Thursday, November 12, 2020

Which Turtle? Which Place?

 

The Significance of a Stone Turtle 
 Or a Turtle Made of Stones 
Depends on
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 :

pwax said...

So you assume the turtle is an end in itself and that the pile has no function, other than to look like a turtle?

Norman said...

Maybe a Rorshach Test would be a more appropriate solution.

Tim MacSweeney said...

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.

pwax said...

Tim: please name some of these functions. How am I supposed to know what you are talking about?

Norman said...

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

Tim MacSweeney said...

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.

Tim MacSweeney said...

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

Tim MacSweeney said...

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2020/11/stone-prayers-sacred-smoke.html