Species Specific: Diamondback Terrapin

"The diamondback terrapin is a species of turtle native to the brackish coastal
swamps of the eastern and southern United States.
 It belongs to the monotypic genus, Malaclemys." 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamondback_terrapin

On a small hill overlooking a salt marsh in Madison CT, there is a species specific example of a stone representation of a Malaclemys Terrapin, also known as the Diamondback Terrapin.

Below, the turtle seemingly basks on the top of a stone row. 

 

Ornate Group Basking

from: http://www.diamondbackterrapin.com/index/index.php/picture/turtle-setup/

http://www.chelonia.org/MtcentrataMJH1.jpg

Notice the nuchal notch in the carapace or upper shell, the large head below it...

The forelegs might possibly be a single split humanly enhanced stone. Note the black minerals in the stones that resemble the markings of the terrapin.

(This Diamondback Terrapin appears in this post:

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2013/08/shoreline-greenway-trail-madison-ct.html)

The artistic incorporation of this species specific petroform into a stone row strongly suggests a Native American origin of this "stone concentration."

Other examples of artistic testudinate incorporation: 

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2010/11/south-of-snake-turtles.html

(If It Looks Like a) Duck or Turtle

 If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands. - Douglas Noel Adams

If the stone or group of stones looks like turtle, and especially a species specific turtle, on what Indigenous People called Turtle Island, we have to at least consider the possibility that we have a Turtle Effigy of most likely Indigenous origin on our hands. - Me 

    I was going to be all sciencey this morning, start writing about patterns of Indigenous Stonework without using the expression “looks like.” It seems that my use of that expression has triggered a few less than flattering comments and criticisms in the past few weeks. I guess it is the most unscientific way to say something.

(The doctor said, “It looks like skin cancer.” So I asked him if he could state that more scientifically.)

      I use photographs to document Observations that I also describe in words. I make these observations with my senses, in particular my sense of sight – or my ophthalmoception, if you want to be truly scientific and confuse your spell-check program. 

Read more about Turtles that look like Mitch : http://dailycaller.com/2011/11/08/turtles-that-look-like-mitch-mcconnell-slideshow/m3/#ixzz32AUyKUf6

"What a Turtle looks like," is okay to say if you are eight years old, but not 58:

(But then again, my six year old grandson is in the minority of people of any age who understands what the word "testudinate" means when I describe an observation of something that resembles a turtle shell.)

(http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2007/04/strolling-on-patch-hill-in-boxborough.html)

If I look at my friend’s photo of an unusual stone and I find it reminds me of a species specific turtle, I’m going to blurt out: “It looks like a stinkpot turtle!” And steal an image of one somewhere and do this so that you can see that I said what I said because that's what it looks like:

(Someone asks, "Is that red star Mars or the Dog Star?"

 I look at the star and say, "Looks like Mars."

"How do you know?" the first person asks.

 "Well, because it looks like Mars," I say.)

      If I climb up a hill side where almost every single stone seems to have been humanly enhanced or purposely placed and realize an outcrop has been enhanced to look like a very similar sort of species specific turtle, I’m probably going to say, “It looks like another Stinkpot!”

(or another kind of turtle with a long, wide neck and a low domed upper shell)

(and two eyes)

I'll do the same for the diamondback terrapin; if I find these stones placed on this row of stones above a salt marsh where diamondback terrapins live, of course I'm going to say, "It looks like a Malaclemys or diamondback terrapin."

http://www.zierschildkroete.de/fotos/malaclemys/macrospilota_1.jpg

Two Species Specific Stateline Turtles (CT)

    When looking for these possible Stone Features of the Indigenous Ceremonial Stone Landscape of Turtle Island, I at least imagine that it always helps support my case when I find a possible “effigy” feature that greatly resembles a “species specific” representation of a culturally significant animal especially if it is near a culturally important place.

     And living somewhere that was called Turtle Island for much longer than it was called any other name, if that animal is a turtle I would imagine that helps build the case a little more

     And the only thing better than one turtle is two different species specific turtles not too far from each other (and good images of the actual kind of turtle who was kind enough to pose in in a kind of similar position that I can steal an image of from a Google image search).

