Heavens on Earth: Cave Imagery and the Legacies of Mississippian Ceremonialism

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Art Style as a Communicative Tool in Archaeological Research" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Cave art is amongst the earliest evidence of art in the North American Southeast, and was instrumental in establishing Early Mississippian period iconographic styles. Exploring the imagery found in caves across different cultural regions provides alternative contexts to understand distinct belief systems and ritual practices. This paper looks at the imagery found in caves in the Dhegihan ancestral territory compared to examples of cave art from the traditional ancestral territories of the Cherokee. Through exploring comparative examples, we consider how art with underworld related themes and symbolically charged depictions of games were made significant in cave settings.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Art Style as a Communicative Tool in Archaeological Research

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33630