Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Stone Serpents & Mexed Missages (from your television)

(Looking at something I started working on in early June 2017)
Snake Effigy by Carol Hicks
     So (back in June 2017) I saw the art work above, related to a link to a web page that included the words “Archaeologists Discover Hundreds of Ancient Stone Mounds in Alabama: Stone Mounds, Stone Walls, and Stone Snake Effigies Are Concentrated in Choccolocco Mountains” by Dr. Greg Little in the Google search preview. So I take the click bait and read what turns out to be an ad for a guide book to public Indian Mound Sites in Alabama and note that:
   “In 2017 the author visited the Morton site and several others in the area with Dr. Holstein. Since his initial reports, Holstein’s research team has found many more stone mounds and stone wall features in the area and he asserts that there are likely thousands of more stone mounds to be found in the many unexplored mountains in the region. (But then I read the next sentence, rolling my eyes if I recall correctly:) The present author has seen hundreds of stone walls in the New England states, which were made primarily by Colonial farmers. The stone walls in Alabama are clearly different from those in New England. There is no doubt that the stone features in Alabama are Native American... Some of the most impressive Native American constructions in the region are huge effigies of snakes formed from large stone piles and boulders. During our 2017 visit to the sites we saw several of these. However the most impressive is a 196-foot long snake effigy formed into a cobblestone-like, flat walkway on the top of Skeleton Mountain adjacent to Ft. McClellan. In 2004 and 2007 it was confirmed by archaeologists to have been a Native American construction.” - Alternate Perceptions Magazine - http://apmagazine.info/index.php/component/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=983
    So I poked around to find something else by by Dr. Greg, checking out his credibility you might say, and I find: 
Mar 1990 by Gregory L. Little
Paperback $ 11 71 $19.95 - Only 1 left in stock - order soon!
     I guess I poked around a little more for some free information since I wasn't about to buy anything I wouldn't "buy into," if you know what I mean. I had quickly found more:
    “In 2014 I introduced significant evidence for ruins uncovered off the coast of the Bimini and Andros Islands in the Caribbean Ocean. The attached images, are present, unedited, and reveal complexes, and pyramidal structures on the bottom of the ocean. My guest, Dr. Greg Little, working with a grant from A.R.E. made numerous trips to the Caribbean based on the readings of Edgar Cayce, and uncovered startling evidence of high civilization. We'll also discuss the mound builders connection to Atlantis and the pyramids of Central and South America.
   Gregory L. Little, EdD, part Seneca, is author of the authoritative guide to America’s mound sites, Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Mounds & Earthworks and co-author of Mound Builders. Both he and his wife (Lora Little) have been featured in documentaries on Discovery, Learning Channel, History Channel, Sci-Fi, MSNBC, and National Geographic.”

    And I remember thinking about TV documentaries, how to spot reliable sources, and how I'd love to see Harry Holstein and other people who seriously study Ceremonial Landscapes get some publicity - and funding -  especially from any of those entities featuring the UFO guy (with the exception of the Sci-Fi Channel) in documentaries that seem to be sending out mixed messages, or "mexed missages" quoting a former president of the United States of America, promoting "junk science" that many people, including myself, think are just a little more than just "tinged" with racism.
   And I thought about how many times over the years that I've attempted to talk seriously about Indigenous Ceremonial Stone Landscapes with some really credible and knowledgeable people whose research has influenced me and wondered how many just assumed I was going to leap into UFO's or Giants or some of the other very silly sort of things that sell much better than than what is more likely the truth about these stones I'm so interested in...

    But still I remember being stuck by that illustration, a Snake (or Great Serpent) Effigy, the jewel on it's head emphasied and the stone "seat" placed nearby and included in the wonderful illustration by Carol Hicks - and those words that I had underlined:  "The present author has seen hundreds of stone walls in the New England states, which were made primarily by Colonial farmers. The stone walls in Alabama are clearly different from those in New England."
     Dr. Greg, I suspect, was clearly either not looking at the same "stone walls" that I look at or really hasn't looked at all. Maybe he had been relying on any of the many works on "New England Stone Walls," based on folklore rather than any real science or close observation...

   Along with the bare bones of the post, I found I had done a little doodling based on Hick's drawing:


Carol Hicks does link to  a version of Harry Holstein's paper:
and so did I, back in 2015:

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