     Yesterday I had found two images online (while looking for images of New England stone walls that resemble petroform snakes found in other parts of the world) that I immediately recognized as very realistic representations of a snapping turtle head (above) and a box turtle head (below), both most likely associated with a boulder large enough to inspire a rock climbing enthusiast to include on a website and presumably climb around on.

   So this morning I had to navigate around and find those images again, find out just where these two very "anatomically correct" in their very skillful artistic representation testudinate boulders might be.    Imagine my surprise when I read the description and directions below.

   I guess the next step is to find out if there are any Indigenous connections to this “Schaghticoke Road” in Kent CT.

   If you know of any, please let me know...

From the CT Bouldering Page:

 "Description: This area is amazing. Large boulders litter the mountain side... The rock is either a nice schist or a conglomerate/dolomite and is of fairly good quality. Most of the boulders are located directly off an old logging road that intersects the AT, however some of the gems require some serious hiking/bushwhacking. This area is mind blowing, and would make a great stop on the way to the Gunks, as its only 40 miles away by car. There is simply too much rock out here for one person to get a handle on, so come on out here and put up some problems!

Things left to be desired... long drive, not too many easy problems, boulders could be a bit bigger, but as of now I hardly know whats out there. Sorry for the lame photos, and vague directions, this area and page is a work in progress, and as I only found these boulders on mothersday, I have a lot of work to do.

Getting There: The trailhead is the AT trailhead on Schaghticoke Rd near Bulls Bridge in Kent, CT. Head up the AT north and up the mountain. After you cross the creek and pass a couple head high boulders on your left (4 minutes in), there is a small cairn. Here you can go off trail north towards the anvil boulder which leads you to the logging road which uncovers the majority of boulders in this area. If you choose to stay on the AT, at about 7 minutes the trail takes you through the twin boulders, which are large, slabby and featured.

To get to the Trapps area, this is where you leave the trail behind. From the uphill side of the twin boulders, at the other small cairn, head southwest along the side hill cross country for about 20 minutes, you can vaguely follow a game trail most the way, crossing a large slab/cliffband/headwall. You will find amazing roofs and overhangs in this area.

Third option, If you stay on the AT instead... a few minutes further up the hill brings you to the tooth, a highball boulder with at least 3 super classic lines on it, all unsent. There are no good boulders further up the trail from this boulder that I have found so far..."

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/stateline-/107139306

All the Places I Didn’t Go on the 4th of July

(Or the 3^rd or 5^th)

     There’s so many places I didn’t go on the 4^th of July 2015.

     In fact the only place I did go was up “on top of the world,” as two of my grandkids call it, up to a vantage point on Hard Hill Road where we watch fireworks from a distance, some legal, most illegal, bursting in the air.

     But the day before and the day after, my wife and I drove down to Westbrook where my mom lives so we could hang out with family visiting from far away, my son’s family from California, my brother’s from Kansas City.

      I was going to slip out to the stone wall behind my mom’s or maybe down to the river and the salt marshes but I never did. I was going to look again at some of the stone features or hunt for a clam garden in the salt marshes, but I didn’t have shoes, I forgot to bring the tripod and the tide was extra high, all those same old excuses.

      Mostly I looked at the new stone wall the neighbor across the road is still in the process of building in front of his house:

    I took a couple more shots of it, my only “stone” photos except for two other ones. I had to pull over to take this one, which isn’t much of a photo, but it shows the aftermath of the selling off of a beautiful row of stones, some of which ended up at the neighbor’s, and putting up a plastic privacy fence by a new housing development that just sprung up while I wasn't paying attention:

     The best I can do is to show you “before” is this lousy google earth street view capture before the pillaging took place:

    And sure, I got a couple old aerial “befores” from bing bird’s eye view:

The above might be the best, showing an undulating row of stones, perhaps representative of a Serpent Petroform…

      The biggest problem with bringing Stone Features of the Indigenous Landscape into an actual scientific “big picture” of a remnant of a Cultural Landscape is the mountain of documentation that has been built about “stone walls” without any real true investigation into stone walls.

