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<< Text Pages >> Tainter Cave - Cave or Rock Shelter in United States in Great Lakes Midwest

Submitted by bat400 on Wednesday, 24 November 2010  Page Views: 7629

Natural PlacesSite Name: Tainter Cave Alternative Name: Arnold Cave
Country: United States Region: Great Lakes Midwest Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Prairie Du Chien, WI  Nearest Village: Clayton, WI
Latitude: 43.379000N  Longitude: 90.752W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
2
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Cave in Crawford County, Wisconsin.
Nearly 100 drawings and carvings of birds, animals and humans. Much of the cave art is in the dark zone of the cave, where artifacts (ceramics, torches, a shoe) have also been found. One figure has been directly dated to 600 AD, while artifacts represent periods dated from 500 - 1500 AD.

The cave lies on private land and had been disfigured by modern graffiti. Now a welded gate at the mouth of the cave prevents trespassing.

The location given is for the nearby crossroads village of Clayton.

From the National Register of Historic Places:
Historic Significance: Information Potential
Area of Significance: Religion, Art, Prehistoric, Native American
Cultural Affiliation: Woodland
Period of Significance: 499-0 AD, 1000-500 AD, 1499-1000 AD, 1749-1500 AD
Historic Function: Domestic, Religion
Historic Sub-function: Ceremonial Site, Single Dwelling
Current Function: Landscape, Recreation And Culture
Current Sub-function: Natural Feature, Work Of Art (Sculpture, Carving, Rock Art)


Note: Evidence of Effigy Mound Culture Decline in Pictographs?
“It’s suggestive of desperation...”

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Minnesota - Iowa - Illinois travel (26)
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Old 3-R Center
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Sauk, Juneau, Marquette
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 32.0km SW 222° Larsen Cave, Crawford Co* Rock Art
 43.5km WNW 282° Fish Farm Mounds State Preserve Artificial Mound
 47.7km SW 228° Effigy Mounds National Monument* Artificial Mound
 53.4km SSW 213° Wyalusing Mounds* Artificial Mound
 71.6km N 4° Fort McCoy Artificial Mound
 77.5km ESE 116° Brighid's Spring at Circle Sanctuary* Holy Well or Sacred Spring
 79.1km ESE 116° Circle Sanctuary Nature Preserve* Modern Stone Circle etc
 84.0km E 87° Devil's Lake Mounds* Artificial Mound
 88.1km E 82° Man Mound Park* Artificial Mound
 98.8km S 175° Dunleith Mounds* Artificial Mound
 103.4km NNE 32° Cranberry Creek Mound Group Artificial Mound
 112.6km ESE 108° Forest Hill Cemetery* Artificial Mound
 157.0km ESE 102° Aztalan State Park* Ancient Village or Settlement
 159.8km ESE 110° Lake Koshkonong Mounds* Artificial Mound
 161.7km ESE 110° The Finch Site Ancient Village or Settlement
 166.4km E 86° Nitschke Mounds State Park Artificial Mound
 170.6km SE 124° Beloit College Mounds* Artificial Mound
 182.8km SSE 166° Albany Mounds* Barrow Cemetery
 182.9km SE 132° Beattie Park Mound Group* Misc. Earthwork
 196.2km NW 315° Bow and Arrow Rock Art
 197.3km SSE 153° Sinnissippi Mounds* Artificial Mound
 208.3km E 101° Cutler Mound Group* Artificial Mound
 211.2km E 87° Lizard Mound State Park* Artificial Mound
 234.2km NW 317° Rattlesnake Mound Artificial Mound
 249.1km S 186° Toolesboro Mound Group* Artificial Mound
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Britain's Oldest Art: The Ice Age Cave Art of Creswell Crag

Britain's Oldest Art: The Ice Age Cave Art of Creswell Crag

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"Tainter Cave" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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Re: Cave images could indicate overhunted deer led to culture’s downfall by davidmorgan on Wednesday, 24 November 2010
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"The Effigy Mound people were among the first to use bows and arrows" - that's interesting. It seems that the bow and arrow didn't appear in the Americas until about 500 CE.
[ Reply to This ]

Cave images could indicate overhunted deer led to culture’s downfall by bat400 on Wednesday, 24 November 2010
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Robert “Ernie” Boszhardt stumbled 12 years ago upon — deer.

But Boszhardt wasn’t hunting in the woods. He was 150 feet inside a sandstone cave in the Kickapoo Valley, his flashlight in the damp darkness revealing 20 figures drawn upon the stone.

The abstract designs inside Tainter Cave were of hunters with bows and arrows, taking aim at deer — some with images of fawns in their abdomen. ...They were the remnants of a culture that lived in the region roughly 1,000 years ago.

“You’re staring at this wall in wonderment,” Boszhardt said. “I knew it was old, but what did it mean?”

As it turned out, it offered a possible explanation of what led to the disappearance of the people who painted those ancient images.



Boszhardt and fellow archaeologist James Theler had since the early 1980s pondered what led to the deterioration of the Effigy Mound people — a culture best known for the construction of thousands of animal-shaped mounds that abruptly ended sometime after about 1050 A.D.

“They just disappear off the map,” Theler said.

The men, now both retired from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Sociology and Archaeology Department, believe the cave images tell what might have happened.

The Effigy Mound people were among the first to use bows and arrows to more effectively hunt their primary food source, white-tailed deer. They ate well and the population flourished but eventually reached a critical mass that could not be supported by the dwindling number of deer.

The pregnant deer in the cave art indicate a late winter or early spring hunt, which would be very rare, Theler said.

“It’s suggestive of desperation, because native peoples are usually pretty careful about not overusing resources,” he said.

The theory clicks with other evidence uncovered in the Driftless Area, they said. Archaeologists found the Effigy Mound people showed less seasonal movement in the years leading up to their disappearance. People remained on the Mississippi River year-round, harvesting large numbers of mussels — an indication the population had become too large to relocate to more ideal inland wintering areas.

The pair have published a book and two papers on their theory, including in the national archaeology journal American Antiquity in 2006.

Boszhardt and Theler continue to work toward proving their theory. They are examining deer jawbones recovered from rock shelter excavations in Grant and Iowa counties to determine their age. If they discover more young deer were killed, it would support that overhunting put pressure on the deer population.

Boszhardt and others from the National Science Foundation also are investigating how a culture called the Mississippians moved into the region and might have influenced what became of the Effigy Mound people.

For more, see lacrossetribune.com.
Article submitted by coldrum.
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    Re: Cave images could indicate overhunted deer led to culture’s downfall by bat400 on Wednesday, 24 November 2010
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    I'd like to point out that there is also evidence that the sudden end to the Effigy Mound Culture is related to a sudden change in the population's spiritual beliefs, not a sudden migration out of the area. I'm unsure how much evidence exists for a depopulation of the area.
    This interpretation of the figures is very literal. Perhaps the symbolism means something else - not a literal winter hunt, but an indication of the extreme fertility of this resource - the deer.
    Boszhardt and Theler's planned examination of deer kills based on bone finds may support or deny their hypothesis.
    [ Reply to This ]

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