Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Rivers of Stone, Rivers within Stone

 (Rock Art in Ancient Puerto Rico) – Peter G. Roe





“Rock art has eluded quantification, pictographs and petrogylphs tend not to be regarded as fit subjects for “scientific” study. Because of that abdication, many amateurs have rushed in to fill the void, some competent and cautious, others rash and sloppy, reading all sorts of bizarre notions into the “ultimate Rorschach test” that is rock art (page 298).”


http://www.flickriver.com/search/Isla+de+Mona,+Puerto+Rico/interesting/
And then there's this:
 Amateur Rushing In with Bizarre Notions Somewhere in CT: Faces in Stone

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Musical Row of Stones

North of the Grinning Serpent's Tail, on the edge of the floodplain, is a barely perceptable trail, just above the remnants of a stone row, that leads to an intersecting row of stones that, when conditions are right, sounds like the running water of a little stream. "Nobody is taking care of this place," as they saying goes, but the water continues to flow and stone spirits in the wet zone it creates below it have their eyes on you as you pass by... 
Above: another day, long after this was written, as I passed by this spot for the 100th time (or so it seems), I realized that here was another Great Serpent:



There's a spot you come to, by a choke cherry tree...
...with a small stone lined spring at it's base: 
That's about where the stones on boulders still show well...


Was this one below chosen because of the natural features of the stone
or did human hands help it along to give the suggestion of eyes,
a stone spirit watching what you do? 









This one could be said to be anthropomorphic, suggesting a representation of perhaps a person, or perhaps a spirit, perhaps yelling or perhaps singing. James Porter suggest I see what happens if I rock that stone, to see if it's a "Drum Stone" and will make the sound that's might be suggested by the open mouth that could be natural or could be pecked and polished into the stone... 

(Above: Jan. 2008, below: March 2012)
More Singing:


The other side of the stone I'll have to look at again - there might be the suggestion of something...
...looking toward the first terrace hillside from behind it, you can just see little bits of the row of stones under the pine boughs and above the brush...
...and turn back around to "see" that stone singing, hear the water trickling.

And is that another sort of face in the same stone, shape-shifting into perhaps something zoomorphic,
perhaps sort of reptilian??





But there's the row of stones I was going to tell you about (above), three January 2008 photos stitched together. You'll notice there is no little stream alongside it:
I walked along it on spring day in 2012 and put my video camera down inside the row:

Friday, March 27, 2015

Yelling? Singing?

Another one that suddenly made sense after a long time is this cobble stone on a boulder in a riparian zone. I took the photo in January of 2008 and I probably have other images from other seasons, but I just didn't put that "eyes, nose and open mouth (yelling? singing?) face" motif together until just this morning while looking for a very different "open mouth profile face" motif. They both occur in many places and possibly are calling to us to notice them and listen, sitting on boulders or resting with other stone spirits, perhaps even laughing at us because, after all, "It's just a rock." 
No disrespect intended but only a small percentage of people will see it in the photo above, so I'll paint a few lines on the same photo so it's calling to you too to notice: 

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Stone Turtle Puzzle by Numbers

Four months after taking this photo above, I looked at it again.
And I thought, "Well, you know, that's interesting: the numbers involved all may work out realistically or anatomically correct, turtle shell-wise: 13 scutes, 13 moons, and 13 stones." 
Like figuring out where all the loose pieces of veneer go back onto an inlaid table top on some fancy piece of antique furniture - or doing a puzzle with my mom or my granddaughter - something about the shapes of the stones mimicking the shape of the scutes just "clicked" and I think I can see how this testudinate petroform goes back together.
Who took it apart, when and why, I don't know, but I can see the order in which they may have removed the stones. I'm sure they got nothing but bad luck and trouble in return.
I might have the numbers wrong, maybe there's left and right 1 thru 4 (sinister and dexter) pleural or costal scutes, but I think I get the idea...

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Identifying Snake Petroforms/Serpent "Stone Walls"



   I suppose that if a person is going to go around talking about how many "New England Stone Walls" aren’t really the stone fences we’ve been taught to believe in, but rather possible much older Snake Effigies/Petroforms on the Eastern Gate of Turtle Island, then I guess that person might best compare these serpentine stone structures to actual snakes and see – I mean scientifically observe – the similarities as a way of attempting to identify these Snake Rows of Stones...
     So I guess I’ll just lift a guide from online and use the “folk process” to adapt it, just like Bob Dylan might do to an old song – except I won’t claim it as original material on my latest CD release:

Identify Snakes (and their representations in stone): A How-to Guide
by Filip Tkaczyk (and me in parentheses and italics)
    "Ever wondered how to identify snakes? Well, with 120 species found in North America, North of Mexico it can be a challenge. Here are some things you can look for and think about to help you identify snakes. Let's look at some basics first...
    Snakes are beautiful animals (and so are their stone or "lithic" counterparts), with amazing forms, colors and behaviors (which in the case of a stone snake would be something similar to other snake representations in other forms of Indigenous artwork: the spiritual power of the snake or perhaps the Great Serpent is in that object, that decorated pot, basket, or quillwork/beadwork on an article of clothing.





Key field marks for identifying snakes (and their representations in stone). One of the simplest ways to identify snakes (and their representations in stone) is by breaking their identification down to key field marks. These are aspects of (both kinds of) the snake's appearance which make it unique as a group or species (or petroform). Here is a list of some of the best ones to use:

Body Type: Is the body type slim and long, medium thickness and long, or short and stout? Is it large or small? Approximately how long? (Is it linear, gently serpentine, zigzag or a combination of styles?

