{"id":5752,"date":"2013-06-26T13:42:33","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T19:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5752"},"modified":"2013-06-26T13:52:17","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T19:52:17","slug":"sacred-geography-in-the-cumberland-plateau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5752","title":{"rendered":"Sacred Geography in the Cumberland Plateau"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interpreting prehistoric rock art is a challenge, and I suspect that some of Professor Simek’s colleagues may well challenge his interpretation, but he has been looking at petroglyphs from the Mississippian culture and thinks that they describe a three-tier cosmology (Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds), already attested elsewhere.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"

A Mississippian priest, with a ceremonial flint mace and severed head. Artist Herb Roe, based on a repouss\u00e9 copper plate. (Wikipedia).<\/p><\/div>\n

The Mississippian Culture is a term applied to people living in the area from about 800\u20131500 CE<\/a>, contemporary with the European Middle Ages. These people\u00a0 lived in fortified villages, and some built large ceremonial mounds.<\/p>\n

Simek and his team analyzed 44 open- air art sites where the art is exposed to light and 50 cave art sites in the Cumberland Plateau using nondestructive, high-tech tools, such as a high-resolution laser scanner. Through analysis of the depictions, colors, and spatial organization, they found that the sites mimic the Southeastern native people\u2019s cosmological principles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cosmological divisions of the universe were mapped onto the physical landscape using the relief of the Cumberland Plateau as a topographic canvas,\u201d said Simek.<\/p>\n

The \u201cupper world\u201d included celestial bodies and weather forces personified in mythic characters that exerted influences on the human situation. Mostly open-air art sites located in high elevations touched by the sun and stars feature these images. Many of the images are drawn in the color red, which was associated with life.<\/p>\n

The \u201cmiddle world\u201d represented the natural world. A mixture of open air and cave art sites hug the middle of the plateau and feature images of people, plants and animals of mostly secular character.<\/p>\n

The \u201clower world\u201d was characterized by darkness and danger, and was associated with death, transformation and renewal. The art sites, predominantly found in caves, feature otherworldly characters, supernatural serpents and dogs that accompanied dead humans on the path of souls. The inclusion of creatures such as birds and fish that could cross the three layers represents the belief that the boundaries were permeable. Many of these images are depicted in the color black, which was associated with death.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest at<\/a> Heritage Daily<\/em>, an online archaeology magazine. Wikipedia’s article on the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex<\/a> connects with all this, particularly the section on cosmology<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interpreting prehistoric rock art is a challenge, and I suspect that some of Professor Simek’s colleagues may well challenge his interpretation, but he has been looking at petroglyphs from the Mississippian culture and thinks that they describe a three-tier cosmology (Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds), already attested elsewhere. The Mississippian Culture is a term applied […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,20,219,208,220],"class_list":["post-5752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-archaeology","tag-cosmology","tag-indian-tribes","tag-tennessee"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1uM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2484,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2484","url_meta":{"origin":5752,"position":0},"title":"Old Underground Doings in Tennessee","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In cave-riddled Tennessee, archaeologists are discovering more and more ancient art, mostly from the High Mississippian culture (roughly coeval with the European Middle Ages) but some much, much older. Just to whet your interest, here are a few paragraphs from John Jeremiah Sullivan's \"America's Ancient Cave Art.\" The imagery was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5759,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5759","url_meta":{"origin":5752,"position":1},"title":"Spica, Online Cultural Astrology Journal, Launched","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the University of Wales Trinity St. David (formerly at Bath Spa University College) now has an online journal, Spica, with work by students in the MA program in cultural astronomy and astrology. Spica is available as a free PDF\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"astrology\"","block_context":{"text":"astrology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=astrology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.astronomy-and-culture.org\/journal\/thumbnails\/2013-1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4566,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4566","url_meta":{"origin":5752,"position":2},"title":"CFP: Culture and Cosmos","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Call for papers . . . CULTURE AND COSMOS Vol. 17,\u00a0 no. 1: Literature and the Stars We are inviting submissions for Vol. 17 no 1 (Spring\/Summer 2013) on Literature and the Stars. Papers may focus on any time period or culture, and should deal either with representations of astronomy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"astrology\"","block_context":{"text":"astrology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=astrology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1115,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1115","url_meta":{"origin":5752,"position":3},"title":"Gallimaufry with Old Bones","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 Some British Pagans want to rebury a 4,000-year-old skeleton. It seems to me that they are just parroting NAGRPA language without realizing that (to borrow from another blogger) that the Archbishop of Canterbury has as much \"blood\" claim to the bones as they do.\u00b6 George Plimpton was an American\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6017,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6017","url_meta":{"origin":5752,"position":4},"title":"Nevil Drury 1947\u20132013","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Nevil Drury, well-known Australian writer and teacher on magical and esoteric topics, died yesterday at home of cancer and liver failure. I had the experience of working with not long ago when he did an article for The Pomegranate: the International Journal of Pagan Studies on \"The Magical Cosmology of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"drury","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/drury.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13433,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13433","url_meta":{"origin":5752,"position":5},"title":"Latvian to Head European Congress of Ethnic Religions","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Latvian Pagan Uġis Nastevičs,\u00a0 a resident of Riga, was elected president of the European Congress of Ethnic Regions at a meeting in that city earlier this month. He works there as a translator and guide. The group defines \"ethnic religion\" as\u00a0 \"religion Several opioids start that access inhibiting for severe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Europe\"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=europe"},"img":{"alt_text":"U?is Nastevi?s","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Nastaevics-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5752"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5758,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5752\/revisions\/5758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}