I’ve driven right by this Site more times than I can remember, going up to where my Grandson’s Dad has
lived for quite a few years, trespassed on the edges, and now find it’s a new
parcel of open space, under the stewardship an organization that oversees the
largest number of properties/acreage in the area – and the director is
interested in Indigenous Stone Features of the Cultural Sacred Landscape.
Rough site map.
So I’m learning this
Site, getting it into my own cognitive map in my mind and trying to put it down
in words, photos, drawings and on some actual maps – or at least into maps in
some computer files since the cost of printer ink would break me...
The linear row/serpent turns to a zigzag row of stones/serpent as it heads into
the rather stony riparian zone, a stonework border visible here and there on
the western edge above a (possibly Indigenous-made) earth and stone causeway. As I headed uphill,
I observed numerous boulders with cobbles placed on them, came across a substantial row of stones, a circular mound of stones, a sort of "dot" row of stones (maybe just the high points of a debris buried less substantial row?), more gateways and more stone piles. I revisited a serpent {Serpent Surprise}, pondered a "mining site," and a partially mortared square foundation. I've put together a Flickr album if you'd like to see more:
This possible grinding slick was one interpretation of one of the "cobbles on boulders:"
2 comments :
Interesting site. I like the serpentine wall with the size graduations of the boulders. It facinates me that this is an intentional act. The boulders could have been placed randomly, or in a straight line, so why such care with the placement of the stones? Of course, to answer my own question, I think the serpentine shape was the goal.
Looks like there is a spring just below the site. And it runs into the reservoir? It is also what I call an amphitheater or bowl shaped site. The reservoir and the 550' AMSL line show that very well. Many sites like this in Georgia.
One of my favorite stories from James Mooney's "Myths of the Cherokee" is the very first one.
This is a quote from:
HOW THE WORLD WAS MADE
"There is another world under this, and it is like ours in everything-animals, plants, and people-save that the seasons are different. The streams that come down from the mountains are the trails by which we reach this underworld, and the springs at their heads are the doorways by which we enter, it, but to do this one must fast and, go to water and have one of the underground people for a guide.
We know that the seasons in the underworld are different from ours, because the water in the springs is always warmer in winter and cooler in summer, than the outer air."
Thomas: Just went back there yesterday! Took some rather poor quality photos that I was just going to see if I could doctor up a bit and put up on my blog. I've been reading lots of Mooney's ethnologies Jannie has been passing on to me...
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