Banner Graphic, Volume 14, Number 136, Greencastle, Putnam County, 14 February 1984 — Page 17

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Using the carbide lamp on his hard hat for light, University of Tennessee Professor Charles H. Faulkner examines some of the glyphs incised on the mud-covered walls of an

Walls of east Tennessee cave reflect use for Indian rituals

C. National Geographic KNOXVILLE, Tenn.-Come explore Mud Glyph Cave. First, slide down the entrance hole for about eight feet at a 45degree angle. Take a good look at that slide; it’s not just the only way in, it’s the only way out. BELLY DOWN, CRAWL A FEW FEET to the first “room.” Crawl through a tiny hole in a wall barely big enough for a human body, wade through an underground stream, walk bentover beneath an overhanging rock ledge, squeeze through a second hole, and slither belly-down again to enter a room large enough to stand up in. Now look up. There, incised on both walls of a long, narrow corridor that extends for about 100 yards, are drawings, hundreds of them. There are human stick figures and more sophisticated human faces, pictures of birds and serpents and turtles, geometric designs, and drawings that look like simple squiggles. “PICTURE YOURSELF AS AN INDIAN, barefoot and naked except for your loincloth, carrying cane torches and crawling in here for the purpose of putting these drawings here,” says Bill Deane. Deane is a professional photographer and a caving veteran

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Silhouetted against the walls of Mud Glyph Cave, members of a research team prepare to wade through an underground stream leading to a chamber covered with incised drawings made by Indians as long ago as the 12th century. The light is provided by the photographer's flash. (National Geographic photo)

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east Tennessee cave. Scientists know of no other North American cave where prehistoric Indians drew on the walls in this fashion. (National Geographic photo)

who has been photographing the glyphs as part of a research team. Charles H. Faulkner, a professor of anthropology at the University of Tennessee here, is leader of the team, which is funded by the National Geographic Society. He says the cave is unique, that scientists know of no other cave that Indians entered solely to carry out ritual. THE MEDIUM, TOO, IS UNIQUE: The glyphs were made using either a finger or a sharp stick, and incised in the soft, damp mud clinging to the cave walls. Because of the cave’s dampness, the glyphs have been preserved over the centuries but were unknown until a U.S. Forest Service ranger who also is a spelunker found them in 1979. ‘‘Some of the motifs in the cave are found on copper plates and shell pendants that date back to the 13th and 14th centuries,” part of the Mississippian Period, says Faulkner. ‘‘The important thing about this site is that it gives us a much larger repertoire of Mississippian motifs than we have already. Until now, we’ve had artistic expression only on nonperishable items like shell or copper or bits of bone. This is the first time we’ve found these motifs on this medium, on clay. “And the style, which is kind of crude, might indicate that ordinary people were going in there and trying to copy the religious iconography of the time.” SCIENTISTS HAVE KNOWN for some time that prehistoric American Indians entered caves. But in other cases, they were seeking shelter or minerals. That applies, for example, to Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, where the mining history was studied by Dr. Patty Jo Watson of Washington University of St. Louis, another member of Faulkner’s team. “As far as we can tell, this cave was entered only for ceremonial or ritual purposes,” Faulkner says. A combination of radiocarbon dating of the charcoal residue and identification of the known motifs found on the cave walls helped place the time the drawings were made. “QUITE A NUMBER OF Mississippian Indian sites have been excavated in east Tennessee,” Faulkner says. “We know what their villages were like, we know what their houses were like, we have a good handle on their material culture.” The people living in the vicinity of the cave between the 12th and the 16th centuries came from the Dallas culture, named for a Tennessee River island, Faulkner says. The Dallas culture emerged about A.D. 1200 and may be ancestral to either the Creek or the Cherokee peoples. The Dallas Indians were a farming people who grew corn, beans, and squash and lived in villages with a chieftainship and a high priesthood. Their square houses had hearths in the middle, and had walls made of mud or clay covered with thatched roofs. FROM THE FORMAL ART of the Mississippian Period, scientists have concluded that the art on the copper plates and shell pendants was executed by trained artisans. Many of their motifs-woodpeckers, turtles, “weeping eyes,” “eagle warriors,” and others-are found, more crudely executed, in Mud Glyph Cave. In some cases, a drawing in the cave appears to have been struck with a club, suggesting an attempt to harm the real object the glyph represents. Scientists call this imitative magic. In other cases, Faulkner believes, the Indians who made the glyphs may have been engaged in “vision questing”-seeking out a vision that could help tell the future-or in hunting magicseeking divine assistance in future hunts.

Unconscious patient may be able to hear operating room talk c. 1984 N.Y. Times News Service NEW YORK The banter of the operating room may have to be toned down, if new research on unconscious awareness in patients under total anesthesia is borne out. Surgeons halve taken their patients’ oblivion as license for talking as though the patient were not there even making remarks that patients would find frightening if they heard. But two research groups report that what anesthetized patients hear can affect them. “What the patient hears say, a remark like, ‘He’s a goner’ could conceivably have an adverse effect on his recovery,” says Henry Bennett, one of the researchers. In one study, anesthetized patients heard a taped voice tell them during surgery they should signify having heard the message by touching their ears in a postoperative interview. Later, in the interview, the patients tugged at their ears, although none could recall having heard the message, nor were they particularly aware of touching their ears. Dr. Bennett, a psychologist now at the University of California Medical School at Davis, reports that when patients were given the suggestion during surgery that one hand was becoming warmer and the other cooler, the hands’ temperature did so. This suggests, says Bennett, inadvertent negative remarks such as, “Holy Moses, this is a terrible bone graft” could interfere with recovery. Under anesthesia, “Patients may be more vulnerable to upsetting remarks they might hear,” Bennett says. “Their normal coping techniques aren’t available, since they are drugged.”

Export Alaskan oil to Japan? c. 1984 N.Y. Times WASHINGTON - Sen. Frank H. Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska who sits on the Energy Committee, has dusted off and modified a longdormant plan to authorize the export of Alaskan oil to Japan. He plans to offer it as an amendment to the Export Administration Act when it comes up for renewal later this month. According to Murkowski, Alaska’s output could increase as much as 200,000 barrels a day, an increment that he would make available for export. He contends that the plan would reduce the nation’s trade deficit with Japan by $2 billion a year and raise $133 million for the Treasury in “windfall profits” taxes. The senator has attempted to overcome the opposition of the American marine industry, which now transports Alaskan oil to West Coast and Gulf of Mexico ports, by stipulating that all vessels carrying exports would be repaired only in United States shipyards. In addition, the amendment provides that the president could cancel export contracts for reasons of a national emergency.

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IU enrollments down

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) Enrollments at Indiana University’s eight campuses are down an average 2.5 percent this semester, compared with last year’s figures. IU President John Ryan told the board erf trustees student enrollment for the spring totaled 76,257 for all campuses Despite the decline, Ryan said,

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February 14, 1984

the university did achieve the enrollment estimates on which the 1984 budget was based. Trustees, meanwhile, have approved purchase of $539,000 in computing software for University Hospitals in Indianapolis and $247,529 for equipment to test athletes in the 1984 Olympics.

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