Jan F. Simek (born April 15, 1953) is an American archaeologist and educator who was the interim president of the University of Tennessee system from 2009 to 2010.
He has been involved in the discovery and exploration of numerous “Unnamed Caves”, a naming practice used to protect their location, in the Cumberland Plateau for the past fifteen years.
[2] His father, Vasek Simek, was a Czechoslovakia-born New York theater director and Hollywood character actor whose roles included Soviet premiers, Russian chess players, and ambiguously “foreign” scientists.
Their discovery of well-preserved fireplaces, including ashes of several different types of wood as well as different grasses, within Grotte XVI, suggests that Neanderthals may have been using fire in complex ways.
[3] Simek’s research discoveries provide contrasting evidence against the idea that Neanderthals were incapable of planning ahead, or imagining the future.
[4] Inspired by one of his colleagues, Charles Faulkner, Simek developed a passion for ancient cave art in Tennessee.
[10] The team has gone on to produce substantial findings which offer a glimpse into once lost Native American cultures and traditions.
Many of the cave images exemplify classic Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC) iconography, which is found widely in Eastern North America in the centuries around 1200 A.D., a part of Mississippian culture that is yet to be fully understood.