East Tennessee Historic Cave Art

Jan Simek, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and President Emeritus at the University of Tennessee, will present the story of Native American cave art and rock art in Tennessee and the Southeast. There are 100 known cave art sites in the region and more than 400 open rock art sites. 

For three decades, Simek has led a team that discovered and documented hundreds of prehistoric engravings and drawings. These Native American art works include the oldest known cave art in the continent, dating back 7,000 years in several sites. The most recent sites date to the historic period and were made by some of Tennessee's original indigenous peoples.