Metal Detectiing TN. cave / Anybody done this?

So... Call him.

In the mean time, here is a very nice paper written by the distingished professor on the topic of prehistoric cave art in Tennessee. If nothing else, read the conclusion.

http://www.caves.org/pub/journal/PDF/V74/cave-74-01-19.pdf

DCMatt

"Below is the only contact I've had" with him. Thanks Matt... I've read this paper and many others written by Falkner and Simek. And I believe I understand the conclusion stated on pg. 12-13 of your posted article. This meaning.... That evidence of ancient man being there might be scant but he was there...? And there was more also... but I understand this might be the case for "my" cave. I totally believe ancient man was there and maybe native American Indians also. "So... call him" and ask him what? What would I ask him on the phone that wasn't sent to him twice w/photos. And I sent other professors the "same" email w/photos also. I can't call and ask questions.... All I can do is send photos and try to explain them for their review. I'm to stupid to know the proper questions. Matt... if I misread the conclusion please help me understand (I seek to...PLEASE). But I have tried numerous times.... Brad
 

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I guess I would call the guy and ask if he's seen the email you sent him with potentially prehistoric cave art etchings in the mud mounds found in a TN cave and if he's interested. You can say that you are calling because you did not receive a reply to your email.

Regards, Erik

"Below is the only contact I've had" with him. Thanks Matt... I've read this paper and many others written by Falkner and Simek. And I believe I understand the conclusion stated on pg. 12-13 of your posted article. This meaning.... That evidence of ancient man being there might be scant but he was there...? And there was more also... but I understand this might be the case for "my" cave. I totally believe ancient man was there and maybe native American Indians also. "So... call him" and ask him what? What would I ask him on the phone that wasn't sent to him twice w/photos. And I sent other professors the "same" email w/photos also. I can't call and ask questions.... All I can do is send photos and try to explain them for their review. I'm to stupid to know the proper questions. Matt... if I misread the conclusion please help me understand (I seek to...PLEASE). But I have tried numerous times.... Brad
 

The reason I believe that Dr. Simek has not answered Brad's email with a conclusion, is because he feels that the etchings have nothing to do with Ancient man or Native American Indians and it is not worth his time. In that I mean, that they were done by someone else. Who that was, we sure don't know and would like to find out and find out the meanings of the etchings!!?? Could the etchings be historical, certainly but for a completely different reason! I just hope that Dr. Simek decided not to respond to Brad's email because he know that the message in the etchings is of significance in respect to a hidden treasure! It is not hard to fear that some folks are working to decode the message, when someone else besides Brad, his grandson, daughter Chelsea, Jordon and myself entered the cave less than two weeks prior to my visit on June 30th! While some folks may appear to want to help, some may have ulterior motives, so care must be taken at every turn in this saga.


Frank
 

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Some people are just not good keeping up with their email and Dr. Simek could very likely be one of them--another good reason just to pick up the phone and give the guy a call--I can't see that it would hurt and you may be surprised by his response. I would say that the chances that those etching in the mud were done by ancient Indians is much, much greater that those etching being some sort of encoded map to treasure--which I believe is HIGHLY unlikely. Someone mentioned that someone came to the cave and started digging, no? Where did they dig? Into the mounds? Is this a cave that others may have found on their own or do you believe it's someone that you contacted regarding the etchings that has gone there on their own to look for artifacts?
 

Some people are just not good keeping up with their email and Dr. Simek could very likely be one of them--another good reason just to pick up the phone and give the guy a call--I can't see that it would hurt and you may be surprised by his response. I would say that the chances that those etching in the mud were done by ancient Indians is much, much greater that those etching being some sort of encoded map to treasure--which I believe is HIGHLY unlikely. Someone mentioned that someone came to the cave and started digging, no? Where did they dig? Into the mounds? Is this a cave that others may have found on their own or do you believe it's someone that you contacted regarding the etchings that has gone there on their own to look for artifacts?

