The Prehistoric Native American Art of Mud Glyph Cave

Description

This book describes the 1980 discovery of prehistoric art in a small, East Tennessee cave. The discovery was made by two members of the U.S. Forest Service and the subsequent study of this site was made by anthropologists from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The cave is heavily decorated with drawings of animals, humans, mythical (?) figures, geometric designs, and what are perhaps religious symbols. For example, the “Weeping Eye” of the Mound Builders Culture is present. Fortunately, for the reader, there are several good photos of this art. Carbon-14 dating of charcoal found in the cave places the age of the majority of this art at approximately 800 years ago, during what anthropologists refer to as the Mississippian period, but some art may be older. Another positive feature of the book is the description of other prehistoric art sites in the Southeast. There are good photographs of the art from these other sites.