The video above is a visualization using photogrammetry of the largest known find of cave art images made by indigenous Americans. From Antiquity:
Since 1979, when the first cave art was documented in North America, dozens of other examples have come to light. Among these, 19th Unnamed Cave in Alabama contains hundreds of pre-contact Native American mud glyph drawings. In 2017, 3D modelling of the glyphs was initiated, ultimately enabling digital manipulation of the chamber space and revealing images that could not be perceived prior to modelling. Most surprisingly, the cave’s ceiling features very large anthropomorphic glyphs that are not apparent in situ due to the tight confines of the cave. We argue that photogrammetry offers untapped potential for not simply the documentation but also the discovery of a variety of archaeological phenomena.
Would love to know the motivation behind the behavior.
Creating art out of view in secret.
I’ll speculate that they did not consider it art at all.
Natives even today are quite superstitious which is barely distinguishable from religious.
The drawings IMHO are offerings to Gods or possibly ancestors.
I’m sorry, but compared to the high art of the 30,000 year-old caves in France and Spain, these glyphs are just plain silly.
Even the Solutrean/Covid spear points from 12,000 BC or so are better.
Perhaps we will discover true art in American caves, but not yet.
These glyphs are at the level of the 40,000 year-old rock art in Australia.
So I’m a snob. When I was in college, it was a short walk to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts with its utterly spectacular collection of art stolen from Egypt and Iraq. Submersion in that art is totally transforming. The renaissance Gardner Museum, before the looting, and also in walking distance, was another revelation.
When it comes to theft, nothing really beats the British Museum. Compared to the Brits we’re pikers.