmag.com...

The exact location of the 19th Unnamed Cave, somewhere on private land in northern Alabama, is a closely guarded secret. What’s inside is too precious to risk destruction. An 80-foot-wide, east-facing mouth leads to a long tunnel where the ceiling and floor draw closer and closer together. You can’t quite stand up, but you don’t need to crawl, says photographer Stephen Alvarez, founder of the Ancient Art Archive and co-author of a new paper on the cave. The floors are uneven. Big pools of water are scattered everywhere. When you’re a long way from the entrance but can still see some daylight, that’s where the artwork begins.

Hundreds of images are etched into mud across roughly 4,300 square feet of the cave’s ceiling. Abstract shapes and swirling lines appear alongside rattlesnakes, bears, insects, birds and humanlike figures created by Native American artists under the flickering light of river-cane torches sometime between 660 and 949 C.E. The artwork continues well into the cave’s dark zone, where visitors can only see a hand in front of their face with the assistance of artificial light. Fog sometimes forms in the cave’s cool, damp air; this wet environment helped the artwork survive for more than 1,000 years.

a reply to: putnam6

Interesting, though a bit of stretch to call that one drawing a rattlesnake. The article said, "they" created it... It looks more like a single person created those etchings and preferred scribble line art.

a reply to: putnam6

Why would more recent artwork lend credence to ancient cultures?

I enjoyed that, Putnam! I did find the graffiti pretty sad- especially the phallic symbol. I really wish people didn't feel the need to destroy things.

Anyone who is anyone will notice at the 0:27 second mark, what appears to be a modern interpretation of a juvenile graphic display. This display has been passed down for generations, showing that after eras and ages of natives, wanderers, adults, and children alike, we all have one thing in common.

There is no better place than a cave wall to draw a cockandballs.

a reply to: putnam6

Looks a bit like hieroglyphics.

Also not to be gross, but doesn't the one drawing look like they missed the penis portion?

I have found quite a few Indian relics on my property, mostly rocks that were carved or sketched. Some look like kids scratched out things on them, others were flaked, chipped, or ground and smoothed.

They aren't as impressive as what is found in Italy...but it seemed like there were lots more young grinding and flaking rocks than old.

I would guess that those cave drawings were done by someone who was not a good indian artist. They were probably kids doing that and it almost looks like most of those sketches were done by one artist...similarities in the drawings.

I have researched some Native American artwork and most is pretty good while some of the stuff done by kids looks like school projects I made in fifth grade or so in art. Kids have to learn to be artists too, a friend of mine that came over from Italy told me the ground in the field is full of partially carved stones in various niceness, most of the ones in the field he worked at were probably done by kids or people trying to learn to do sculpture...not finished and not high quality for Italy. Same goes for the Native Americans...kids got to learn and learning by experience created most of the artifacts on my property. It is interesting to find these things but I have only found a couple that they did a decent job on. My icon is one of them on this site. Not worth a hell of a lot of money though, because people want nice stuff, not things made by some regular Indian who was just passing the time making things five hundred to a thousand years ago. I suppose that the good stuff they used for trading with other tribes. I guess that most of the Native Americans here were snowbirds...going to Escanaba area for the winters. Maybe they traded them there for some supplies during the winter.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: putnam6

Why would more recent artwork lend credence to ancient cultures?

It's all in the article... did you read it?

originally posted by: putnam6

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: putnam6

Why would more recent artwork lend credence to ancient cultures?

It's all in the article... did you read it?

I'm seconding him, it says nothing in the artcle about lending credence to/confirming squat.

I'd comment on the doodles, but since the article's pics are loading slower than molasses in winter right now, I'll have to try again later. I dont have enough patience for this bottleneck BS, Comcast

originally posted by: putnam6
3-D Scans Reveal Gigantic Native American Cave Art in Alabama

New analysis identifies four life-size human figures and an 11-foot rattlesnake drawn on the ceiling of an unnamed cavern. When I read stories like this it certainly offers some credence to the native American Indian lore of much older cultures.

Uhm... how old do you think that Native American cultures are?






(for those interested, archaeologists think the Native American presence in the Americas goes back to the last Ice Age, around 20,000 years ago -with some evidence that it might go back as far as 30,000 years.)

A number of the petroglyphs are very similar to the ones seen along the US/Mexico border here in Texas (Pecos style rock art.)

However, this is NOT Pecos River rock art... though it is from around the same time period.

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: putnam6
3-D Scans Reveal Gigantic Native American Cave Art in Alabama

New analysis identifies four life-size human figures and an 11-foot rattlesnake drawn on the ceiling of an unnamed cavern. When I read stories like this it certainly offers some credence to the native American Indian lore of much older cultures.

Uhm... how old do you think that Native American cultures are?

The first Alabamians arrived 13,000 years ago

20,000 plus sounds about right in my basic knowledge, the native lore I was referring to is even older than that. Something like basically 7 life cycles from primitive to different advanced stages where we were knocked down to almost extinction and humans survived multiplied adapted etc. We are just finding 1000-year-old stuff, what happened that decimated all the much older relics and evidence of those native 'civilizations" Where those natives related to the western native peoples? So many unanswered questions.

Could have sworn not long ago there was a discovery in Africa going back further than we used to believe. So if you are following along how many years from primitive ape to today's human? 200,000-300,000

It's my understanding that this is the oldest evidence in this area, pretty sure they said this in the article.






(for those interested, archaeologists think the Native American presence in the Americas goes back to the last Ice Age, around 20,000 years ago -with some evidence that it might go back as far as 30,000 years.)

originally posted by: putnam6

originally posted by: Byrd

Uhm... how old do you think that Native American cultures are?

The first Alabamians arrived 13,000 years ago

That's around the time for Alabama, yes, though it wouldn't be a surprise to find a still earlier date.

20,000 plus sounds about right in my basic knowledge, the native lore I was referring to is even older than that. Something like basically 7 life cycles from primitive to different advanced stages where we were knocked down to almost extinction and humans survived multiplied adapted etc.

I think that if you try to find a tribal source for this, you're going to find that this idea is a modern one and constructed here on the Internet. It's tangled up with the Hopi beliefs of the Four Worlds (I think) but they did not describe "advanced stages"... if anything else, those worlds/stages were more primitive and monster-filled.

(there's a lot of really... uh... imaginative fabrications about this belief done by inauthentic Native Americans and others. it's very offensive to the Hopi.)

We are just finding 1000-year-old stuff, what happened that decimated all the much older relics and evidence of those native 'civilizations" Where those natives related to the western native peoples? So many unanswered questions.

Not "just finding 1000 year old stuff" - that's pretty recent. Here in Texas we've got sites that are much older than that, including Buttermilk Creek

Could have sworn not long ago there was a discovery in Africa going back further than we used to believe. So if you are following along how many years from primitive ape to today's human? 200,000-300,000

Over 4 million years old, and that's just Australopithecus

Humans diverged from the great apes some 5-7 million years ago.