There are several articles out today about a boy's body, found in Eastern Siberia, 24,000 years old, with DNA matching European and Native American DNA. The "obvious" conclusion is that the DNA got like this because Europeans came to Siberia and Siberians came to American. Apparently in the minds of Euro centric archeologists, all human migrations are west-to-east. Of course no such directions exist in the data - at least not the data presented.
For me, this is another example of how discredited is the whole subject of DNA comparison.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Arrowhead from Egg Rock Concord
From reader Will Kemeza:
I live in Concord (Main Street in West Concord). I was out walking with my family on Sunday - and we ended up throwing rocks (my boys are 3 and 5) into the river just below Egg Rock, right at the confluence of the rivers.
In a moment of serendipity, I had just finished telling them about what little I know of the place's history as an important Indian site. I picked up a rock, was about to skip it toward Lowell Road, but I somehow looked down and realized that I had a small arrowhead. I was thrilled. I've been rambling around in the woods and fields here for years (I grew up in town), but had never found one before. It occurs to me that the place we were gathering rocks is usually underwater - obviously, the river's very low at the moment.
So: now I'm deeply curious... I've
attached a picture. Any thoughts about the point which could illuminate
things for a total novice?
I live in Concord (Main Street in West Concord). I was out walking with my family on Sunday - and we ended up throwing rocks (my boys are 3 and 5) into the river just below Egg Rock, right at the confluence of the rivers.
In a moment of serendipity, I had just finished telling them about what little I know of the place's history as an important Indian site. I picked up a rock, was about to skip it toward Lowell Road, but I somehow looked down and realized that I had a small arrowhead. I was thrilled. I've been rambling around in the woods and fields here for years (I grew up in town), but had never found one before. It occurs to me that the place we were gathering rocks is usually underwater - obviously, the river's very low at the moment.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Enclosure - Ashburham near the Wapac trail not far from the NH border.
From Steve Gabis:
I finally got back up to that enclosure on the Wapac trail. (I've attached some pictures.) The enclosure is roughly rectangular 60 x 25 feet with a diagonal path through it. Inside are 4 or 5 stone piles. You can easily see it on the south side of the path. It's approximately 300 yards west of Nuttings Hill and about 1 mile from the Midstate/Wapac Trail parking lot on Rt 119.
If you need any more information I'd be glad to show you where it is.
I finally got back up to that enclosure on the Wapac trail. (I've attached some pictures.) The enclosure is roughly rectangular 60 x 25 feet with a diagonal path through it. Inside are 4 or 5 stone piles. You can easily see it on the south side of the path. It's approximately 300 yards west of Nuttings Hill and about 1 mile from the Midstate/Wapac Trail parking lot on Rt 119.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Stone tool lesson #43B
It is always worth looking around corporate planters and parking lots when the landscaping uses large, water-polished stone pebbles for ground cover. There may be stone tools mixed in with the unmodified rocks. Here for example is an unmodified rock on the left and a modified one on the right - from the parking lot of Dassaulte Systems Waltham, MA.(These are about 2.5-3 inches long.)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Stan Cartwright, a Georgia Creek, remembers his childhood experience
From the "People of One Fire"
Stan Cartright of the Perdido Bay Muskogee-Creek Tribe wrote a note in response to the film review of "Reel Injuns." It struck a poignant emotional response with me because so much of my fond childhood memories paralleled those of Stan's . . . especially about catching large turtles for our grandmother's to cook. One slight difference. It was my grandmother who made the baskets, while my grandfather carved wooden bowls for mixing flour. As a young woman, my grandmother also hand-made pottery, but she no longer did that, when I was around.
Stan grew up in the Muskogee-Creek territory of west-central Georgia, while I always lived in Itstate-Creek territory. At age 8 my family moved from the Okefenokee Swamp to the Georgia Mountains. Instead of a cave, my mother took me at age six to Ocmulgee National Monument to view the royal burial that was then on display. She told me, "Richard, this could be one of your ancestors." At age 16 my Methodist minister, who was also Creek, took me to the burial display at Etowah Mounds and told me the same thing.
