Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Somewhere in Sheshatshit (Sheshatshiu Reserve)

    Say what you will about social media – I've heard it described as "a great time waster" that enables you to see what people are having for dinner or view the latest portrait of their cat (or pit-bull) – but I know what it is really about: Photos of Stones from All Over the Place from People You Will Probably Never Meet in Person.
     I may never meet Larry from Minnesota, but he’s an electronic friend of mine and I’m always happy to hear from him because he sends me links to things that have to do with Stones.

    I suspect that since Larry is from Minnesota, he might think a ten or twelve hour drive is no big deal since every place in Minnesota is a ten or twelve hour drive from any other place, so this morning he let me know that there is an interesting event taking place in my neck of the woods, sponsored by the Newfoundland and Labrador Archaeological Society: 
    Well maybe, now that I think of it, that “Curious Stone Features” part may be what Larry was thinking of, as he is well aware of my interest in Stone Features. I just couldn’t help making a Minnesota joke and I know Larry has a great sense of humor and enjoys a good joke.
    And of course I just had to jump into that page, being curious about stone features.
    So here’s the photo that “got me,” under a heading that said, “The Wild Archaeology team at the Double Mer site with Dr. Lisa Rankin { http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~lrankin/index.html } on the coast of Labrador close to the lovely town of Rigolet...what a magical place, wonderful people, and exciting site...”
    And I think I see a zigzag row of stones – although the possibility exists that the excavators are just piling them up after the fact. But then I see there may be a sort of pavement of flat stones, as if it were a well-established path perhaps. I have had a long life-time experience of being curious about zigzag rows of stones, roughly divided into two halves, The first part was all about learning what other people said about zigzag stone walls or fences while the second half has been all about a closer observation of these (and other) stone walls and unlearning what everybody else has said.
    So of course I comment: “A zigzag row of stones in the fore ground? And a sort of paved pathway/pavement?? We should talk...http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/search?q=zigzag

    And I delve into a few links, seeing what else is there, where the place is etc.
   I visit Wild Archaeology and another place too, lifting images for this post:
   And there is a lot of quartz related stuff, including some heated quartz possibilities, at Somewhere in Sheshatshit, such as this photo with the following text:
“There was quite an intense fire here or at least one which was kept burning for a while. The sand underneath was hard and cemented and there was lots of ash and charcoal. The split quartzite cobble on the right had become cloudy on the outside probably from being in the fire. The greenish rock in between had also been exposed to serious heat and become fire cracked. It fell apart on being moved. The flat rock on the left was either a platter rock for cooking or an anvil rock for resting large pieces of quartzite upon for breaking or perhaps it was used for both purposes. There were lots of quartzite flakes nearby from tool making work. — at Somewhere in Sheshatshit.”
       Looking around I find more photos of:

“A small site in Sheshatshit destined to be a housing lot and excavated in July 2015. It sits at an elevation of about 10 meters above sea level and likely dates to around 1800 years ago or about 200 AD. It was discovered during test pitting done last year. Unlike most older sites in Sheshatshit, particularly the Uatshatshish ones at FjCa 51, the lithic raw material used for tool making was very nearly exclusively quartzite and most of that of a honey colored variety with a pebbly texture. Of the thousands of flakes scattered about the site there were only two tiny flakes of beige to pink chert…”

Who can resist looking up a funny name (especially if you are in Second Grade) like Sheshatshit?
     Sheshatshiu (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
This article is about the town. For the ethnic group, see Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation.
Sheshatshiu (Innu pronunciation: [ʃehatʃju])[1] is an Innu Federal Reserve in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located approximately 30 kilometres north of Goose Bay. (Some references may spell the community's name as Sheshatshit — the t spelling is more traditional in the Innu-aimun language, but the u is used more commonly in English to avoid inappropriate connotations. The name means "a narrow place in the river".)
The community is inhabited by the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation, whose current chief is Andrew Penashue.[2]

     And then, as an afterthought, I go back to look at the Waking Up on Turtle Island links I sent, just to see if I’ve included something that will definitely prove I’m quite Loopy, and find this old post: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2007/06/100-year-flood.html
    And I click on the link at the end that takes me to the place I lifted that photo from, 100 Year Flood, and find I forgot to include (or couldn't steal back in 2007) an even better “curious stone feature” image, which really isn’t all that curious to anyone who knows about irrigation in the SW and amazingly similar to a thing or two I've come across here and there:
And the big bonus is, I can find yet another version of this report, with some really great “stone feature” photos at that Academia web site I like so much: https://www.academia.edu/8410164/Prehistoric_Agriculture_and_Settlement_in_Lefthand_Canyon_Safford_Valley_Southeastern_Arizona
      There’s even a Rock Pile or two I can pass along to PWAX:
Some more good ones:

(Color Photo of the one I originally stole to use in 2007)

And here's a pit-bull:



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