Erik,

When have you known Ancient Man or Native American Indians to use letters of the English Alphabet in messages left in caves? I think never and I don't think that Dr. Simek has either! Are there some similarities in messages left by Native American Indians and what was left in Brad's cave, yes but in my thinking that is all they are and the message left, has nothing to do about the day in a life of one or more Native American Indians. Native American Indians and even Ancient Man left etchings in caves, on rocks and elsewhere, to tell a story about their' lives or a story about their' tribe. However, in reality, there appears to be no story in the etchings but there does appear to be a message.

No one other than Brad and myself mentioned that someone had been in the cave between the time that I went into the cave with Brad and Chelsea and two weeks prior to that, when Brad was last inside the cave!

They dug into the dried mud mounds about 30 to 40 yards inside the cave and on the right! We were questioning as to what the mounds were as they were white (i.e. their' composition) and if the substance could be valuable and much of this was posted in the Thread. We believe that the person or persons saw this information in the Thread and did exactly what we had planned to do! It turned out that the dried mud mounds were just that, they were mud dried into dirt but due to Lime drippings from the celing of the cave, they had been covered by Lime Calicification which made them whitish in color.

We are not sure who the person or person is/are but Brad has a pretty good idea!


Frank
 

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Some people are just not good keeping up with their email and Dr. Simek could very likely be one of them--another good reason just to pick up the phone and give the guy a call--I can't see that it would hurt and you may be surprised by his response. I would say that the chances that those etching in the mud were done by ancient Indians is much, much greater that those etching being some sort of encoded map to treasure--which I believe is HIGHLY unlikely. Someone mentioned that someone came to the cave and started digging, no? Where did they dig? Into the mounds? Is this a cave that others may have found on their own or do you believe it's someone that you contacted regarding the etchings that has gone there on their own to look for artifacts?

Eric... It wouldn't "hurt" at all. I promise to call tomorrow morning and reintroduce myself and/or leave a message to Mr. Simek if this is what I'm left with. I've tried to make myself as clear as possible for the historical aspect to him and others. But wouldn't you think that given the pictures and repeated contacts... if they were interested... I would have heard something by now? But I will follow up... I promise with a phone call. I'll feel very awkward trying to explain something I know nothing about outside of the photos. "I would say that the chances that those etching in the mud were done by ancient Indians is much, much greater that those etching being some sort of encoded map to treasure--which I believe is HIGHLY unlikely." This may totally right... and I have tired to gather further information into this arena also. NOW..... for Mr. Simek to say stop everything until I get there rules out everything else. That is why I send photos and requests to him (and others) awhile back.

I'll call..... Later, Brad
 

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Hi Brad! Being that your cave bears so many similarities to the one described in the article, it would seem incredibly rude of Mr. Simek to ignore all of your emails. I have corresponded via email with a much more well known paleoanthropologist and I have no "real" credentials in this field other than extensive reading. That's why I believe he may not be seeing your emails for some reason. I would be more than happy to help you contact some of these folks if you'd like, but rest assured I would never do this without your permission. I'd imagine calling during the week would give you better chances of actually speaking with someone. I believe you have made a significant anthropological discovery and would like to see you get the credit you deserve! You have done everything right so far in the spirit of being able to recover as much data from your discovery as possible and this is impressive. Sorry for seeming to harp on not impacting the etchings at all as you don't want to be remembered as the guy that destroyed the only other known ancient mud etchings in North America :) I believe your video will be very compelling and I look forward to seeing all of your footage.

Regarding the Roman alphabet characters that can be seen in the mud--first many symbols can appear to be Roman characters that we use due to the fact that the characters are simple (unlike Chinese characters for example) and Roman letters like A for example were derived from simplified images of animals. Even in the paper that was posted you see later Roman characters over the ancient images--probably added by people during modern times who were ignorant as to the history of the original images.

Remember that written language is fairly new to mankind, so the ancients were not leaving stories about themselves or their tribes...they mostly left shapes and "pictures" for magical reasons such as ceremonies to help their success in catching game.

Anyway, look forward to your video and I already have the "cold ones" lined up!