Stan's comments point out something very important that indigenous peoples living in Oklahoma often forget. While the descendants of the Southeast's indigenous peoples, still living in the Southeast, have typically forgotten their original language, many day-to-day cultural traditions were maintained that are no longer practiced in Oklahoma. Both boys and girls were out running in the woods as soon as we could walk. I still do! We all spent many a day wandering through freshly plowed fields, looking for potsherds and arrowheads . . . knowing that the artifacts could have been made by our ancestors. We all have kept close watch on the ruins of our ancestral towns. Such places are very personal and spiritual to us, not abstract locations on the map.
At age 11 I first became aware that there was something really, really important that occurred in the valley where the Track Rock ruins are located. It was through that valley that my Boy Scout Troop hiked and camped for three weeks. I earned enough merit badges to become one of the youngest Eagle Scouts ever. One of them was the Archaeology badge. However, it took many decades for me to answer the vague spiritual feelings of that young Boy Scout.
Here is Stan's list:
The other day while deer hunting, I began to think of all the things that I have done, being taught primarily by my father and grandmother.Some may have been of European origin, I don't know, but read and consider:
1) tracked logger head turtles in streams and pulled them from beneath the banks, sometimes with a gig, sometimes by hand
2) tracked logger head turtles in ponds by following their "bubble trail" and catching them as they surfaced for air
3) tracked deer taking them with bow and arrow and with rifle
4) made and hunted with bow and arrow as a young man, knapping points from stone - store bought was not available
5) trapped turtles with baskets, some of which were made of white oak strips
6)trapped rabbits with boxes and sometimes having run some in holes retrieved them with a stick thrust into the hole and twisting it, thus bringing the rabbit out
7)watched my daddy run a rabbit down and catch it and me doing the same at age 17
8) watched my daddy run a fox down and catch it just to show he could
9)hauled water from streams to our 1850's house, no electricity, no well
10) killed or doctored animals according to the phase of the moon
11) wore clothes fashioned from flour sacks
12) fished for suckers during their Spring spawn run
13) seined hidden, natural ponds with home made seins
14) run and fished trot lines baited with doe balls cooked by the woman
15) "robbed" honey bee nests for the honey, using smoke from pine boughs
16) slept on the banks of the Flint and Chattahoochee River for days at a time, with no cover, tent, etc. - fishing wasn't a sport, it was a way to get supper
17) watched my grandfather weave baskets from oak and cane; watched my grandmother make quilts
18) ate my share of fish heads, cause nothing went to waste
19) lived at the base of the mountains of The Cove
20) hunted those same mountains for days at a time
21) taken to caves in The Cove and told my ancestors once lived in them
22) listen to my aunt tell of "bird switching" and roasting those birds over the fire in the house
23) participated in funerals that lasted for days and days.....this was in the 50's, folks don't do this anymore
24) flipping rocks in The Flint, for "rock worms" with which to bait trot lines
25) way back when, hunting whatever, with only the light of the full moon to reveal what might be supper
26) spending all day in the mountains picking blueberries
27) being doctored by what ever grandmother had gathered from the woods
28) being conjured over or "spoken over" in a unrecognizable language for healing
Stan Cartright of the Perdido Bay Muskogee-Creek Tribe wrote a note in response to the film review of "Reel Injuns." It struck a poignant emotional response with me because so much of my fond childhood memories paralleled those of Stan's . . . especially about catching large turtles for our grandmother's to cook. One slight difference. It was my grandmother who made the baskets, while my grandfather carved wooden bowls for mixing flour. As a young woman, my grandmother also hand-made pottery, but she no longer did that, when I was around.
