UT archaeologist shares findings at Nashville conference

Archaeologist Jan Simek examines cave art found in Marion County, Tenn. / Alan Cressler

There are more than 100 caves and rock sites in Tennessee that reveal forms of prehistoric art, and University of Tennessee archaeologist Jan Simek says he plans on finding many others.

“There is a lot more out there to discover,” Simek after presenting his team’s recent findings at the 2014 Current Research in Tennessee Archeology meeting held at Ellington Agricultural Center.

Simek, a distinguished professor of science at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and a team of archaeologists have made several new cave and rock art discoveries in recent years in the Cumberland Plateau, the Smoky Mountains and in the river valley in East Tennessee. Some pictographs are underground and others in the open air, many dating back 6,000 years.

Simek presented illustrations of geometric shapes, crosses and circular structures with lines projecting from them made with liquid paint, as well as geometrical tracings found on cave walls.

The rock art is religious iconography and portrays how people may have viewed the universe within three layers – the upper world, the middle world where humans live and the lower world, he said. Paintings that illustrated the upper world are painted high above the ground on bluffs, for example.

With each discovery, Simek said, archaeologists are able to better determine where other drawings may exist and help discover and preserve those sites.

“These are cultural heritage treasures that belong to all of us,” he said. “They are something to document, to save, to protect.” tennessean.com