Bushnell Ceremonial Cave is a petroglyph site inside of the mouth of a small cave in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri. The site is situated on private property and is not open to the public. A spring issues from the mouth of the cave. The cave is within a half days walk of the Commonfield Mound site.
Map published by Bushnell (1914:Figure 6) of the petroglyphs visible at the beginning of the 20th century. The original ASM (Archaeological Suvey of Missouri) site report was submitted by Frank Magre; the form is undated and probably belongs to the 1950s. An update form was submitted in 1987 by Greg Fox and Teresita Majewski; they could only relocate 3 petroglyphs.
Bushnell's (1914:Figure 6) drawing of the petroglyphs he could recognize. Diaz-Granados and Duncan (2000:15) identified a brief discussion of the site in a report in the Missouri Historical Society's meeting minutes of 18 September 1883. Bushnell cited an earlier report from 1861 in the Ste. Genevieve County Plaindealer.
View from the back panel (deepest in cave) to the entrance.
Back panel - partially wet and partiall dry. The bull's eye glyph (left) is Bushnell glyph number 5 and measures 26 cm. in diameter. The axis munde (circle and cross) glyph is Bushnell glyph number 8 and measures 20 cm. in diameter. There does appear to be a very eroded glyph situation between gyphs 5 and 8.
Back panel - wet.
Middle panel at Bushnell Ceremonial Cave. The bird glyph with diamond tail is Bushnell glyph 1 and measures 30 cm in length and 21 cm in width. The small axis munde (circle and cross) to the right of the large bird is Bushnell glyph 8 and measures 12 cm in diameter. The circle with dot center, below the glyph 8, is Bushnell glyph 9 and measures 10 cm in diameter. The circle with line divided (probably a vulva) is Bushnell glyph 7 and measures 14 cm in diameter. A very distinct circle petroglyph is situated 38 cm to the left of Bird petroglyph number 1; the circle was not recorded on Bushnell's plan, but it was recorded by Diaz-Granados (2000:Figure 5.4); it measures 18 cm in diameter.
Middle panel at Bushnell Ceremonial Cave.
More of the Middle panel at Bushnell Ceremonial Cave. The bird is Bushnell glyph 4 and measures 29.5 cm in length and 21 cm in width. The circle with dot center was not recorded on Bushnell's plan; it measures 17 cm in diameter.
Entrance panel at Bushnell Ceremonial Cave. The bird on the left hand side is Bushnell glyph 3 and measures 19 cm long by 15 cm in wide. The bird on the right hand side is Bushnell glyph 2 and measures 32 cm in length and 26 cm in width. The hand print glyph (Bushnell glyph 11) was not visible due to water and mud.
Michael and Neathery Fuller at the entrance to Bushnell Ceremonial Cave.
Bushnell, David I., Jr.
1914 Archaeological Investigations in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri. Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum. 46:641 - 668.
Diaz-Granados, Carol
1993 The Petroglyphs and Pictographs of Missouri: A Distributional, Stylistic, Contextual, Functional and Temporal Analysis of the State's Rock Graphics. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Washington University , St. Louis, Missouri.
Diaz-Granados, Carol and James R. Duncan
2000 The Petroglyphs and Pictographs of Missouri. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
Webpage constructed 6 March 2014