Stan grew up in the Muskogee-Creek territory of west-central Georgia, while I always lived in Itstate-Creek territory. At age 8 my family moved from the Okefenokee Swamp to the Georgia Mountains. Instead of a cave, my mother took me at age six to Ocmulgee National Monument to view the royal burial that was then on display. She told me, "Richard, this could be one of your ancestors." At age 16 my Methodist minister, who was also Creek, took me to the burial display at Etowah Mounds and told me the same thing.
Stan's comments point out something very important that indigenous peoples living in Oklahoma often forget. While the descendants of the Southeast's indigenous peoples, still living in the Southeast, have typically forgotten their original language, many day-to-day cultural traditions were maintained that are no longer practiced in Oklahoma. Both boys and girls were out running in the woods as soon as we could walk. I still do! We all spent many a day wandering through freshly plowed fields, looking for potsherds and arrowheads . . . knowing that the artifacts could have been made by our ancestors. We all have kept close watch on the ruins of our ancestral towns. Such places are very personal and spiritual to us, not abstract locations on the map.
At age 11 I first became aware that there was something really, really important that occurred in the valley where the Track Rock ruins are located. It was through that valley that my Boy Scout Troop hiked and camped for three weeks. I earned enough merit badges to become one of the youngest Eagle Scouts ever. One of them was the Archaeology badge. However, it took many decades for me to answer the vague spiritual feelings of that young Boy Scout.
Here is Stan's list:
The other day while deer hunting, I began to think of all the things that I have done, being taught primarily by my father and grandmother.Some may have been of European origin, I don't know, but read and consider:
1) tracked logger head turtles in streams and pulled them from beneath the banks, sometimes with a gig, sometimes by hand
2) tracked logger head turtles in ponds by following their "bubble trail" and catching them as they surfaced for air
3) tracked deer taking them with bow and arrow and with rifle
4) made and hunted with bow and arrow as a young man, knapping points from stone - store bought was not available
5) trapped turtles with baskets, some of which were made of white oak strips
6)trapped rabbits with boxes and sometimes having run some in holes retrieved them with a stick thrust into the hole and twisting it, thus bringing the rabbit out
7)watched my daddy run a rabbit down and catch it and me doing the same at age 17
8) watched my daddy run a fox down and catch it just to show he could
9)hauled water from streams to our 1850's house, no electricity, no well
10) killed or doctored animals according to the phase of the moon
11) wore clothes fashioned from flour sacks
12) fished for suckers during their Spring spawn run
13) seined hidden, natural ponds with home made seins
14) run and fished trot lines baited with doe balls cooked by the woman
15) "robbed" honey bee nests for the honey, using smoke from pine boughs
16) slept on the banks of the Flint and Chattahoochee River for days at a time, with no cover, tent, etc. - fishing wasn't a sport, it was a way to get supper
17) watched my grandfather weave baskets from oak and cane; watched my grandmother make quilts
18) ate my share of fish heads, cause nothing went to waste
19) lived at the base of the mountains of The Cove
20) hunted those same mountains for days at a time
21) taken to caves in The Cove and told my ancestors once lived in them
22) listen to my aunt tell of "bird switching" and roasting those birds over the fire in the house
23) participated in funerals that lasted for days and days.....this was in the 50's, folks don't do this anymore
24) flipping rocks in The Flint, for "rock worms" with which to bait trot lines
25) way back when, hunting whatever, with only the light of the full moon to reveal what might be supper
26) spending all day in the mountains picking blueberries
27) being doctored by what ever grandmother had gathered from the woods
28) being conjured over or "spoken over" in a unrecognizable language for healing
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Because a stone has seen so much
“Why rocks?” I ask.
“Because a stone has
seen so much.” –Louie Robles.
“Joyce (Stanfield
Perry - Cultural Resource Director of the Juañeno Band of Mission Indians,
Acjachemen Nation) shares that “the rocks are the Old People, the first
people, from the time before we were beings. They were just bundles of energy
[. . .] Rocks have a spirit. They are alive, and they are beings that connect
us to the past, all the way back to…forever.”
