The Geography of Precontact Native American Rock Art in the American Southeast

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In recent years, a large number of precontact Native American rock art sites, including caves and open shelter localities, have been recorded in the southern Cumberland Plateau. Cave sites contain pictographs, petroglyphs, and mud glyphs. Most open sites are pictographs or petroglyphs painted or engraved into upland sandstone shelters and bluffs. The subject matter of these sites varies, but abstract symbols, geometric shapes, human figures, and animal images dominate. Chronological information is limited but indicates a long sequence of rock art production beginning 6,000 years ago. With nearly 300 proveniences currently known, southeastern rock art sites can now be examined from a geographic point of view. Using GIS, we assess the spatial relationships among the varied forms of rock art and identify patterns that may reflect shared site selection criteria, including cardinal orientation, elevation, and landform associations. We also use GIS to examine possible dimensions of variation that have a chronological basis.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39256.0