Thursday, October 23, 2014

Bethlehem CT Roadside and Mr. Lenik's Drawing

I always assumed that this was a stone fence, built from stones that once lined the Indian Trail from Nonnewaug or the "Fresh Water Fishing Place" to Bantam (Lake) or "He Prays." (http://books.google.com/books?id=ThSxjuCQspsC&lpg=PA93&ots=Df02GDBfJB&dq=indian%20place%20names%20bantam%20ct&pg=PA93#v=onepage&q=indian%20place%20names%20bantam%20ct&f=false)
  I always assumed that it was built as part of an estate of "a dynamic preacher, author, and educator during the 18th century and a long-time resident of Bethlehem, Connecticut." Of course that doesn't rule out the fact that it may have been built in post contact times by People of Indigenous descent. There well may be a record of that, but at this point I don't know.
Sometime between taking these two photos below, one good, one bad of some stones that stuck me as possible effigies...
...I saw this stone in the interior of the row of stones:
I knew I'd seen something similar somewhere that turned out to be in one of Ed Lenik's books:

Making Pictures in Stone: American Indian Rock Art of the Northeast (page 146)

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4 comments :

  1. pwax10:36 AM

    My reflex is different: the stemmed rock shows a standard hafting for hoes and other tools attached to a handle. Perhaps an old quarrying tool.
    Some people call the "head and shoulders" look the "Manitou stone" look.

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  2. Tim MacSweeney1:18 PM

    It's small, more the size of the "pendant." Next time I'll fetch the ruler along...

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  3. Anonymous10:31 PM

    Wow, Tim. very neat. I have noticed this in my area too- smaller stones (perhaps effigies/holocausts (aka "burnt offerings") that have been placed in to niche spots and other odds and ends in stone walls, including quartz. I remember looking through the book Manitou in a library and noting in an early chapter that Mavor, Dix & crew discovered evidence that some stone walls may be 10,000 +/- yrs. old in this region (something about a layer of green residue on stones from the last ice age?), and they also showed pics of crude objects/ tools they collected from niches in stone walls.

    -Matt Howes

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  4. Norman3:25 PM

    Finds like this are significant, and should be documented. For example, is the artifact more weathered on top than on the bottom?

    This also reminds me of an Indian slate gorget that was found resting on top of a boulder near the end of a large stone mound in Rochester, VT, a few years ago. The gorget was placed in such a way that it was partially protected by the boulder above. The side that was resting on the boulder was more rusty than the side facing up,suggesting that moisture had been retained far longer underneath. This important object is now in safe hands.

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