So I start the day like I usually do. I make some coffee and turn on the computer.
When the coffee's done, I sit down at the computer desk and click the "Rock Piles" icon on my Desktop.
I'm happy because there's some new posts and some new comments, some of them continuing a conversation with me.
Who doesn't like that, a little validation on a subject most people consider just to be a symptom of mental illness, the delusion that common ordinary rocks are in fact artifacts of an ancient civilization?
I see Peter has posted up some links to "Bird Stones." Photos I've seen before, some I remember and others I don't, take on new meaning this morning because I've been doing some "Google Image" surfing and have just seen the same forms in smaller scale as well as in a more polished style. So I try to re-create the search to find those images and return the favor to my friend, validate his observations.
I find the first one and save it, along with some information as to where it was found, both physically and virtually (which website):
Bird Stone - Indian Relic - American Indian Artifact: This Bird Stone was found in Ohio. It measures 1 1/2" tall x 2 7/8" long x 1 5/16 thick.
http://www.mulewagon.com/product/bird-stone-indian-relic-american-indian-artifact
And then I come across a couple that are less polished and more greatly resemble our bigger cobbles - and boulders, now that I think about it:
"Kalamazoo Valley Museum; The carved bird-shape stone, called a birdstone, was found in the yard of Donald Myers of Comstock. Experts are not sure of their use but know they were made by inhabitants as many as 2,500 years ago. Myers gave the birdstone to the Museum in 2010." And it's a "Duck Stone" in a museum in Michigan, made by Algonquian speakers, the language group, a fact that validates our thoughts a little more. I see I've forgotten the space between "bird" and "stone." That's why I didn't see it before...
http://kvm.kvcc.edu/localhistory/thecollection/highlights/recent_aquisitions/donor_windows/native_american_artifacts.html
"Native American Indian Birdstone, pecked porphyry. 5 1/2" long. Ex. Dr. Warren Baker Collection." http://www.antiquehelper.com/item/308607
And then I see this in the images search page and I just have to click on it:
"This massive Indian thunderbird statue and egg has more color than most of the figurines we've found. Extraordinarily beautiful when wet, but shown here dry. The green color is the shade of the summer sky just before a big thunderstorm - when icy hail lurks above and reflects the greenery below. Rare green olivine quartzite with equally rare pink conglomerated quartzite egg (glacier ground), 3 parts. 6.3”h; 1762 gm"
And I just have to find out where it was found and just who this obviously crazy person is at http://www.iceageartifacts.com/index.htm. "Washed out af a hilltop cornfield in Illinois, overlooking the Spoon River," I find. And there's photo after photo, unusual stones sorted by color and type of stone, stacked up to make little petroforms, even this one of an "egg laying turtle:"
"Oh," I say to myself, realizing I've recreated a similar thing or two (or more), found in a "stone wall" (or three or more) or "pile of clearing stones" I think is a mound (or a hundred as well as in other peoples photos). And I think of a story stone that is a bird when viewed one way, and a fish and a turtle and a man and a dog and a snake, found in a cornfield across the street after a flood. And I think "Maybe they are not so crazy after all..."
When the coffee's done, I sit down at the computer desk and click the "Rock Piles" icon on my Desktop.
I'm happy because there's some new posts and some new comments, some of them continuing a conversation with me.
Who doesn't like that, a little validation on a subject most people consider just to be a symptom of mental illness, the delusion that common ordinary rocks are in fact artifacts of an ancient civilization?
I see Peter has posted up some links to "Bird Stones." Photos I've seen before, some I remember and others I don't, take on new meaning this morning because I've been doing some "Google Image" surfing and have just seen the same forms in smaller scale as well as in a more polished style. So I try to re-create the search to find those images and return the favor to my friend, validate his observations.
I find the first one and save it, along with some information as to where it was found, both physically and virtually (which website):
http://www.mulewagon.com/product/bird-stone-indian-relic-american-indian-artifact
And then I find a new one I hadn't seen before but "Hokey Smokes!" I think, "I'll be durned if that doesn't look just like that one Peter's linked to!"
"THIS BIRDSTONE WAS FOUND IN PIKE COUNTY OHIO AND IS MADE FROM QUARTZITE. IT MEASURES 2 1/2 INCHES X 1 3/4 INCHES. IT COMES WITH COA."
http://www.j-and-dee-artifacts.com/axes_bannerstones_birdstones.htm#birdstonesAnd then I come across a couple that are less polished and more greatly resemble our bigger cobbles - and boulders, now that I think about it:
http://kvm.kvcc.edu/localhistory/thecollection/highlights/recent_aquisitions/donor_windows/native_american_artifacts.html
And there's a rougher one:
"Native American Indian Birdstone, pecked porphyry. 5 1/2" long. Ex. Dr. Warren Baker Collection." http://www.antiquehelper.com/item/308607
And an even rougher one, this time made of the material we find many of our stones are made of, in larger form:
grey/white granite with felspar, 3"x2"...more
And then I see this in the images search page and I just have to click on it:
"This massive Indian thunderbird statue and egg has more color than most of the figurines we've found. Extraordinarily beautiful when wet, but shown here dry. The green color is the shade of the summer sky just before a big thunderstorm - when icy hail lurks above and reflects the greenery below. Rare green olivine quartzite with equally rare pink conglomerated quartzite egg (glacier ground), 3 parts. 6.3”h; 1762 gm"
And I just have to find out where it was found and just who this obviously crazy person is at http://www.iceageartifacts.com/index.htm. "Washed out af a hilltop cornfield in Illinois, overlooking the Spoon River," I find. And there's photo after photo, unusual stones sorted by color and type of stone, stacked up to make little petroforms, even this one of an "egg laying turtle:"
4 comments :
I find the most interesting thing about these bird stones is that they seem to have a function involving being attached to something, maybe attached to a stick. Note the holes on the first one in these pictures.
Presumably the function over rules the shape.
I propose they function as atlatl hooks (where the butt of the spear rested).
I have found A LOT LOT of em!! I found a teeny tiny one this morn and a head nd body one also..in 10 mins time
I have found A LOT LOT of em!! I found a teeny tiny one this morn and a head nd body one also..in 10 mins time
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