Ceremony, old and new, is grounded in such rocks. In following
the story of rocks like this mortar, we learn more of the Acjachmen story as well.
The Acjachemen people are so named in remembrance of the night long ago when,
grieving for their leader Coronne who had transformed into a mound of earth,
the people comforted one another by sleeping atop each other, as a moving
pyramidal form.
The place they slept, Acjachema, honors the story. The name
commemorates the land, allowing future generations to remember the culturally
significant event that happened there.
(Father Gerónimo Boscana) assumes that “the most correct
signification of the word Acjachema does not apply to stones so much as “[. .
.] a heap of animated things”, he implies that stones are inanimate. 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.
In questioning Boscana’s assumption, we—non-indigenous
individuals such as myself—open the door to a discussion we may have otherwise
overlooked. We allow ourselves to think of rocks in ways we may not have ever
considered—as sentient, powerful, animated beings. According to traditional
Acjachemen worldview, rocks were born in the time when animals, rocks, and
trees were the Káamalum, the Original People. Just like such animals as
Round-headed Katydid, who became the first basket-maker, and Green Bottle fly—who
according to one story lit Wiyot’s cremation fire with her fire sticks (hence
she still rubs her hands today) (Harrington)—rocks are attributed with power
and spirit, free- will and knowledge.
Louie (Robles,
Acjachemen tribal member, storyteller, and singer) reflects on rocks. “Often in ceremony we refer to
rocks as ancestors,” he tells me. “In a sweat ceremony, you say bring in some
more hot ancestors, because they are actual pieces of mother earth. They are
aged. They represent age, and all the knowledge and wisdom that comes with age.
Because a stone has seen so much.”
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" by Julia Edith Rigby (4-20-2012), condensed from "Puvungna; Singing Rocks and Dancing Bears (pages 46-53)"
Friday, November 15, 2013
A beautiful quartz cobble
I was walking back downhill towards ValleyRd and the "oven" of previous mention, and saw a few wall features, here a nice termination:
.JPG)
Right adjacent to it, I could not tell if this was a rock pile. There might have been another but too indistinct to photo (as if this one wasn't already).
.JPG)
Then I saw a nice quartz rock. It was loose in the leaves, so I think it fell off the wall recently:
.JPG)
It shows some use wear.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Very pretty.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Monhegan Island Maps
A reader writes:
As a lover of the island's topography, I thought you might enjoy seeing the map I illustrated of Monhegan.
http://gloriamylyk.com/
Gloria Mylyk
Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School
As a lover of the island's topography, I thought you might enjoy seeing the map I illustrated of Monhegan.
http://gloriamylyk.com/
Gloria Mylyk
Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School
RSS Feeds
I recently learned how RSS feed aggregators copy blog posts verbatim. So there are readers who never visit this blog. I wonder how many? Seems unfair the aggregators can advertise and make money providing you with easier access to this content.
What do you think? Am I being old fashioned? I am going to try limiting to "Short" RSS feeds and please let me know if this does not work for you.
What do you think? Am I being old fashioned? I am going to try limiting to "Short" RSS feeds and please let me know if this does not work for you.
Interesting stone "oven" in northeastern (no...northWESTERN) Willard Brook State Forest
In eastern Willard Brook State Forest you can park at the northwestern end of Valley Rd (a dirt road) and walk southeast. I wanted to go south uphill, follow the brook, and get up to the higher meadows and wetlands I could see on the map.
Going upstream I saw something curious on the left - a rock pile and a sequence of features along an outcrop.
.JPG)
Taking a closer look, it seems hollow, and seems like it might have had its top cast off to the side.
.JPG)
Another look from in front. There is a small lintel and opening.
.JPG)
Inside, the rocks are stained red - presumably from fire.
