Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Kentucky Marker Piles?

by JimP
One of Peter's recent posts about marker piles constructed in a line reminded me of an entry I read in a book about the history of Kentucky. Some time in the early 1900's, a man named Pierre Savary delivered a paper to the Kentucky Academy of Science outlining his beliefs that the land had once been inhabited by, "Hindoos." In his paper, he described the following site:

". . . on the farm of Gen, Kennedy and that of Mr. Jones —conch shells have been found in the ruins of circumvallatory temples, and always directly opposite to fountains. These facts lead us to no other inference, than that a people must have existed here, who placed great, we may say religious value, upon these shells. On Stoner's Creek, north of this, are seven piles of stone, placed in a direct line. They are from eight to ten feet high, and from twenty-five to thirty feet in diameter; the base of a circular form, and terminating in a cone at the top. These piles are situated on a commanding eminence, formed by a bluff of the creek."

3 comments :

Geophile said...

Why "Hindoos" I wonder? Did he know of similar constructions in India?

Tim MacSweeney said...

I think it might be a little bit of ethnocentric bigotry - they must have been built by anybody but the Native Americans.
If the guy was an "Atlantis" guy or a "Celtic" guy, it would have been attributed to them.
I know someone who would say it proves Extra Terrestrials visited the place...

JimP said...

He thought the conch shells were the, "musical instruments of the Tritons," and were highly, "esteemed and consecrated," by the Hindoos.

He also felt the rock piles were like monuments of ancient Asia and that there being seven piles was significant since Arabs and Hindoos consider seven to be a perfect number.