Snaking, Stumping, and Sheeping Across the Landscape (VT)

 

Above: The corrected imagery for the image.

Below: The original from Mike's "Ancient Stone Mysteries of New England"

https://ancientstonemysteries.com/The-Book/

 which reminds me of an old drawing in an old book.

Above is the Cross and Rail imagery version and below is the photo that Mike sent in response:

Stumped!

The CSL/Stone Row denialists say there are no "stone walls" in Vermont's Champlain Valley... yet I keep finding them here, and they possess what I've come to realize are Indigenous Design Elements which relate to local Indigenous Stories of the Western Abenaki as well as more universal Great Serpent/Underwater Panther iconography. But these stoneworks are much sparser in the Champlain Valley, and seem to occur in liminal, breakthrough spaces, where the land rises and the bedrock breaks through in long ridges.

Still, they say there are no stone walls in the Champlain Valley because that fits the "sheep farmers built the stone walls" narrative - in the Champlain Valley, the Sheep Farmers used stumps to make walls to pen in their sheep, you see, so they didn't build stone walls.

And yet, there ARE stone walls in the Champlain Valley... so SOMEONE did...

Pictured: Stump Fences in Williston, Vermont (from Burlington Area History on FB)

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/ancientstonemysteries

https://mikeluoma.substack.com/

Gitaskogak: "Big Snakes"

 Anna Rorabacher Szok: Old Stone Friend Visit... June 2023

Megalithic and other Wolf Whistle Words

 Usually, it's "Dog Whistle," but the Wolf is just a little more dangerous in nature, always attempting to "pull the sheep over one's eyes," as my Grandma always used to say...

Megalithic: Usually refers to monumental architecture built between about 6,000 and 4,000 years ago in Europe, during the Neolithic and Bronze ages, but also a “code word” for an imaginary world travelling “master race” that “brought” stone building technology to the inferior humans of the planet, travelling along not only some slippery slopes but an often pretzel-like course in ancient ships of unknown but surely very advanced design.

Mr.Wikipedia writes:

 "There have been many connections between pseudoscientific writers and researchers and their anti-semitic, racist and neo-Nazi backgrounds. They often use pseudoscience to reinforce their beliefs. One of the most predominant pseudoscientific writers is Frank Collin, a self-proclaimed Nazi who goes by Frank Joseph in his writings.^[89] The majority of his works include the topics of Atlantis, extraterrestrial encounters, and Lemuria as well as other ancient civilizations, often with white supremacist undertones. For example, he posited that European peoples migrated to North America before Columbus, and that all Native American civilizations were initiated by descendants of white people.^[90]

The Alt-Right using pseudoscience to base their ideologies on is not a new issue. The entire foundation of anti-semitism is based on pseudoscience, or scientific racism. In an article from Newsweek by Sander Gilman, Gilman describes the pseudoscience community's anti-semitic views. "Jews as they appear in this world of pseudoscience are an invented group of ill, stupid or stupidly smart people who use science to their own nefarious ends. Other groups, too, are painted similarly in 'race science', as it used to call itself: African-Americans, the Irish, the Chinese and, well, any and all groups that you want to prove inferior to yourself".^[91] Neo-Nazis and white supremacist often try to support their claims with studies that "prove" that their claims are more than just harmful stereotypes. For example Bret Stephens published a column in The New York Times where he claimed that Ashkenazi Jews had the highest IQ among any ethnic group.^[92] However, the scientific methodology and conclusions reached by the article Stephens cited has been called into question repeatedly since its publication. It has been found that at least one of that study's authors has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist.^[93]

The journal Nature has published a number of editorials in the last few years warning researchers about extremists looking to abuse their work, particularly population geneticists and those working with ancient DNA. One article in Nature, titled "Racism in Science: The Taint That Lingers" notes that early-twentieth-century eugenic pseudoscience has been used to influence public policy, such as the Immigration Act of 1924 in the United States, which sought to prevent immigration from Asia and parts of Europe. Research has repeatedly shown that race is not a scientifically valid concept, yet some scientists continue to look for measurable biological differences between 'races'.^[94]  

     {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience}

  Some other terms borrowed from European Culture include: Cairns, Dolmens, cromlechs, mounds, kurgans, barrows, kofun, stupa, tope, tumuli: all of these are different European cultural names for man-made hills of earth or stone generally covering burials.

Rostral columns, obelisks, menhir: European cultural names for single large standing stones.