.JPG)
A few steps past the structure, modifications continue:
.JPG)
.JPG)
I cannot imagine a purpose for this structure - seemingly like an oven but part of a sequence of stone structures which have no obvious connection to uses of an oven. Look back, continuing up the hill:
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
SACRED GEOGRAPHY (Baja CA)
“…rock pile cairns represented the chief spirit of an area,
and a (Seri) shaman who built one might pronounce
a curse on anybody who would tear it down…”
Photo from: http://paddyryan.smugmug.com/keyword/baja%20california/691142513_ZSB5FXK#!i=691142513&k=ZSB5FXK
A PROPOSED EXAMPLE OF SACRED
GEOGRAPHY AND SOCIOSPATIAL OCCUPATION IN PREHISTORIC CENTRAL BAJA CALIFORNIA
ERIC W. RITTER - BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT/SHASTA
COLLEGE
“These
findings include what can be interpreted as ritual or sacred prehistoric
features and sites and those adjoining domestic locations…Particularly relevant
to the presentation are those specialized and concentrated locations of cultural
remains, including places labeled as burial rockshelters, residential and special-use
rockshelters, aligned cairns, a pictograph cave, a double trail and ending rock
enclosures, and additional rock enclosures of various sizes, all within
relatively close proximity (hundreds of meters or less apart) on this small
hill...Malotki (2007:32-33) notes the universal need for art production “to make
certain locales in their environment special or extra-ordinary and thereby
render them ritually effective.”
More pictograph photographs at Arroyo El Palmerito, Cataviña, Baja California Norte:
Hence one is left with a rock art “shrine”
allowing humans to feel an ability to maintain a level of control over an
unpredictable and dangerous world…There are prehistoric features in Arizona,
comparable to the hillside paths and the cleared areas at their upper ends at
Cerro El Almacén, which are discussed by Masse and Rankin (2008:573). These authors
believe these Arizona “summit paths” and associated rock circles on hills may
have served as processional paths much like Mesoamerican temple stairways.
Seemingly relevant, the feature on Cerro El Almacén heads approximately toward
the mortuary complex.
Image from: http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo228/gaucho87/Spring%20Break%20Baja%202010/002_23A.jpg
Rock
cairns are common in the Desert West. Among many comparative studies in the
California desert, Western Papaguería, Baja California, and the Gulf of
California islands, see Ritter (1981), Bowen (2000), and Vanderpot and Altschul
(2008).
There is an early, well-known, and often-cited
missionary description (Clavijero 1937:115) of cairn construction in the
central peninsula. Clavijero noted that at Indian public gatherings the shaman
or guama imposed penalties or misfortunes on those who did not bring him “the
best fruit” as payment for his services. “Not only private individuals but even
entire tribes were often subjected to these penalties.
Likewise
in the punishment of similar sins they were obliged frequently to open some new
road in the mountains so that the spiritual visitor could descend with more
ease and to erect on it at certain distances some heaps of stones on which he
might rest.” The roads discussed could be pathways like those found at Cerro El
Almacén and in Arizona.
A number of alternative subsistence-related
functions for the cairn construction and alignment can also be explored.
Vanderpot and Altschul (2008: 356-359) discuss possible cairn use to support
nets, trip wires, or other entanglement devices or as part of drive lines for
animals like rabbits, bighorn sheep, or deer. The Cerro El Almacén cairns do
not appear to be so arranged. That the cairns could have supported a rabbit net
or the like at the base of the hill cannot in totality be ruled out. However,
why are the cairns irregularly spaced, and why does this one feature complex
seem unique in the greater locality where most cairns are singular features?
