The cave is two miles under northern Alabama and has passages that lead into dark zones, a waterfall and deep pools. There are ancient footprints in the remotest passage. The names of Union soldiers from the Civil War are still written on a wall.
The ceiling was so low that Alan Cressler had to rake the beam across the surface above him.
The artwork of a fellow human who lived many centuries ago came into view.
The man who now works for the United States Geological Survey said in an interview this week that he saw that. I just realized the importance.
The 19th Unnamed Cave was explored by Mr. Cressler with an archaeologist, an expert in 3-D photography and others. They published their findings in the journal. When Mr. Cressler was pressed so close to the ceiling that he could not see the full array of art above him, 3-D technology was used to uncover it.
The cave art is among the largest found in North America, deep in a dark area, according to Jan Simek, an archaeologist with the University of Tennessee and a co-author of the paper.
The researchers think the art was created between 500 A.D. and 1000 A.D., when farming, hunting and gathering gave way to sedentary life in the region.
There are figures with human features, a coiled snake with a tail rattle and a 10-foot-long serpent winding its way across the expanse. The serpent that appears to emerge from a natural fissure is one of the features that some incorporate into their design.
The figures are adorned with regalia. The river cane suggests the artwork could have been a team effort with someone holding a torch while the artist worked.
The early artists were most likely lying on the mud when they made their carvings.
It covers an acre of surface area on the ceiling, according to Dr. Simek. The cave goes on despite the glyph being in a single chamber.
Dark-zone cave art, which involves exploring passageways unseen by natural light, has been studied by Dr. Simek and Mr. Cressler.
The mud drawings of pre-Columbian Native American religious themes were found in the cave documented in Tennessee in 1979. There are 89 pre-Columbian cave-art sites in southeastern North America. Most of them date from 800 A.D. to 1600 A.D.
The area is kept free of vandals by keeping the findings secret. In Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama, others are on public lands. Some can only be reached by boat because the rivers have risen to the point where they are no longer accessible by land.
The use of 3-D modeling in Alabama's 19th Unnamed Cave promises a new era of discovery of ancient cave art because it reveals images that could not be perceived otherwise.
The technique has been used to create a replica of the art in the Lascaux caves in France, but not as much in searching.
The researchers used a technique called photogrammetry, in which a camera inches along a track, taking overlapping images that are then stitched together using software. Stephen Alvarez, a founder of the Ancient Art Archive and a co-author of the study, said that it creates a seamless representation that highlights the finest engravings in the mud. The 19th Unnamed Cave had 3-D work done by him.
The map of the cave was produced by more than 16,000 photographs.
It is like magic because it has been invisible for a long time. The people's stories are still here even though they have been removed.
Shadows that obscure delicate lines in the art can be thrown by the uneven features of a cave ceiling. Mr. Cressler tried to document the work with a camera.
Dr. Simek said that the use of photogrammetry was even more intriguing because ancient artists had no chance to see the big picture. Unlike with rock art, which is out in the open, the artists inside the cave chamber could not step back and ponder their work-in-progress from a distance.
He said that the makers of the images had an idea of what they had to draw.
The researchers have not been able to understand what the artists had in mind.
The project's work with Native American partners helped to understand the cave's relation to the supernatural.
The themes and images from the cave art were similar to those that he had heard from tribal elders, such as cave portals to the Underworld and a winged humanlike figure armed.
It is almost speculative, but there are nuances today that are carried forward into our traditions and in our stories.
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