The Significance of a Stone Turtle
Or a Turtle Made of Stones
Depends on
Which Turtle in Which Place
Which Turtle in Which Place
Above: Judges
Woods Turtle Effigy (incorporated into a "memorial"). Below: A Diamondback Terrapin Effigy above the
Hammonasset Salt Marsh, "Hunting Grounds," like Ed Lenik says, not
for a Turtle Clan, but for the Diamondback Terrapin, if you are looking for the
simplest answer as to "Why this particular Turtle in this particular
place?"
As a modern day observer of
Stone Turtles
Or Turtles Made of Stone
The main significance is that the
Stone Turtle speaks, saying:
“Indigenous hands were on
these stones,
Placing them just so in order
to resemble Turtles…”
8 comments :
So you assume the turtle is an end in itself and that the pile has no function, other than to look like a turtle?
Maybe a Rorshach Test would be a more appropriate solution.
PW: No, not at all. There lots of turtles with lots of functions - more than I'll ever guess. You took a look at the longer version?
NM: Every Rorschach Test figure I ever looked at seemed like an inkblot to me.
Tim: please name some of these functions. How am I supposed to know what you are talking about?
Tim,
This is just my opinion, but I think you are reading too much into what you are seeing. I just don't see the turtle heads in the stones. The images are not obvious enough for me. Maybe you are correct, but I just don't see it.
Norm
Edward J. Lenik suggests that the turtle, in “portable artifacts” and “nonportable petroglyphs,” can be a symbol of the Earth, the first animal created, the first clan/first people created, a symbol of longevity, patience, perseverance or fertility (a womb), and if found as a petroglyph on a boulder or outcrop as perhaps the boundary of a Turtle Clan territory such as a Village site or Hunting/Gathering Ground, or a Guardian Spirit of a path or trail. As a stacked stone feature (in “rock piles” or “stones wall”), I’m going take what he says into consideration as a possibility as to a possible function.
I was just surprised by something I'm reading right now: " Most remarkably, in the centre of a cemetery at the Read site in Kentucky, a stone cairn enclosed two turtle carapaces, and nothing else (Webb 1950b:362)." https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271909655_Turtles_from_Turtle_Island
http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2020/11/stone-prayers-sacred-smoke.html
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