Could these cairns be symbolic markers placed
by individuals walking along the base of the hill, much like trail shrines (see
Vanderpot and Altschul 2008:359-361 for a more detailed discussion of these western
desert features) to commemorate special events or places? Some of these
features in Alta California would have artifacts in association, as discussed
in Rogers (1966), but this is not the case here, based on the testing
conducted. Vanderpot and Altschul (2008:361) note that “in the historical period,
it was a Yuman and Tohono O’odham custom to toss a stone on a growing pile at
significant points along a trail, such as passes or forks, for luck.” Bowen
(2000:336) found evidence among the Seri that a stone or stick was placed by a
prominent rock alongside a trail in order that the spirit of the rock would
make some person give the traveler a gift. Bowen (2000:337) similarly relates
that rock clusters and cairns have been used by Seri shamans as a means of
exercising power over others. According to Moser (1963), among the Seri, rock
pile cairns represented the chief spirit of an area, and a shaman who built one
might pronounce a curse on anybody who would tear it down…”
I can’t
steal the photos or drawings from the pdf, so you’ll have to take a look on
your own
See also
“La rocosa be buitre,” a cairn with a name that might mean “Rockhouse of the
Vulture,” Figure 3c on page 14 here: http://www.pcas.org/Vol34N3/343Rittr.pdf
(A Cairn Burial on pages 34-6 as well)
...while a crop of this shows possible stones on boulders, including one that looks much like the painted rock, Exwanyawish (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmk1Xt2LoLxWoXxN_Xh1JUvUlADly_J7ijZds3sbcsLt9_C2kaXhaPh3zQSDq5arFRJVxHw36IW320q5ohkUBW24OHTET5PxKM_EbVaBivLRsj4mHd_tK0U5BzkS0QOK6XQiZl/s1600/Du+Bois+cover.jpg)...
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
.JPG)
A small ceremonial space: rock on rock with quartz outcrop
North of Saima Park in Fitchburg, I saw an isolated rock-on-rock and cast about to see if it was the only thing there.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Bear Rock Church
"I reached the Staunton River Trail (in Shenandoah National Park) and began a steeper ascent...Above the falls were some weird piles of stones about 50 feet or more from the river. It looked man-made and quite odd, some I took some pictures."
http://thedohls.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/bear-church-rock/
Prehistoric Pet?
Dog
burial found in O.C.
Published: June 10, 2010
Updated: Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.
“Even more intriguing are
the positioning of the dog and the placement of a "cairn" — a rock
marker, in this case a large acorn grinding-bowl or metate — on top of it.”
Note: I was trying to recreate a search that rendered some
illustrations of Orange County CA cairn burials, sometimes topped with an
inverted mortar stone – of the bowl or basket type and not the metate type
pictured above (along the road mentioned in my previous post of yesterday). I just found the above to be the “man bites dog” sort of alternative
to the “Dogs on Mounds” that have appeared on this blog.
And here’s some widely scattered cairn burials that somehow
showed up when I used “orange county burial cairn mortar pdf” in the search
field:
“Indian
Habitations in Sussex County”
Spier (1915)
“In
addition,cairn burials—a mode of burial where large masses of rock were piled
(page 22) ....”
It’s a brief mention, followed by some thoughts on Indian Trails. And
preceded by thoughts on 25 Rockshelters, plus a bit about Indian land clearing
of a horticultural field.
CAIRNS ON LOST
HILL, AT MOUTH OF GOURD CREEK (MO)
“On the
top of this particular Lost Hill are six cairns, five of them near the northern
end, the sixth just where the ridge breaks off to the south. The margins are
uncertain owing to the upper stones being scattered by hunters as well as by
credulous individuals who are firmly fixed in the belief that all such
"rock piles" contain gold hidden by Indians.
So
far as can now be determined the five at the northern end were 16 to 18 feet
across as left by the builders, the southernmost one being somewhat smaller.
All are in uncleared land, and crevices between the stones are filled with a
tangled mass of roots from the trees and bushes growing on and around them.”
From the beginning: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18931/18931-h/18931-h.htm
CAIRN-BURIAL.
“The next mode of
interment to be considered is that of cairn or rock burial, which has prevailed
and is still common to a considerable extent among the tribes living in the
Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas.
