Mexican archaeologists find Olmec and pre Olmec ceramics inside cave in the State of Guerrero

Inside a cave in the municipality of Cocula, north of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, specialists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) found a Mezcala type figurine and fragments of braziers that date back to the year 700 AD; in this same context, they found Olmec and pre Olmec ceramic which dates back to 1000 and 1200 BC, as well as osseous remains, which means this emptiness had different uses and was a place of funerary cult.

Archaeologist Miguel Perez Negrete, from the INAH center in Guerrero, detailed that the Mezcala figurine is complete, and its finding is relevant because of the few discoveries that have been made of these kinds of pieces, only twelve have been found in the region during this decade. These sculptures are schematic and small, made with stone. 

The Mezcala culture is one of the civilizations that has been developing along the Balsas River, even toward the limits of the state of Guerrero, which has been identified primarily because of its architectonic style and anthropomorphic figurines. 

“The one found in recent days, is a human representation in limestone, 8 centimeters [3.14 inches] tall, and like others that have been found, the gender of the figurine cannot be distinguished. Something noticeable is that it doesn’t have slanted eyes, but round, like dots. Along the figurine they also found White Grainy ceramic which is very sandy. This type of material was used in the Epiclassic period (700 AD)”, explained the archaeologist. 

These figurines are hard to find; during the 80’s they found seven pieces located in Xalitla, and during the years 2005 and 2007 they discovered another four in Mezcala and Atzcala. This means to say, they had eleven figurines archaeologically registered in this part of Guerrero, and with this last one in Oxtotenco, there are now 12. 

The specialist indicated that the discovery was made during the maintenance repairs of a road in a plateau called Oxtotenco, outside the community of Atzcala, where INAH effectuated the archaeological rescue of these vestiges. 

“The most surprising thing was that as we excavated, we found Olmec ceramic, whose antiquity is estimated to date back to the year 1000 and 1200 before our era, meaning this ceramic is more than 3,000 years old. This indicates the cave had two occupations, a prehistoric one and one corresponding to the Mezcala tradition, about 1300 years ago.” 

“This finding also reveals that during the Epiclassic the cave was associated with the occupation of traditional Mezcala groups in Oxtotenco”, added the archaeologist Miguel Perez Negrete.

Source: Art Daily

2012 NSS Cave Ballad Salon Winners

The results of the 2012 Cave Ballad Salon are available: Congratulations to Frank McDonough and Marian McConnell for their winning songs

Listen to the winning songs:

Come Cave with Me (Karaoke category) [3.1 MB] by Frank McDonough, Download

Mayacon Theme Song (Original category) [3.7 MB] by Marian McConnell,
performed by Dan McConnell and Steve Langston, Download

Lyrics

Simek to hold local cave art presentation at Palace Theatre

Dr. Jan Simek

Thousands of years ago, the familiar places that people call home on the Cumberland Plateau were the hunting grounds of several Native American Indian tribes. Then, as now, deer and other game were plentiful, rivers ran clear, and caves for shelter were abundant.

Rain leaching through the soft layers of sandstone that make up the Plateau carved out numerous caves. With at least 9,600 caves in Tennessee, more caves are found here than in any other part of the U.S.

Dr. Jan Simek, professor of anthropology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and a leading expert on prehistoric cave art in the southeastern United States, has made a career of studying ancient drawings and pictographs in caves around the world, including Devil’s Step Hollow Cave in Cumberland County. Dr. Simek’s publications on caves appear in several books, including Discovering North American Rock Art, and The Rock-Art of Eastern North America: Capturing Images and Insight.

Devil’s Step Hollow Cave in Cumberland County contains one of the oldest and largest collections of Native American art in the U.S., said to be over 1,000 years old. To preserve this legacy, Devil’s Step Hollow Cave has been sealed to the public. However, Dr. Simek will be in Crossville Tuesday, June 26 at the Palace Theatre, 72. S. Main St., for a presentation of the photographs and history of these petroglyphs and pictographs. The photography of this ancient art is by Alan Cressler of Chattanooga.

