Monday, September 30, 2019

Indigenous Iconography; conventionalized face which appears from time to time on Clasons Point rims


“Clasons Point Stamped: Neither the Owasco nor the Iroquois used shells to decorate their wares. This is a local innovation, inspired perhaps by the Sebonac or Niantic peoples to the east who did so habitually. The designs, however, resemble those of the two northern cultures. As defined by Smith (1950, p. 191), the technique used was stamping with a scallop shell as in Pl. 1, Fig. 8. In Fig. 9, (Pl. 1) we have a Clasons Point Stamped variant involving stamping with a hard clam shell. At first glance, the lines on the sherd look incised. However, on close inspection, a series of closely spaced dots are discernible on one side of each "incised" channel corresponding to the underside milled edge of a hard clam shell. Only one other such sherd is known from this area. It came from the Pelham Boulder site, Bronx County, and also creates the illusion of incised lines. A specimen of special interest is shown on Pl. 2, Figs, 2, 3. The collar is rather unusual, n as much as it defined by a grooving technique on the body below. This is uncommon for Clasons Point ceramics.
No special significance is attached to these irregularities, as they may denote nothing more than an individualistic trait. The non-conformities are outweighed by the conformities, including the conventionalized face, which appears from time to time on Clasons Point rims…”
                        https://nysarchaeology.org/download/nysaa/bulletin/number_055.pdf

  I might add that the conventionalized face shown above is, very simply, composed of two round eyes and a round mouth that could be perhaps viewed as an open mouth, perhaps speaking, perhaps even singing, as illustrated below:



  Indigenous Stone Constructions often feature stones placed so that the marks, natural or humanly enhanced, creating a suggestion of eyes, the stone becoming intentionally "effigy-like." 
Variations in Eyes:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/34580529@N04/albums/72157657426646103
Open Mouth (Singing/Yelling?) variations:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/34580529@N04/albums/72157659393856791/with/48600528806/
Variations in Faces in Stone:
     https://www.flickr.com/photos/34580529@N04/albums/72157651573612466

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Sign at the Stone Sea Wall (Bridgetown, Barbados)


"Slave Walls" on St. Martin, constructed by slave labor, about the time of the Puritan/Pequot war.
("During this time and throughout the war, many captured Pequot men were killed, while women and children were given to colonists as spoils of war, placed in captivity under other tribes who had pledged their allegiance to the English, or transferred to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sold into slavery, and shipped to the Caribbean islands and other British outposts." https://connecticuthistory.org/slavery-and-the-pequot-war/)

“Why shall wee have peace to bee made slaves”: Indian Surrenderers During and After King Philip’s War

Tuesday, September 03, 2019

More Somewhere CT

Debris removed, washed by the rain, I'm a little surprised to find
A white quartz eye on the flat topped boulder, reminding me of
An Eastern Timber Rattlesnake - and a suggestion of stone steps...

Reminding me of those short segments of stone, close to perpendicular to longer rows of stones,
and sometimes with a boulder that just might be a snake head,
and sometimes with a stone placed on top of that,
as if it were the "bright blazing crest like a diamond" of the Uktena:

"Those who know say the Uktena is a great snake, as large around as a tree trunk, with horns on its head, and a bright blazing crest like a diamond on its forehead, and scales glowing like sparks of fire. It has rings or spots of color along its whole length, and cannot be wounded except by shooting in the seventh spot from the head, because under this spot are its heart and its life. The blazing diamond is called Ulun'suti—"Transparent"—and he who can win it may become the greatest wonder worker of the tribe. But it is worth a man's life to attempt it, for whoever is seen by the Uktena is so dazed by the bright light that he runs toward the snake instead of trying to escape..."  - James Mooney ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_Serpent


 




The "Jewel" is also a truly balanced stone and can be set in motion:



Added 12/29/2022
(When it reminded me of the "big boulder" - that might also have been a larger rocking stone by the house on the inside of the stone bordered enclosure.)




Monday, September 02, 2019