And Happy Birthday by the way--I'm not too far behind you! ;)

Eric... It wouldn't "hurt" at all. I promise to call tomorrow morning and reintroduce myself and/or leave a message to Mr. Simek if this is what I'm left with. I've tried to make myself as clear as possible for the historical aspect to him and others. But wouldn't you think that given the pictures and repeated contacts... if they were interested... I would have heard something by now? But I will follow up... I promise with a phone call. I'll feel very awkward trying to explain something I know nothing about outside of the photos. "I would say that the chances that those etching in the mud were done by ancient Indians is much, much greater that those etching being some sort of encoded map to treasure--which I believe is HIGHLY unlikely." This may totally right... and I have tired to gather further information into this arena also. NOW..... for Mr. Simek to say stop everything until I get there rules out everything else. That is why I send photos and requests to him (and others) awhile back.

I'll call..... Later, Brad
 

My "video friend" Jordon called today and said he got the 3 short video's from early filming in front of cave into the main video so it's now just 1. He'll be over to my house tomorrow afternoon after he gets off work to download it to my computer. Then he wants me to review and note the parts that should be in and/or out. He said he'll be back over on Thursday to edit with me and then he'll post to YouTube or Photobucket (?). Then I'll post with a link here on TreasureNet. I wish it was DONE NOW. Guess that's the difference having to work everyday (Jordon) or being retired (me). We're going to use this same camera when we go back and MD the entire 1st etched mound area for the 1st time also. SO..... if .... the MD does sound off we'll be able to share this also and whatever comes up out of the ground (IF ANYTHING). The day Frank, Chelsea and I went back we used Franks Minelab MD to within about 10-15 yards of where we should have pushed to (my fault we didn't then). Further than that it becomes very hard to get an MD to the next area... but it can be done. Later.... Brad
 

Brad,

Please don't read too much into my post. My point about calling him is simply this: He gave you his phone number.

As far as questions to ask, just ask if he looked at your pictures and if he has any comments on them. You seem like a fairly astute guy. I suspect you'll get a sense of his interest just from his tone and attitude.

DCMatt

"Below is the only contact I've had" with him. Thanks Matt... I've read this paper and many others written by Falkner and Simek. And I believe I understand the conclusion stated on pg. 12-13 of your posted article. This meaning.... That evidence of ancient man being there might be scant but he was there...? And there was more also... but I understand this might be the case for "my" cave. I totally believe ancient man was there and maybe native American Indians also. "So... call him" and ask him what? What would I ask him on the phone that wasn't sent to him twice w/photos. And I sent other professors the "same" email w/photos also. I can't call and ask questions.... All I can do is send photos and try to explain them for their review. I'm to stupid to know the proper questions. Matt... if I misread the conclusion please help me understand (I seek to...PLEASE). But I have tried numerous times.... Brad
 

Good luck with the cave. Hope to see some pics of the inside.

Mekong Mike.... Hello, there are many of them much earlier in this thread and spread throughout. We're now trying to put together a helmet cam video after some editing and get it posted this week. Stay tuned for it. I believe the plan this week is to head back on Thursday morning with the MD and start working on the 1st etched mound area. If the MD sounds... I'm digging! If not...? We'll start carefully excavating in front of mound area and maybe attempt some behind it. But I do have trouble getting my XLT to ground balance properly within the cave environment.
 

Hey folks.... My video helmet cam guy, Jordon tried to upload some video to YouTube yesterday morning but when it got to the 80% mark it stopped. I went to his work yesterday afternoon and he told me this... bummer!!!!! He said he'd try after work last night and then send me the link.... but I don't have it yet this morning....? He was trying to upload from the front of cave entrance and the first 60-70 yards to the 1st etched mound area. He said even this file was huge. We'd like to figure out a way to post the entire 2.5 hours of video for those interested in viewing and "listening" too it. Weather permitting tomorrow morning we're going back to MD the 1st etched mound area. Were taking helmet cam video and pics of this endeavor also to post. I hope Jordon can figure out how to post the video's to his YouTube account.
 

He's gonna have to break it up into smaller parts. Will make it easier to upload.
 

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