 Large stones, small stones, or a combination of both? Is it intact or interrupted by modern construction? Was it easier to leave alone than remove it and adapt it (or, more accurately, culturally appropriate it and the area it encloses) to a post contact use (and claim it as something else)? Does another serpent connect with it? Does it's tail split into other rows of stones?)
(A break/gateway in the Serpent in photo #5)

(Does it undulate, have high spots on, go kinda "up and down," like a vertical zigzag?)



Head Shape: Is the head shaped like a broad arrowhead, like a spade, or like an oval? Does it have a distinct neck?

 (Does it resemble the head stone of any known snake petroform, such as the Bannock Point Petroforms in Whiteshell Provincal Park in Manitoba { Whiteshell / Bannock Point Petroforms)  – or one posted on the Rock Piles blog (rockpiles serpent search)? Is it a single stone or a combination of stones?)

(Above: East end of Serpent in photo #5)


Above: Dr. Curtiss Hoffman pointing out a tiny turtle in a cupule on a probable bedrock snake head.

 (Or is that head an outcrop of bedrock, such as the one shown above? Has it been humanly enhanced at all, in order to more accurately resemble a snake head? Does the snake head resemble something else, such as a human face, from a different point of view, recalling the Great Serpent’s ability to shape-shift into a person, as well as the opposite of this, demonstrate a shaman’s ability to transform into a snake? Are there grooves in that head stone that might either be realistic representations of a certain snake or a convenient place to put some horns or even both?)
(Above: Shape Shifting Grinning Serpent, below: Grooved for Horns)
(Above:Same break/gateway in the Serpent in photo #5; below: the other Serpent Stone Rows around that Grinning Serpent/Shaman.)
(Do two - or more - heads form an opening into other areas, like serpent gateways, as above or are they related to water as is this one below - that is also included in the enhanced image above? Does the tail dissappear into water as well? Does it re-emerge? Are there more heads along the same row of stones you can't help but call a Stone Wall?)
(These three shown below form the gateway just below the Serpent in the first photo above.)
Eyes: Are the eyes (if present in a stone) large or small? Does it have rounded or vertical pupils? Are there scales that jut out over the eye like an eyebrow? What color are they? (Are they pecked and polished into the stone or better revealed by that same sort of process? Is there a natural feature of a stone that resembles eyes? Is it a combination of both? How can you tell after thousands of years?)


(Mouth: Does it have a mouth, natural or enhanced, if a solid stone? If the stone representation is a combination of stones, does the stacking suggest a mouth - possibly the 'stone representation of an open mouth,' or even a mouth with an egg in it, reminiscent  of the Great Serpent Mound that may or may not have an egg in it's mouth? 
Should we - or could we - put the fallen boulder shown below back in place? When are you available to help? How could we do it without heavy machinery? Did stone masons of Indigenous descent maintain these seeming estate walls shown below with a life-sized dummy for scale?)
High on a Hilltop in the Pootatuck Homeland:

(Top left photo in this collage above is by Norman Muller, desecrated by me to show the eye and the egg, sent to me because of the resemblance to the photo right below it.)


Scales: What texture are the scales (or stones that represent scales or scutes), rough or smooth? Do some or all of the scales have keels (raising lines running lengthwise through scale)?
Patterns: What kinds of patterns does the snake (or representation in stone) have?
Blotches: large blocks of color (or stones) that are irregular or rectangular, often with dark borders.

Diamonds: large, diamond shaped markings of one or multiple colors (represented in stone by rhomboidal stones or in a pattern of stacking – or both!).

(More about the shape: Rhombus Rhomboid Rhomboidal)

Speckles: one or more dots or flecks of color per scale (or stone).
Spots: small, rounded marks generally without borders that can cover several scales (or stone).
Crossbands: Bands of color that go across the back and down the sides, but don't cross the belly.
Rings: Are (there) bands (of) color that go across the back and down the sides, completely encircling the body?


Stripes: are/(do) lines of color run lengthwise down the snake's body? They may be only a scale (or stone) wide or may be many scales (or stones) wide.
Two-toned: Where the back and belly are different colors.
Head and neck colors: Some species have distinct markings or colors on the head in the form of bands, stripes or solid areas of color (Do the stones imitate this?).
No pattern: The body is a single, uniform color (or is it a "sparse" pile of stones?)."
(Above: Stitching together 3 of Jeff's photos from his fine Flickr Photostream)

(And, I find I need to add, what else is around that Serpent?) 

{Adapted, and in some places grammatically corrected, from: a page on the Alderleaf Wilderness College website which can be found at 

And I'll ask again:
     If there are many free standing stone concentrations/constructions that resemble animals, both actual and legendary, that figured highly in the Indigenous People of Turtle Island (Native Americans of North America) Worldview – the turtle, bear and deer etc. along with the Great Serpents etc., -  then who was more likely to have the time and motivation to create this artwork?
      If those same techniques of artwork can be found in those longer piles of stones most often called “stone walls” then again, who was most likely to have the time and motivation to create this artwork?
       If the Indigenous People of Turtle Island (Native Americans of North America) maintained the landscape with fire then how were those fires controlled, especially in areas of dense population?
        If Paleo-Indians (the Ancestors of the Indigenous People of Turtle Island) made “sophisticated prehistoric stone walls deep beneath the surface of Lake Huron,” the most recent find described as “two stone lines forming a lane about 30 metres long and eight metres wide which ended in a corral-type structure” with “hunting blinds built into the sides as well as other lanes and structures,” then why not elsewhere on Turtle Island?
       And I’ll repeat again that: "To deny that there are remnants of Stonework (and Earthworks) of many kinds that illustrate an Indigenous presence on the Sacred Landscape of Turtle Island is a form of Ethnic Cleansing," adding that the reuse of Indigenous made stonework and claiming them as post contact “stone walls and fences” was a form of cultural appropriation very much related to the appropriation of Indigenous land. (See: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2015/03/cultural-appropriation.html)