“Picture Caves,” Warrenton, Missouri, USA, 800-1100 CE.
A millennia ago, Native Americans entered the dark recesses of a cave in eastern Missouri and painted an astonishing array of human, animal, and supernatural creatures on its walls.
The two cave system boasts massive panels of over 290 prehistoric glyphs making it the largest collection of indigenous people’s polychrome paintings in Missouri.
It was a hallowed site for sacred rituals and rites of passage, for explaining the multi-layered cosmos, for vision quests, for communing with spirits in the “other world,” and for burying the dead.
The number, variety, and complexity of images make Picture Cave one of the most significant prehistoric sites in North America, similar in importance to Cahokia and Chaco Canyon.
Photographs by Alan Cressler