Now a lengthy survey of the works indicates they 're all part of a pattern -- a sweeping , interrelated series that illustrates how the continent 's prehistoric inhabitants saw the universe and their place in it , University of Tennessee anthropologist Jan Simek said . Paintings and carvings stretch across Tennessee 's Cumberland Plateau . The area is rich in natural resources, including coal, oil shale, uranium, iron ore, phosphate rock, limestone, salt deposits, and a variety of other minerals that are used to make everything from The images may be a composition of `` enormous scale , '' he says . They reflect a three-tiered view of the world by the Native Americans of the Southeast .
Paintings and carvings stretch across Tennessee 's Cumberland Plateau . The area is rich in natural resources, including coal, oil shale, uranium, iron ore, phosphate rock, limestone, salt deposits, and a variety of other minerals that are used to make everything from The images may be a composition of `` enormous scale , '' he says . They reflect a three-tiered view of the world by the Native Americans of the Southeast .