THE CONTEXT OF EARLY SOUTHEASTERN PREHISTORIC CAVE ART - A REPORT ON THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF 3RD UNNAMED CAVE

In the deep recesses of ''3rd Unnamed Cave,'' a karst cavern in Tennes see, evidence for an ancient association between dark zone cave art an d chert mining has recently been documented. The art comprises petrogl yphs on the ceiling of a chamber more than I km from the cave entrance . On the floor below the art, natural sediments were excavated prehist orically to obtain high-quality chert nodules. Radiocarbon age determi nations place the mining during the Terminal Archaic period. Studies i n lithic technology, geoarchaeology, and petroglyph description are pr esented.