Tlingit Rock Formations

Cairns Uncovered: Documentary Explores Ancient Tlingit Rock Formations:

Scientists are studying rock arrangements found atop some of Alaska’s southern mountains for information about ancient Tlingit culture.  Photo: Bill Hunt

    “Parts of south Alaska’s inland, alpine landscape are dotted with mounds of artificially stacked rocks that are closely tied to Tlingit culture. These structures, known as rock cairns, are the focus of Cairns Uncovered, a soon-to-be-released documentary that explores Tlingit oral traditions surrounding the structures, as well as archaeological research into their origins and purpose… We really wanted to show the importance of these rock piles and what they are to Tlingit culture and their story. The Tlingit passed on their culture through stories and dance. Some of the stories about the beginning of their history have to do with these rock piles. And we wanted to show that,” Stegen said. “We also wanted to go up there and study and potentially date the cairns. So, it’s also a very science-based documentary.”

http://polarfield.com/blog/cairns-uncovered-documentary-explores-ancient-tlingit-rock-formations/

(Previous post about the same people and project: http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2014/03/tlingit-cairns-in-southeast-alaska.html)

Stone Foundations and Tent Platforms in NW Coast Archaeology:

Tlingit house with stone wall foundation. “Photograph of a Taku village homes, photo likely by Partridge, circa 1887. Village site was located on the mainland across from Douglas Island, south of present-day Juneau”: SHI Archives, Richard Wood collection. http://goo.gl/hH9Pfl

    “In general, we may underestimate large scale constructions in stone.  Burial cairns and mounds (one of Darcy’s consists of 18 dump-trucks worth of soil), rock wall defensive sites, trench embankments, canoe runs, fish traps, and of course, clam gardens, all involved massive deployments of stone, with associated labour investments and creation of a durable built environment. Anyway, we’ve recently been running into enigmatic rock structures on the central coast and Quadra Island, and in particular, the possibility of dwelling structures partially based on stone walls.  So it’s quite cool to run across the picture above from the SHI photo collections, showing a Taku Tlingit house from the historic period, sitting on a platform which has a stone wall as a foundation.

     For an archaeological example, above is a picture of a rock wall which happened to be exposed in a tiny rivulet.  The wall itself is partially constructed of large stone tools, which is cool in its own right. It continues out of frame to right and left, but is not exposed in the same way. Behind the wall, a small test unit showed the stone structure three courses deep, with a definite edge, and abundant charcoal and lithics organized into thin strata like living surfaces.  Preliminary dating shows use around 1500 years ago. Anyway, it’s an example of what we think may be a habitation structure of some kind built on a stone foundation, perhaps even with low stone walls as a perimeter.  You can see numerous additional examples of similar walls in the pictures below, also from the SHI archive…It’s also not just about houses...you can see rock platforms built to support tents…The bottom picture shows a similar uppermost tidal rock platform which contained abundant charcoal dated to, if memory serves, to about 4,000 years ago.  This is from Duncan McLaren’s Hakai Ancient Landscapes project which I get to volunteer on from time to time.

So, stone: an under-appreciated construction material on the NW Coast? If you have examples of unorthodox stone constructions then leave a comment, or send me an email."

{qmackie {@} gmail dot com} http://qmackie.com/2014/10/26/stone-foundations/

Look at the Ancestors Here

     “Father Gerónimo Boscana…defines Acjachema as a pyramidal form of moving matter (Boscana). Boscana observes further that “Others apply the term to things inanimate, such as a pile of stones, etc., but the most correct signification of the word is understood as having relation to a heap of animated things (Boscana 84)… In traditional Acjachemen thought, however, rocks animate and alive. They pulse with the vibration of all their minerals, with all their ayelkwi, or knowledge-power. Rocks hold as much cultural significance as the sky holds stars. Rocks walk themselves to ceremonies. They sing across valleys. They burst into fire and they hum to themselves. Through rocks, the ancestors speak and the spirits appear…

Photo from: http://www.boomcalifornia.com/wp-content/uploads/boom.2014.4.1.86-f04.jpg

Ancient boundary monument No. XVI was a simple pile of stones, early 1850s. From Jacobo Blanco’s Memoria de la Sección Mexicana de la Comisión Internacional de Límites entre México y los Estados Unidos que Restableció los Monumentos de El Paso al Pacífico. 1901.

    ...Louie continues to explain his views towards rocks, offering an example of a rock pile. “Your average person could walk by a pile of rocks and say ‘Oh that’s a pile of rocks,’” he explains. “A native person could walk by, and say ‘Look at the ancestors here.’” His words remind me about the story of Acjachema, the place where the ancestors slept all together. Rocks, similarly stacked and piled, are ancestors too. I wonder about the ancient rock cairns that people have occasionally seen in the southern California hills, the cairns that the Lobos describe in their report. Are these groups of ancestors perhaps tapping into something deeper, into the story of Acjachema?” ~ From: “A Celebration of Ceremony Among the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation,” Julia Edith Rigby (2012)

http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1081&context=scripps_theses

Chinigchinich by Friar Geronimo Boscana (tr. by Alfred Robinson) [1846]

http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/bosc/index.htm

Tremper Mountain, Ulster County, NY

Tremper Mountain in Ulster County New York was, in the 1700s and early 1800s, the site of extensive blue stone quarrying. The stones were used for building and paving before cheaper and/or easier to use materials replaced them. Because of this, I looked on most of the piles of rocks we ran across on our hike as tailing rather than ceremonial piles. At one point, however, we came to an area with piles that seemed different. The pile above, for example, appeared to have a manitou stone leaning against it.
This was an area of about 30 stone piles, all on boulders, in a flat place near the edge of a cliff, about three quarters of the way to the top of the mountain or maybe even closer.
The pile above includes a stone with an oddly-shaped edge, set upright so the odd edge is facing up.

The pile above shows what appears to be a layer of older rocks with others that seem to have been added later laid on top of them.
As with most of the places where ceremonial rock piles are found, many natural but unusual rock formations occurred here, as with this (much taller than it looks!) rock wall with holes created as conglomerate rock was weathered and stones cemented in it fell out. It looked like a sort of Mesa Verde for gnomes.

There were also a few of these effigy-like rock formations that, while probably natural, would not have gone unnoticed by earlier inhabitants.
I have forgotten to post a more interesting face rock that I found close to the rock piles, so I'll post it in a second post.