Sponsorship for this program about the fascinating early history of the county is by the city of Crossville, PEG Broadcasting and the Crossville Chronicle.

Coordinating this effort have been Billy Loggins for the city of Crossville, Ann Looney of Arts Roundup and Sharron Eckert of CACE and the Shanks Center for the Arts. They will welcome you at the Palace Theatre for a reception at 5 p.m. Dr. Simek’s presentation will begin at 6 p.m.

Admission is free, but a ticket is required for admission. Tickets are available at the Palace Theatre, the Shanks Center for the Arts, First National Bank on Peavine Rd. and at Cumberland Eye Care (Dr. Galloway) on Peavine Rd.

Following the presentation, there will be a free exhibition of Alan Cressler’s photographs of the cave art from Devil’s Step Cave Thursday, July 5 through Friday, Aug. 31 at the Shanks Center for the Arts, 140 N. Main St. across from the Crossville Depot.

For more information, contact the Palace Theatre at 484-6133, or the Shanks Center for the Arts at 787-1936.

Descend Into The Cave

Musicians Sam Amidon, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and The Staves are being forced underground.

The artists will perform at the Mitchelstown Caves from Thursday, July 26th to Saturday, July 28th, following on from the success of last year’s event, which saw Duke Special and James Vincent McMorrow entertain half a mile underneath the surface.

The special concert is one of a series of events on the Opera House’s summer programme, which was released last week. Other highlights include The Dubliners on Sunday, June 3rd, and a plethora of other musical treats such as Alarm Will Sound on Wednesday, June 6th; Size2Shoes on Sunday, July 15th; Katie Kim on Saturday, July 21st; Hidden Highways and Peter Delaney on Saturday, August 11th; Efterklang on Saturday, September 15th and Opera D’Arte on Sunday, September 23rd.

Leading the comedy is Michael McIntyre from Monday, June 25th to Wednesday, June 27th, followed later in the year by Mario Rosenstock with Gift Grub Live 2, Kevin Bloody Wilson, Des Bishop and Frankie Boyle.

Following the success of last year’s The Winter’s Tale, Corcadorca are collaborating once again with the Opera House, with Romeo and Juliet to be staged from Wednesday, October 10th through to Saturday, October 20th. Other theatre highlights include The Country Girls, Frankenstein, The Titanic, The Sound of Music and panto Alice in Wonderland.

CEO Mary Hickson explains that the Opera House is a “crucial part” of Cork’s cultural infrastructure. “We continue to strive to raise its profile in and outside of Cork with every season,” she says.

For more information see www.corkoperahouse.ie.

Poetry in the Jenolan Caves

David Malouf

There have probably been poets - and poetry readings - in caves since the beginning of human society, and certainly there have been public readings in caves since electricity made them possible.

But, extraordinary as they can be, they are rare indeed. Now, thanks to a partnership between the Central West Writers' Centre and the Varuna Sydney Writers' Festival, an Australian audience has one of these rarest of opportunities, to hear five of their finest contemporary poets reading in the magnificent Cathedral Cave at Jenolan on May 13 at 4pm.

David Malouf, Mark Tredinnick, Judith Beveridge, David Brooks and Brenda Saunders will perform their work in the cave and then meet for drinks with guests in Caves House afterwards. The haunting quality of the occasion will be enhanced by the sound of shakuhachi flute on arrival and departure.

The reading will last approximately an hour and a half. Be warned that there are 240 steps in, and 240 out again.

The association of poetry with the Underworld is profound. The Orphic voice - the cave voice - is a part of poetry everywhere. Orpheus, the ancient Greek poet-of-poets, descended into the Underworld in search of his beloved Eurydice, and ever since he did so such descents have been an integral part of legend and the world’s great poetry. Odysseus descends into the Underworld to consult Tiresias and to find his way home, Aeneas descends, Dante descends.

