A spring with a wedged rock behind:
Detail of the wedging required a flash:
Also we saw an outcrop, split with several pieces jammed really far down in there:
Without the flash:
We have to keep going with the conversation about the meaning(s) of split rocks and the smaller rocks in the split.
The record points to the belief of a spirit or spirits connected to the Underworld dwelling in what has been described variously as splits, holes, concavities, or hollows in rocks, boulders, or bedrock.
ReplyDeleteThe most widespread report concerns hilltop ceremonial sites with a talus cave, deep rock shelter, or ravine. The ceremonies seemed to have involved fairly rich offerings thrown into the opening. The snake seems to have been the creature most often associated with these ceremonies.
But there are also very widespread and very consistent reports concerning large boulders with holes, hollows, splits, or concavities and the belief that a certain spirit dwells there. Offerings at these sites were more modest, consisting of tobacco, stones, twigs, food, or in historic times, liquor.
I fully admit we have very little information in this area. With traces, bits, and pieces here and there, we have some of picture. But certainly not all of it. And whatever interpretation one makes of such features, it must agree on some level with the ethnohistory or few will believe it.
I agree with Jim about split-wedged boulders. The ethnography about split boulders is strongest in the West, and I've taken my cue from people like David Whitley. There are of course different varieties of split boulders, and one interpretation is probably not suitable for all cases. Larry Harrop has on his blog (//larryharrop.com/blog) a fascinating slide show that focuses partly on a flat slab propped up on one end by a small manitou stone (the other part is on an alignment from the manitou stone to a propped boulder, with two standing stones in between). Might propped boulders like this be a variation of a split wedged boulder?
ReplyDelete