    I’ll give you a piece of a little bit of this from a 1995 newspaper story, published just a few years after I began to seriously doubt just about everything I’d ever heard or read about stone walls:

     “Many New Englanders view them as beautiful monuments to the industriousness of our ancestors, enduring remnants of a dying agricultural way of life. They believe all walls are like the carefully constructed jigsaw puzzles at estate entrances and roadsides.

      (Robert) Thorson doesn't see walls that way.

     ``They're simply linear piles of refuse,'' he says…

       Thorson, a geologist at the University of Connecticut who has written a book about stone walls, is no romantic. He has the eyes of a scientist.

      ``We use them as a touchstone to the past, almost a yearning past,'' he says of walls such as the one in his backyard woods in Mansfield. ``I see walls as eco-facts rather than artifacts.''

       The traditional story of how walls came to be is too simple, Thorson believes.”

http://articles.courant.com/1995-06-26/news/9506260146_1_robert-thorson-farmers-stone-walls

       Well now, I think, it looks like we agree upon two points then. Finally. I agree with one more thing Thorson has said – the first that stone walls function as fuel breaks, but also that the traditional story is too simple

    But still, I’d like to take a look at the stone’s in Thorson’s backyard – to look for some artifacts contained in his stone walls design - pretty far from the view that most stone walls are refuse. Indigenous Cultures inhabited the North East for far longer than that brief agricultural period of plowing fields, using fire as a tool to maintain the Landscape they were creating, perhaps using these stone constructions as fuel breaks in the more densely populated places.

    Maybe something like this, not too far from that Westbrook Stonewall Massacre by North Hammock Road, just across the street from that new wall in my Mom’s neighbor’s yard, out behind Mom’s barn where the stacking of stones is far from accidental, where the artwork of Indigenous stonework shows in some obvious zoomorphic effigies, especially Stone Turtles, are included in a stone wall:

     There’s more here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/34580529@N04/albums/72157652313565576/page1

     I’ve written about them elsewhere and at other times:

 http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/search?q=westbrook

    And a few miles west along CT Route One, in a well-known state park that retains its Indigenous Place Name, is a fine example of a Species Specific Stone Terrapin, perched on and included into a “stone wall:”

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2013/08/species-specific-diamondback-terrapin.html

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/search?q=species+specific

How to Draw Rocks

John Muir Laws

"To observe and to not ask questions is to…sleep.” ― Todd Newberry

     “Rocks are common elements in almost every landscape. On a big scale they are mountains, on a small-scale they are the boulders or stones in a field[1]. Getting comfortable with depicting rocks that show planes and structure will help many of your drawings. Here are the key points for success:

Learn to see planes, even rounded boulders have planes.

Show planes with shading line angle, shadows, and cracks.

Use a simple value scale and see the shapes in each zone.

Look for and include the light and dark wedges (more on this below).

Cracks will change angles as they move from one angle to another.

Ground the rocks with dark shadows...

      Start observing rocks around you. Try your hand at simple studies to carve the planes and give your rocks volume. The best way to learn how to draw rocks is to practice with real rocks you find around you. Also learn a little about geology and the history of the rocks you draw. They will become even more wonderful to you.” ~ http://johnmuirlaws.com/art-and-drawing/how-to-draw-rocks

  My Questions: Where is that particular bunch of stones shown in that first drawing? Did the thought cross your mind that the stones could be said to resemble a Turtle - or species specific, a Desert Tortise? Were these stones humanly placed, perhaps humanly enhanced? Is it near a row of stones, thinking of those East Bay Walls, also known as the Berkeley Mystery Walls, a boulder carapace and cobble stone head perched on an outcrop (pointing north)? 

