A recent scientific study has discovered the spooky drawings giant carved in the ceiling of a cave Alabama more than 1,000 years ago.
The figures, three of which are humanoid, are among the largest carved figures ever discovered in North America, some nearly 2 meters long.
Known as “glyphs”, the carved work Uniquely sculpted in soft mud on the cave ceiling can provide facts about the traditions of the caves native Native to the southeastern United States.
Archaeologist Jan Simek said: “We know that Native Americans over a large area always had certain ideas about their religious concepts. They believed in a multi-layered universe. “.
They also believe that there are always spirits that pervade the natural world, even though humans will not be able to see them.
The nearly 2 meter high carving looks like a rattle in hand. Photo: Insider.
Invisible numbers revealed
The project was carried out over decades by archaeologist Jan Simek and photographers Alvarez and Alan Cressler.
Even so, they were unable to record works of art from antiquity because of a seemingly simple but technically challenging barrier: The cave ceiling was too close to the floor for the works to appear. fakes can’t take nice pictures of carvings.
Photographer Alvarez when first trying to capture the handwriting during a National Geographic mission in 1999 said: “The image is really too faint to be reproduced!”.
“I feel like there are stories destined to be entrusted to me,” Alvarez asserts. “That’s the driving force behind all the decisions and exploration plans.”
One of the study authors in the cave. Photo: Insider.
Ultimately, high-tech 3D photometry will be the key to helping researchers capture the ‘glyphs’. It can read minute changes in light between two images taken a few inches apart to draw accurate 3D models of objects.
The months-long work was still a grueling task to take more than 16,000 duplicate photos, helping to visualize the entire ceiling of the cave.
Photographer Alvarez said: “It took quite a few years for my knee to recover. I just knelt and stooped for hours, day after day.”
Finally, when it was possible to descend the cave using digital technology, the authors saw for the first time the carvings of a giant human figure.
The 19th unnamed cave, Alabama. Photo: Insider.
Decipher the ancient story
The sculptures depict what archaeologists call ‘humanity’, figures that may represent humans in costumes and masks or figure spirits, says archaeologist Simek. People.
These characters were probably ingrained in the culture of the people living near the cave so that they could understand who they were by seeing only a part of themselves.
The style of the Alabama cave drawings is reminiscent of those from the midwest and western United States. They are often very large with square shoulders, ghost-like, hooded and well-dressed, facing the viewer directly. That suggests that these numbers represent the inhabitants of the supernatural world, according to numerous studies.
An example of similar human figures can be seen carved in caves in the Barrier Canyon in Utah.
Cave carvings in Utah, Canyonlands National Park. Photo: Insider.
However, the study authors were unable to link the Alabama cave figures to the ‘recognizable’ characters recorded in Native American stories of the southeastern United States.
“They clearly represent a character or a set of characters that we’ve never seen before,” Simek said.
Philip Carr, Professor of Native American Studies and Anthropology at the University of South Alabama, who was not involved in the study, commended the work.
“The work of archaeological groups like this has provided rare glimpses into the ideologies of the past that have kept people wanting to know more about life,” he stressed.
“Are these drawings related to the underworld? If so, what is the relationship of the people who drew them to the creatures of the underworld?”
An unknown shape is created by swirling lines. Photo: Insider.
Find the old to reach the new
Little is known about the people who lived around those caves 1,000 and 1,500 years ago, known as the ‘Middle Wood’ period.
Mr. Simek said: “We don’t have the kind of documentation of artwork that we have in later time periods. We know the archaeological context, but even that was relatively hard to find at the time. present moment”.
These findings are relevant to today’s Native American communities, which consider these traditions part of their heritage.
A snake carving. Photo: Insider.
“Their descendants are people who were native to the southeast in the area when Europeans migrated, including the Cherokees, the Creeks, the Muscogees, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws,” he added.
These people and their cultures are vibrant and vibrant. The Europeans forcibly moved them out of the Southeast, to Oklahoma, and to areas that were not their homeland. But they still maintain their connection.
“Archaeology isn’t always about the dead,” says Simek.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: Soha.vn – Read the original article here
