Articles
- Esplanade Polychrome styleEsplanade Polychrome style is known from only a handful of rock art sites in Mojave County Arizona.Read more
- Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian. The Precontact Native American Cultures of Southeastern United StatesArchaic, Woodland, and Mississippian the pre contact Native American Cultures of the Southeastern US.Read more
- Are the Serranía de la Lindosa paintings 12,000 years old?Are the Serrania de la Lindosa Colombia paintings 12,000 years old? They could be but why are they so well preserved?Read more
- Venus of Willendorf is ItalianThe Venus of Willendorf, a 35,000 year old statue found in Austria has its roots in ItalyRead more
- Blythe Intaglios, Geoglyphs of the Lower Colorado RiverThe Blythe Intaglios are so large they can be seen from space. However, they were only noticed by non Native Americans in the 1930.Read more
- Panel of the Four Horses, Chauvet in VRThe panel of the Four Horses in Chauvet Pont d'Arc cave is now online in VRRead more
- Devilstep Hollow CavePeople we refer to as Mississippian used Devilstep Hollow cave as a ceremonial space. Explore the artwork and symbols sealed insideRead more
- Rock Art in Texas DefacedLate last year vandals irreparably damaged a rock art petroglyph panel in Big Bend National Park. 2021 was a hard year for United States rock art with major instances of vandalism reported in Utah (here, here) and now closing the year in Texas. Anyone with information about the incident in Texas should contact the Big Bend National Park Communication Center at 432-477-1187. Detailed view of vandalism in Big Bend National Park, Texas photo via NPS The National Park Service reports that there have been over 50 instances of vandalism to rock art in Big Bend since 2015. Read more at Art News (here) and Texas Monthly (here). At the Ancient Art Archive, we believe that the only long-term solution to vandalism is education. We must build a long term and wide spread appreciation for the images our predecessors left written on the landscape. To that end we have built education...Read more
- Dating Rock Art, How Old Is It?paintings in El Castillo in Spain are more than 40,000 years old, much older than previously suspectedRead more
- Meet Dr Joe Watkins PhDAt the Ancient Art Archive, we always knew we wanted the Mural of America stories to be told from an indigenous perspective, so we were beyond thrilled when Dr. Joe Watkins agreed to join our team to engage Native communities in building out each site's archaeological and cultural content.Joe's gentle personality, Choctaw ancestry, archaeological expertise, and decades of experience conducting collaborative work with indigenous communities make him ideally suited for this project. Read on to learn more about Joe and his journey! v Joe, what inspired you to become an archaeologist?When I was a kid, I would spend the summers with my grandmother out in the country on the edge of Cypress Swamp in southeastern Oklahoma. It was kind of fun. We had no electricity, We drew our water from a spring in the back, bathed in the river, and my grandmother cooked on a wood stove. We went to sleep...Read more
- Pictograph 3D Model on the San Rafael SwellMeta optimized virtual reality model of Barrier Canyon Style pictograph rock art on the San Rafael swell in Emery County UtahRead more
- The handprint pictograph is the universal symbol for humanityHandprints are the universal symbol of humanity. We have seen them across all of human history and on 6 continentsRead more
- Shooting the Milky Way and Rock ArtHow do you shoot the Milky Way and rock art at the same time?Read more
- Picture Cave Missouri Sold at AuctionPicture Cave Missouri, the Mississippian era ceremonial cave near St Louis, containing some of the most incredible pictographs in North America has sold at auction for $2.2 million to bidders who wish to remain anonymous. There is no word on what plans the new owners have for this cultural masterpiece. Details about the Picture Cave sale are in this NPR story here. The 43-acre parcel was sold on September 14 by Selkirk Auctions. We are of course disappointed that the cultural asset was not moved to public or tribal hands. Picture Cave relates significantly to Cahokia and the red horn story. Red Horn in the form of the Falcon Warrior makes an appearance in Devilstep Hollow cave in Tennessee (see our 360 degree VR video with narration by Dustin Mater here). For anyone who would like more information on the art and significance of Picture Cave we recommend Carol Diaz-Granados...Read more