Stephen Alvarez

A Dark Pathway
A Dark Pathway book review
Founding board member emeritus Dr Jan Simek has a new book about cave art in the Southeastern United States. Dr David Whitley gives us a detailed review. A Dark Pathway: Precontact Native American Mud Glyphs from 1st Unnamed Cave, Tennessee, by Jan F. Simek. 2022. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. xviii+195 pp., 85 b&w and 19 color figures, 14 tables, bibliography, index. ISBN 9781621907176, hardcover. By David S. Whitley Rock Art Research Institute University of the Witwatersrand “Mud glyph” and “1st Unnamed Cave” are not particularly inspiring terms that, at first glance, might promote reading this book. Yet these very earthy, workman-like words in the sub-title exactly belie the careful, compelling and in fact exciting study detailed in this volume. Anyone interested in the Native American symbolic and spiritual world will benefit from and enjoy this book; it should be required reading for those concerned with the indigenous southeastern US...
Rock Eagle Effigy Mound
Updates to our public rock art sites
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Looking for a weekend rock art get away? We've made some updates to our public rock art sites interactive map. All the sites on the list are actively managed for public visitation. Changes include a new site Rock Hawk, direction maps to Rock Eagle and Serpent Mound, better access to embedded VR models in Chauvet, Mt Irish and The Great Gallery of Horseshoe Canyon.
Snake Tailed Cat Petroglyph
Persistence of Place
Some places become important to humans and remain so across thousands of years and multiple cultures.
San Juan County Petroglyphs
Southern Utah Petroglyph Boulders
We have loaded a VR model of petroglyph boulders in Utah optimized for the Oculus headset.
Maori cave painting
Cave Art Images from New Zealand
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New Zealand is one of the last major land masses to be explored and permanently settled by human beings. Max Wisshak has added his photographs of those explorers artwork to the Ancient Art Archvie.
Maya writing in Naj Tunich Cave
Naj Tunich Cave Maya pictographs
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The Maya pictographs in Naj Tunich Cave rocked the world of Maya archaeology when they were discovered.
Esplanade Polychrome style
Esplanade Polychrome style is known from only a handful of rock art sites in Mojave County Arizona.
Blythe Intaglios Geoglyphs
Blythe Intaglios, Geoglyphs of the Lower Colorado River
The Blythe Intaglios are so large they can be seen from space. However, they were only noticed by non Native Americans in the 1930.
Paenl of the Four Horses
Panel of the Four Horses, Chauvet in VR
The panel of the Four Horses in Chauvet Pont d'Arc cave is now online in VR
Rock Art in Texas Defaced
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Late 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...