Nowadays this is more likely to be figured as a descent into the self. Ted Hughes descends. Sylvia Plath descends. Bruce Beaver descends. Dorothy Hewett descends. In the Jenolan Caves there is one difference ... you'll need to climb to get in and descend to leave.

Source: Western Advocate

Quai Branly sheds further light on Chauvet cave art

Wall drawings of lions in the Chauvet cave complex

The Musée du Quai Branly, Paris’s museum of art and ethnography, has initiated a new cultural partnership with the Chauvet cave complex in the Pont d’Arc valley in Ardèche, southern France. The first exhibition under the new agreement is due to take place next May at the 17th-century Vogüé chateau in Ardèche.

Drawn from the Quai Branly’s permanent collection, the show will include religious and hunting objects. “This show is due to be the first [in the partnership] and will reflect the themes seen in the murals painted in the caves,” says a museum spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, the Quai Branly has beefed up its contemporary art programme with a major show on recent art’s relationship with shamanism opening this month as well as an important exhibition of Australian Aboriginal work of the 1970s, set to open in October.

As part of a cultural cooperation agreement with the National Museum of China in Beijing, a show focusing on Chinese dining traditions is due to open in June.

Source: The Art Newspaper

Floyd Collins at Southwark Playhouse

A brilliant musical production of a rather lacking script, says Alex Chappel.

The Vault Theatre at Southwark Playhouse is a vast, dank and cavernous space made up of the arches below London Bridge station. The show comes complete with overhead train-rumblings, genuine moss on the bare brick walls and a damp aroma. A fitting venue, then, for a musical telling the true story of trapped cave explorer, Floyd Collins.

Collins became the unwitting centre of a US-wide press sensation in 1925 when he became trapped exploring the subterranean networks of Cave City, Kentucky, in America’s deep south. Skeets Miller, a lone reporter sent to cover the unfolding story, also finds himself at the centre of the narrative as the only man small enough to reach Collins, and therefore the only direct line.

There is a solid moral foundation to Tina Landau and Adam Guettel’s ambitious re-enactment, and the issues are dealt with amply. The overground world becomes more frenzied, absurd and prone to folly, while Collins’ underground world grows increasingly introspective, hurtling towards an end of fanciful hallucination and touching resignation.

Archeology Documentary Relies on Litepanels

Stephen Bean relied on Litepanels to shoot deep underground.

“Dark, dangerous and wet” is how cinematographerStephen Beandescribes the working conditions during his most recent film project, a documentary titled The Undo Cave expedition 2011. Bean works at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland and is responsible for the ENG/EFP section of the film unit there. Together with an international team of archeology students and scientists from UCC, Bean traveled to the Republic of Georgia to document the work of archaeologists in their search for Paleolithic DNA. They were accompanied by three MicroPro LED camera lights from Litepanels.

Bean has made research documentaries his specialty and has already shot numerous archeology films under extreme conditions. However, the documentary in the Undo Cave in the southern Caucasus still proved to be a great challenge for the cinematographer. “To make filming in the complete darkness of the cave passages possible at all, we had to rely on dependable lighting equipment,” said Bean. “That’s why the MicroPro camera light by Litepanels was the perfect companion for our project.”

Poetry: Speleology

"Speleology" is a film by Duriel E. Harris and Scott Rankin, featuring poetry by Duriel E. Harris. The film was completed in October 2011. It was first screened publicly at the International Literary Film Festival in NYC, November 2011.

Source: Literary Film Festival

Cave consisting of old stones carved in various arts, shapes discovered in Khalanga

A new and very strange cave has been discovered at the Nuwakot VDC, south of the district headquarters, Khalanga of Rukum district.

The cave at Dayalekh in Nuwakot-2 throws light to the jungle of Dayalekh, RSS reports.

The eight-meter deep and four-meter wide cave also consists of old stones carved out in the shape of Lord Shiva, Ganesh and a cow, and arts and shapes of various kinds.