In the summer of 1872
the writer visited one of these rock cemeteries in Middle Utah, which had been
used for a period not exceeding fifteen or twenty years. It was situated at the
bottom of a rock slide, upon the side of an almost inaccessible mountain, in a
position so carefully chosen for concealment that it would have been almost
impossible to find it without a guide. Several of the graves were opened, and
found to have been constructed in the following manner: A number of
bowlders had been removed from the bed of the slide until a sufficient cavity
had been obtained; this was lined with skins, the corpse placed therein, with
weapons, ornaments, &c., and covered over with saplings of the mountain
aspen; on the top of these the removed bowlders were piled, forming a huge cairn,
which appeared large enough to have marked the last resting place of an
elephant. In the immediate vicinity of the graves were scattered the osseous
remains of a number of horses which had been sacrificed, no doubt, during the
funeral ceremonies. In one of the graves, said to contain the body of a chief,
in addition to a number of articles useful and ornamental, were found parts of
the skeleton of a boy, and tradition states that a captive boy was buried alive
at this place.”
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Southern California
I once lived for a brief time in a sleepy little town by the sea in Southern California, back in 1978. I've gone back a couple times only to find those chaparral covered hills on the other side of the Freeway filled with houses. Last Friday, I just happened to drive down from the City of Orange, with my wife and my niece, to Laguna Beach to look at artwork and the ocean (and to buy a new hat).
As I drove into Laguna Canyon, it was if the landscape suddenly spoke to me - not a voice, exactly, but some sort of call that promised that there was something to the turtle-like shape of that boulder, that there was something more ancient than most people suspect about that little stone row, that this landscape was (is) something special. I don't remember signs for the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park back in the canyon I clearly remembered driving along many years ago, but there they now were at several parking spots along the road. I didn't get to explore this time, but perhaps a future trip will allow me to, perhaps in the company of my son who lives not too too far from there...
I did wade into some Google searches while finding myself still on East Coast Time while everyone else was sleeping, using those rock piles terms and all the variants, adapting them to the locale. There were many surprises and here are two of them, both from a book I could have read when I lived there:
As I drove into Laguna Canyon, it was if the landscape suddenly spoke to me - not a voice, exactly, but some sort of call that promised that there was something to the turtle-like shape of that boulder, that there was something more ancient than most people suspect about that little stone row, that this landscape was (is) something special. I don't remember signs for the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park back in the canyon I clearly remembered driving along many years ago, but there they now were at several parking spots along the road. I didn't get to explore this time, but perhaps a future trip will allow me to, perhaps in the company of my son who lives not too too far from there...
I did wade into some Google searches while finding myself still on East Coast Time while everyone else was sleeping, using those rock piles terms and all the variants, adapting them to the locale. There were many surprises and here are two of them, both from a book I could have read when I lived there:
Fig. 2.—A painted rock, once a woman, on which two sacred stones are poised.
Kroeber writes: "One of the most striking rocks in this locality of ancient
monuments is the painted rock, Exwanyawish which was one of the Temecula people, a
woman, who turned into this form. Indians suffering bodily pain rub against the
rock to obtain relief. It is not known when the painting on the hollowed side
was done, nor when the sacred stones, wiala, were poised on top. The oldest man
remembers that they were always there, though the touch of a hand might
overturn them. Pl . 4, fig. 2.)"
Kroeber then continues with: "In those days they used to sing songs to kill each other by
witchcraft, and Lucario knows these songs. He has one of them which mentions
the turtle rock, and tells how it was left there.2"
The large flat rock is divided by cracks which resemble the marks on the
turtle's back. Lucario is the
last of his line, party, or clan, and everything sacred will be lost when he is
gone, as the succession in these things ends with him. He is dispossessed from
his ancient home place, which was allotted to another.” (Kroeber, 158-9)
This may or may not be the same Turtle Rock in a community of the same name in Irvine CA:
I suspect that there may be many Turtle Rocks to be found
(depending on how many you might have time to look for).
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)