News from my Hometown (pictographs)

[Kyflintguy]

This is a report I found from my hometown.  I thought it was interesting,  I also found it was insightful into our local politicians there in east Kentucky,  they protect coal interest at all cost!...

http://medicalleader.org/ip/news.html?id=5004&section=

[rmartin]

Good link Ky. We can only hope it is protected!

[CMD]

Those are very nicely preserved. They are very rare in the eastern US, petroglyphs are much more common then pictographs.

[Kyflintguy]

I had no idea they were this rare, I found some while taking a lunch break underneath a rock shelter while deer hunting about 8 years ago. They were hand prints and stripes in a red pigment.  I was amazed, but assumed it was commonplace in that neck of the woods. I came back threw the area a few years later while hunting again to find the site dug completely up, beer cans and trash  everywhere. And the pictographs were barely discernable due to all the activity. Such a shame....

[CoachG]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

[gregszybala]

That is cool, maybe you can talk them into naming the site after you!

[CMD]

Kyflintguy wrote:

I had no idea they were this rare, I found some while taking a lunch break underneath a rock shelter while deer hunting about 8 years ago. They were hand prints and stripes in a red pigment.  I was amazed, but assumed it was commonplace in that neck of the woods. I came back threw the area a few years later while hunting again to find the site dug completely up, beer cans and trash  everywhere. And the pictographs were barely discernable due to all the activity. Such a shame....

  That's a bummer. I've seen a petroglyph site near me damaged by storms, they're right on the bay, no way to protect them. If they survive at all, might want to report their location to your state archaeologist or the researchers mentioned in the article. The climate's better for preservation of pictographs in the Southwest, but they do exist in the East. Some good links on rock art in general in the petroglyph section of the info center.
This seemed interesting at the time it was reported:

https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/17/uss-oldest-cave-and-rock-art-discovered-tennessee-149888

[Kyflintguy]

Awesome link CMD, I've heard of mud glyph cave and the archaic era glyphs but hadn't seen photos like that, that first photo actually shows a hunter probably using an Atlatl... wow!
Yeah never thought they could be one of only six known in the state! I just figured they wouldn't be interested were everything had been disturbed...haven't been back to the area in several yrs. Maybe there's still something salvageable remaining they would be interested in studying?

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Josh, That is some nice ancient art. Thanks for posting it.

[CMD]

Kyflintguy wrote:

Awesome link CMD, I've heard of mud glyph cave and the archaic era glyphs but hadn't seen photos like that, that first photo actually shows a hunter probably using an Atlatl... wow!
Yeah never thought they could be one of only six known in the state! I just figured they wouldn't be interested were everything had been disturbed...haven't been back to the area in several yrs. Maybe there's still something salvageable remaining they would be interested in studying?

  It's possible they had already recoded the pictographs, but if not, you might let them know. The site might be trashed by diggers, but maybe the paintings are somewhat salvageable. It's up to you, you could check their condition if you get out that way again in the future. Most of the time, the site is recorded as a pictograph/petroglyph site and no excavations follow.

[Kyflintguy]

Thanks for the advice,  I'm going to try to get up there next month and see what remains.  Hopefully there's still something left of them and I can take some photos and show you folks.