The cave was reportedly discovered by herdsmen as they were taking goats for grazing inside the jungle.

Meanwhile, marking the Shivaratri festival, the Dayalekh Cave Protection Committee organized a fair at the cave premises.

The cave will now be preserved in order to support tourism promotion in the area, says local Bir Bahadur Khadka.

Source: Nepalnews

'The oldest work of art ever': 42,000-year-old paintings of seals found in Spanish cave

Important find: These six paintings of seals were
discovered in the Nerja Caves near Malaga, Spain.
They are at least 42,000 years old and are the only
known artistic images created by Neanderthal man

The world's oldest works of art have been found in a cave on Spain's Costa del Sol, scientists believe.

Six paintings of seals are at least 42,000 years old and are the only known artistic images created by Neanderthal man, experts claim.

Professor Jose Luis Sanchidrian, from the University of Cordoba, described the discovery as 'an academic bombshell', as all previous art work has been attributed to Homo sapiens.

The paintings were found in the Nerja Caves, 35 miles east of Malaga in the southern region of Andalusia.

Spanish scientists sent organic residue found next to the paintings to Miami, where they were dated at being between 43,500 and 42,300 years old.

They hope to establish the exact age by testing parts of the paintings themselves, but their investigation has been hampered by a lack of cash.

Antonio Garrido, in charge of preserving the caves, said the paintings could revolutionise our view of Neanderthal man, who is often portrayed as being monkey-like.

Bid to heritage-list Aboriginal cave art

Robert Bednarik at the entrance shaft of the cave
art site near Mount Gambier.

Aboriginal cave art believed to be up to 30,000 years old must be heritage-listed, an expert says.

About 30 caves within a 25km radius of Mt Gambier contain petroglyphs - carving or line drawings on rock - and art done by Aboriginal people in the last ice age, which ended about 10,000 years ago.

A Cave Art Special Committee has been formed to ensure caves containing Aboriginal art up to tens of thousands of years old are protected.

The committee consisting of people with knowledge of the caves, local Aboriginal people, government and forestry representatives has been formed to get the appropriate Federal Government heritage listing.

Committee member Robert Bednarik said the caves were completely unprotected.

"We want to nominate them for national heritage listing initially as currently they are only protected by their secret locations," Mr Bednarik said.

"Mt Gambier has one of the three largest concentrations of cave art in the world, the cave art is utterly unique."

Flintknapping workshop at Colossal Cave

Colossal Cave Mountain Park will hold a flintknapping lecture and workshop on Sunday at the park, 16721 E. Old Spanish Trail.

Learn how the ancients turned stone into tools, then join the workshop and make your own arrowhead.

The event will be led by Jerry Marcantel.

When he was 4 years old, Marcantel found an arrowhead in his grandfather's garden. Thus began a lifelong interest in primitive skills.

The lecture will be at 2 p.m. and the hands-on class, for those 12 and older only, will be from 3 to 4:30. Cost is $8.50 per person; it's free to observe. There's also a $5 per-car entrance fee, for up to six people.

Participants will make points from rock, obsidian, glass and more - these are all very sharp, so gloves are recommended. Safety glasses will be furnished.

Discussion will include proper tools, techniques and safety.

Call 647-7121 for more information.

Floyd Collins To Open at The Vault, Southwark Playhouse For Six Week Run

Peter Huntley Productions in association with Southwark Playhouse is set to present Floyd Collins, featuring a book by Tina Landau.

The play features music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, and additional lyrics by Tina Landau.

Directed by Derek Bond.

22nd February to 31st March 2012

Kentucky, 1925. Floyd Collins, soon to be acclaimed as the ‘greatest caver ever known', dreams of finding fame and fortune underground. When a cave-in leaves him trapped 55 feet below the earth's surface, the media circus above ground makes a very personal tragedy a national sensation.

