The Significance of a Stone Turtle
Or a Turtle Made of Stones
Depends on
Which Turtle in Which Place
Which Turtle in Which Place
Above: Judges
Woods Turtle Effigy (incorporated into a "memorial"). Below: A Diamondback Terrapin Effigy above the
Hammonasset Salt Marsh, "Hunting Grounds," like Ed Lenik says, not
for a Turtle Clan, but for the Diamondback Terrapin, if you are looking for the
simplest answer as to "Why this particular Turtle in this particular
place?"
As a modern day observer of
Stone Turtles
Or Turtles Made of Stone
The main significance is that the
Stone Turtle speaks, saying:
“Indigenous hands were on
these stones,
Placing them just so in order
to resemble Turtles…”
So you assume the turtle is an end in itself and that the pile has no function, other than to look like a turtle?
ReplyDeleteMaybe a Rorshach Test would be a more appropriate solution.
ReplyDeletePW: No, not at all. There lots of turtles with lots of functions - more than I'll ever guess. You took a look at the longer version?
ReplyDeleteNM: Every Rorschach Test figure I ever looked at seemed like an inkblot to me.
Tim: please name some of these functions. How am I supposed to know what you are talking about?
ReplyDeleteTim,
ReplyDeleteThis is just my opinion, but I think you are reading too much into what you are seeing. I just don't see the turtle heads in the stones. The images are not obvious enough for me. Maybe you are correct, but I just don't see it.
Norm
Edward J. Lenik suggests that the turtle, in “portable artifacts” and “nonportable petroglyphs,” can be a symbol of the Earth, the first animal created, the first clan/first people created, a symbol of longevity, patience, perseverance or fertility (a womb), and if found as a petroglyph on a boulder or outcrop as perhaps the boundary of a Turtle Clan territory such as a Village site or Hunting/Gathering Ground, or a Guardian Spirit of a path or trail. As a stacked stone feature (in “rock piles” or “stones wall”), I’m going take what he says into consideration as a possibility as to a possible function.
ReplyDeleteI was just surprised by something I'm reading right now: " Most remarkably, in the centre of a cemetery at the Read site in Kentucky, a stone cairn enclosed two turtle carapaces, and nothing else (Webb 1950b:362)." https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271909655_Turtles_from_Turtle_Island
ReplyDeletehttp://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2020/11/stone-prayers-sacred-smoke.html
ReplyDelete