I've seen a few photos of some other Desert Tortoises:

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2015/03/species-specific-desert-tortoise-in-row.html

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/search?q=california+turtle

 John writes: “We live in a world of beauty and wonder. Train your mind to see deeply and with intentional curiosity, and the world will open before you. Keeping a journal of your observations, questions, and reflections will enrich your experiences and develop gratitude, reverence, and the skills of a naturalist. The goal of nature journaling is not to create a portfolio of pretty pictures but to develop a tool to help you see, wonder, and remember your experiences in nature. You can learn to do this. You do not need to be an artist or a naturalist. These are skills you will develop as you go. The time to begin is now.”
https://youtu.be/9X9adiPLl1I?t=30m9s

---

[1] Or Field Stones and Boulders in Stone Piles or Rows of Stones.

Pretending It's the First Day of the New Year...

I thought I might just do one of those "Highlights of 2013:

      My Find of the Year was yet another testudinate "species specific" stone representation/petroform, of a Diamondback Terrapin incorporated into a very beautifully stacked stone row (a very long linear segment of an Indigenous Stone Pile?) at the top of a small hill above a salt marsh in Madison CT, just where you might indeed actually find Malaclemys terrapin.  
{ http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2013/08/species-specific-diamondback-terrapin.html}

     
You could just call it a Terrapin, since according to Wikipedia: The name "terrapin" is derived from the (Virginia) Algonquian word torope...The name originally was used by early European settlers in North America to describe these brackish-water turtles that inhabited neither freshwater habitats nor the sea." Both Mr. Merriam and Mr. Webster agree that it is an "alteration of earlier torope, from Virginia Algonquian*to·rəpe·w. They also believe the word's First Known Use was in 1613 - but not in Madison since you had to wait for War of 1635 to open up the area to European acquisition.
       The good part it that the Diamondback is in Hammonasset State Park. The bad part is a trail that's planned to stretch to East Haven, on the edge of the former Indian Path Along the Shoreline that is being constructed by robbing the ancient stonework that connected to and perhaps bordered the Path. 
I tell that story here:

 http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2013/08/shoreline-greenway-trail-madison-ct.html

       As well as here, finding perhaps a baby Diamondback Terrapin - or at least another "single stone" rock art turtle, a cobble placed on a "Stones on Boulder" sort of Stone Concentration or Stacked Stone Feature or *(edited on 7/23/2022)* a Káhtôquwuk or Stone Prayer, “invested with prayers for the balance of the universe,” something that is heaped high, ceremonially, religiously, by placing one stone above another stone:

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2013/08/sgt-part-2.html

And I even continue to drone on: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2013/08/shoreline-greenway-trail-part-3.html including a photo of this that I always meant to call to to the attention of Mr. badbadpotato - a variation of a table or shelf sort of thing, perhaps:

And my friend DC hooked me up with some Google Images on a post called:

Thanks DC!

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2013/08/thanks-dc.html

There's the new construction looking so bright above, the far more ancient stones hiding under a cover of green, waiting for the LiDAR to show what's left of the fuel breaks of the Indigenous Sacred Landscape Before 1635, when the People cared for the land with prayer and sacred fires in Ceremonies that are long forgotten - but probably very similar to others that are known in other places - just like other stonework in other places... 

I continue on here, seeing either some (eroded with time) human enhancement or just another example of myself exhibiting and recording some delusional pareidolia:

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2013/08/shoreline-greenway-trail-4.html

Just when you think you can't take any more, I begin to correct myself as visit the spot for the third time, which  "involved taking the "Bob Cat Trail," the trail left by that little machine that I was pretty certain was borrowing stones from somewhere..."

The Aerial Photo of 1934:

In the comments Someone asked: Could this be an ancient fish trap?

I meant to reply: "I can answer that very quickly: I don't know."

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2013/08/reminds-me-of-stone-rows.html

I don't know when I'll get to the next segment of the trail to look more closely - whether I'll have the chance to take some photos of what still exists or just witness it's silent departure.

If you get there first, take some photos before more disappears.

The other highlight was the inclusion of a photo of mine in a book on the Connecticut's Indigenous Peoples by Dr. Lucianne Lavin, who actually labelled it as "turtle-shaped."

     

The above makes me feel some degree of validation - and I don't want to forget a little more, another highlight, the number of sites I've documented that Curtis Hoffman includes on this map of "stone constructions in the eastern seaboard:"