New art installation introduces international visitors to Florida’s natural springs and caves

International visitors arriving through Orlando International Airport’s Airside 1 concourse now can get the impression that the “Orlando experience” is something more than theme parks, area beaches and hotels.

The airport has installed a multiple-work art display in the international arrivals corridors featuring paintings, pictures, poems, maps, and other media depicting the natural springs found throughout Central Florida. Travelers passing through the corridors encounter artworks offering hundreds of images of the springs, the caves that underlie them, and the water, flora and fauna ranging from crayfish and turtles to manatees and gar.

“The idea is that the “Orlando experience” really is all about the springs and the water here,” said painter Margaret Ross Tolbert, the principal artist, shown above with one of her works, “Orlando Springs.”

The images, maps and poems are drawn from a number of area springs, including Wekiva, Volusia Blue, Silver, Juniper and Silver Glen.

The installations also feature work by graphics artist Jarrod Ryhal, who was Tolbert’s principal partner in the project, and others including internationally-famed springs cave photographer Wes Skiles, who died last year. Other contributors include Bill Belleville, Jim Brown, Bill Foote, Eric Hutcheson, Mark Long, Nancy Morris, Tom Morris and Georgia Shemitz.

Tolbert said she hopes international travelers introduced to the springs and caves through the art will seek out the experience for themselves, or at least learn more about them.

“They need protection, and they really need our attention in that respect,” she said.

Source: Orlando Sentinel

The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan

This exhibition represents the culmination of a six-year project that began in 2004 at the Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago. The project’s aim was to research and “reconstruct” Xiangtangshan, a series of six-century Buddhist cave temples hollowed out from the living rock in a mountainous region in northeast China. Although they survive to the present day, the temple interiors were severely damaged in the early twentieth century when large numbers of stone figures and fragments were removed and offered for sale on the international art market. Using advanced technology in conjunction with straightforward research, the team studied the history of these grotto temples and investigated their subsequent despoliation in an effort to reconstruct the original appearance of the caves’ interiors. A focal point of the exhibition is the digital recreation of one of the largest cave temples of Xiangtangshan, by which visitors can better understand the architectural setting in its original context. The results of these efforts form the basis of this exhibition.

Xiangtangshan, or the “Mountain of Echoing Halls,” is a Buddhist devotional site created during the brief Northern Qi dynasty (550-577). Carved into the mountains in the southern Hebei province of Northeastern China, Xiangtangshan originally comprised a total of eleven man-made caves divided between two main locations, Bei Xiangtangshan and Nan Xiangtangshan.

Lascaux cave: History

Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne. They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 17,300 years old.

 They primarily consist of primitive images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time. In 1979, Lascaux was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list along with other prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley.

Streets ahead: Artist transforms London pavement into an amazing 3D cave scene

Dramatic: Edgar Mueller lies on top of the cave scene he created on the pavement in London's Docklands 

A stretch of pavement in London has been transformed into a stunning cave scene by a renowned street artist.

Edgar Mueller, from Germany, chalked the 3D scene onto the street in the Docklands area as part of a summer festival in West India Quay.

Mr Mueller started work on the 100m sq drawing last week and put the finishing touches on it today.

He spent 15 hours a day on the piece, starting between 3am and 4am every day.

Describing the work, Mr Mueller told The Wharf: 'It's a cave scene. I got the idea three weeks ago when I was in China and spent a week visiting some natural caves. I just thought "Why don't I put a cave in London?"

Leaps and bounds: A parkour team jump over the cave, which is part of a summer festival at West India Quay

'The idea is after a little earthquake this cave appears. It shouldn't be there and scientists say it is 10million years old. Maybe it's a series of different caves.'

He added: 'I think it's one of the best I've ever done.'

A specially-built lens allows people to look at the spot where the picture looks most 3D.

The owners of West India Quay, X-Leisure, are staging a month of entertainment, starting with an art week.

In the past, Mr Mueller has created a huge 3D Ice Age scene, a lava scene and a giant waterfall.

Source: Daily Mail