Souterrains: underground passageways with stone walls that lead to the interior of some European cultural features.

 "Megalithic geometry" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscientific_metrology

http://barry.warmkessel.com/SENTinel-2.html

More Silliness: "Serpent Mound is an earthwork of a snake seizing a huge egg. It dates from a time period without any written records. For that reason it represents one or more stories. It is shown, that it tells the well-known story of the Egyptian discovery of America and the Biblical Flood. In c.1100 BC the monument was updated by placing a heap of stones in the center of the egg. With this new feature the monument also tells the story of the metal trade and the Dardanus Flood. Serpent Mound is one of the most important monuments of North America. It is part of our worldwide cultural heritage..."

http://barry.warmkessel.com/dejonge.html

 

A Few "Supporting Turtles"

 ...at the Nonnewaug Watch House

The "Hairpin Causeway" 01 (Paugussett Homeland/CT)

 

   Walking an old path, modernly maintained by a Nature Foundation but also connected with a historic spa, I pause as I realize that we’re on a stone built causeway. As we retraced our steps on the way back to our perfect parking spot, I paused to take some photos:

Almost immediately, I at least thought I saw a hint of some Indigenous Iconography:

Above: The yellow arrow is near where the path diverges, where that first photo was taken, the white arrow in the inset is that bend on the larger photo and on the little snip of the map as well.

Below: A terrible photo of the stonework of the causeway, obscured by the dark green of early June... 

Some LiDar images:

These days, I wonder if perhaps members of the Freeman Family were possibly the stonemasons who were continuing to include these Indigenous Icons with a tradition that goes back thousands and thousands of years...  

Snake Work at the Nonnewaug Watch House

   Somehow or other, I intend to keep this interesting Nonnewaug Stonework from falling apart as I conserve it rather than rebuild it. My best guess about it is that sometime around 1700, Indigenous Stone Specialists created this stonework as part of a treaty facilitated by Captain John Minor in behalf of the Pomperaug Plantation, now present day Woodbury CT. Minor became the nominal owner around the time of the Plantation's 1740s Homelot Division and the house was probably one later traded by a grandson for another property nearby...  

Rather than a dressed rectangular block of stone,

this capstone resembles an Eastern Timber Rattlesnake,

rather realistically in many ways.  

The rattlesnake in many ways shares characteristics with an Indigenous Spirit Being known by many names such as the Horned Serpent or simply Big Snake:

    "Horned serpents are a type of mythological freshwater serpent common to many tribes of the eastern United States and Canada. Horned serpent legends vary somewhat from tribe to tribe, but they are usually described as huge, scaly, dragon-like serpents with horns and long teeth. Sometimes they move about on the land, but are more often found in lakes and rivers. The ubiquity of horned serpent stories in this region has led some people to speculate that they are based on a real animal (such as some sort of now-extinct giant crocodile.) However, in Native American myths and legends, horned serpents are usually very supernatural in character-- possessing magical abilities such as shape-shifting, invisibility, or hypnotic powers; bestowing powerful medicine upon humans who defeat them or help them; controlling storms and weather, and so on-- and were venerated as gods or spirit beings in some tribes. And unlike other animals such as crocodiles and snakes, horned serpents are not included in common Woodland Indian folktales about the animal kingdom. So it is likely that horned serpents have always been viewed as mythological spirits, not as animals, and that belief in them was simply very widespread in the eastern part of the country. Indeed, horned serpent mythology may trace back to ancestors of Eastern Native American tribes such as the Hopewell, Mississippian, and other mound-builder civilizations, as stylized serpent motifs have been found in their earthworks and artifacts which bear some resemblance to the horned serpents of historical Native American tribes..."

http://www.native-languages.org/horned-serpent.htm

Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus): "Rattlesnakes can usually be identified by the distinctive, segmented rattle at the tip of the tail. Other distinguishing characteristics include vertical eye pupils; large heat-sensing pits between the eyes and nostrils (known as pit organs); a flattened, unmarked, triangular head about twice the size of the neck; and keeled scales (raised ridge in the center of each scale, making the skin appear rough)..." 

https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Fact-Sheets/Timber-Rattlesnake

Below the Capstone, perhaps a two headed snake as"chinking stones:"

Overlay with Rattlesnake Eyes

(and two rhomboidal "jewels" behind the heads):

Lifting a big fallenstone:

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2011/10/old-town-farm.html