America’s largest cave figures, which may show spirits of the dead and are almost invisible, have been revealed by advanced photographic techniques.
Roughly 1,000 years ago, artists working by the light of burning reeds carved figures into the ceiling of a cave in what’s now Alabama, crouching in the narrow space below.
This carving on the cave ceiling is 6 feet long and appears to show a human figure wearing Native American regalia. It dates from about 1,000 years ago; nothing like it has been seen before, and archaeologists suggest it could represent a spirit of the dead.“They are either people dressed in regalia to look like spirits, or they are spirits,” said archaeologist Jan Simek, a professor of anthropology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Known to science only as the “19th Unnamed Cave,” it extends for miles beneath the surface. Hundreds of carved figures are incised into the ceiling of the “dark zone” filled with stalactites and stalagmites just beyond the light from the entrance. Although the entrance to the cave is large, the distance between the floor and the ceiling quickly narrows to between three or four feet in the dark zone, and it would have been similar when the carvings were made, he said.
One of the researchers, photographer Stephen Alvarez, with scanning equipment in the cave in Alabama where the Native American carvings were found. The largest carvings are now almost invisible; they were discovered in a detailed three-dimensional photographic model of the cave ceiling.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Ancient cave art discovered in Alabama is largest-known in North AmericaThe art, discovered deep in a cave in Alabama, was created by Native Americans who lived sometime between 660 and 949 AD, researchers said. FOX13
Read more »
Brazil's Amazon deforestation shatters April recordDeforestation in Brazil's Amazon surges to record levels for the month of April, nearly double the area removed in that month last year, preliminary government data shows, alarming environmental campaigners
Read more »
Making New Climate Data from Old TimberWhen an old building is demolished, its construction materials can reveal the secrets of the past.
Read more »
A Painting by a Teenaged Egon Schiele, Thought Lost for Decades, Has Been Found—and Will Be Turned Into an NFT to Fund Its RestorationA painting by a teenaged Egon Schiele, thought lost for decades, has been found—and will be turned into an NFT to fund its restoration:
Read more »