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Prehistoric Drawings In Mammoth Cave, Logan Kistler

Kaleidoscope

During a recent Earthwatch Institute survey of archaeological remains in Mammoth Cave, a project was begun to find and record prehistoric images on the cave walls. I chose to analyze petroglyphs and pictographs on three panels in Main Cave. This article offers a hypothesis for the circumstances surrounding the rock art’s production: the geometric and anthropomorphic figures in Mammoth Cave are representative of a series of visual percepts experienced cross-culturally and caused by various conditions — including sensory deprivation, fatigue, and psychoactive drug use — acting on the ocular anatomy and nervous system. That is, the glyphs might be visual …