Sunday, July 21, 2013

Re: "Rock Piles and Stone Structures"

Reader DG writes (commenting on this blog post):
I think part of the difficulty in comparing petroforms in the eastern US with those in Europe (particularly the subarctic regions) is that it is often difficult to visually judge their antiquity, especially in colder places where lichens and mosses grow relatively slowly. Here is a recent picture I took of a prehistoric cairn at an extensive assemblage in Pickens Co., Georgia:
Here are some images I took recently on Hardangervidda in western Norway:
While some of these cairns may be centuries old, others may have been set up by a happy hiker last Tuesday -- even under close inspection, it's hard to tell the difference. While I was initially miffed that people had been "vandalizing" these sites, I realize now that in some ways it represents a "living tradition." They remind me of the continued use of inuksuit in northern Canada -- initially started by the aboriginal peoples (and maybe representing a circumpolar tradition) and extended by modern hikers as a common custom. Here's another one on the Geilmyrren above Vanvikan in Nord-Trøndelag, Norway, almost certainly recent:
While I would agree that the majority of the rock piles and other structures we look at in the eastern US are pre-European, they do exist in Europe, though they differ in materials, environment, and usage. In both places, we can accept that they are not strictly pre-modern. As I mentioned though, I wonder if some of the truly prehistoric ones may represent a circumpolar native tradition, with roots in the earliest migrations,  worth examining.

Here's some other stuff, maybe of interest:
There were reindeer wandering around here, in the Døvrefell:
and some older ones, about 6500 BP, in petroglyphs (in Norwegian, halleristninger) near Stjørdal:

Petroglyphs at Bardal (near Steinkjer, Norway). This site (6000 - 3500 BP) is very cool, and probably represents a transition from stone-age to bronze-age customs:
Helgeshaugen, a standing stone and burial mound (c. 600 AD), also near Steinkjer. Part of a much larger assemblage :

6 comments :

pwax said...

I feel that the topic of rock pile age is being muddled with the discussion of rock pile types and specific structure.

DG writes:
"While I would agree that the majority of the rock piles and other structures we look at in the eastern US are pre-European,..."

PWAX writes: I don't think I said that anywhere. I suspect it is true but there are many Native Americans alive today and ceremonialism can be recent.

DG continues:
"...they [cairns] do exist in Europe, though they differ in materials, environment, and usage. In both places, we can accept that they are not strictly pre-modern."

PWAX: If they differ in material, environment, and usage and appearance.

The argument severing the supposed relation of European cairns and American ones is a lot sharper than this: there are no rectangular mounds with hollows in Europe. There are no clusters of rock piles near springs in Europe. There are no grids of rock piles with vertical facing in Europe. Those things are purely American[see my article in the Bulletin of the MAS]. The only "cairns" which are similar are the ones for driving Caribou/Buffalo; the ones for marking trails; and the ones for marking a monumental event or location.

Adding: those precarious vertical stacks in Hardangervidda are conventional modern rock stacks. Hard to go into the desert anywhere anymore and not see these all over. They are starting to show up everywhere.

pwax said...

I guess what I am (in)articulating is that the discussing the age of rock piles contributes little to the distinction between Native American and European rock piles (or European in the US rock piles). The differences are in style/placement/usage and not age.

Anonymous said...

That double spiral petroglyph is found in many places around the planet, and represents the movement of the sun over a year's period. dc.

Tim MacSweeney said...

Are there more photos from Pickens County? I'd like to see how they are stacked up, as well as just how those features sit on the landscape.
I may adopt "happy hiker last Tuesday stone stacks" as a designation for those sort of balancing acts type of (not really)cairns that people (compulsively?) build.

Tim MacSweeney said...

Same DG? http://www.flickr.com/photos/87377628@N02/8001844503/

Tim MacSweeney said...

Answered my own question by recognizing other photos.