Friday, August 11, 2023

A Stubborn Theory Indeed

I just happened to re-read this old article:

  I doubt the authors (Ellsworth and Ives) realize the stubborn “theory” may well be the colonial origin of certain stone features on a landscape used by humans for thousands and thousands of years.

     “Evaluations of máunumúetash* by parties who do not test their hypotheses against Northeast Algonquian cosmology and rituals are doing, at best, only half an investigation," writes Nohham.

  “Evaluations of qusuqaniyutôkansh (“stone walls”) by parties who do not test their hypotheses against Northeast Algonquian cosmology, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and Rituals of Renewal on Ceremonial Stone Landscapes are doing, at best, only 3% of an investigation,” remarked Sherlock Stones to his associate, famed Rocket Surgeon John Possum. "The late Dr. Brian Jones, the Connecticut State Archaeologist spoke and wrote about that "Other 97% of the Human History," the Indigenous Peoples' History, that most people are almost entirely unaware of - or are greatly misinformed about."



  I’m just a guy with a blog, inspired to overlay “Serpent Imagery” on photos to kind of “make the structures come alive” by adding horns and eyes, and perhaps even point to a similar structure or a variation, illustrating the repeated existing patterns of Indigenous Iconography, the Artwork, in the stacking of these Stone Prayers, these "Stones of Intention:"  


Below: a photo lifted from Greater Rhode Island Roaming













One Snake Head 

      At the Beginning (Not the End) of a “Stone Wall” is Nothing

Two Snake Heads at Two Stone Walls may be a Coincidence

While Three Snake Heads at Three Stone Walls is a Conspiracy, as the old archaeologist joke goes,

                      But Four Snake Heads at the Beginning (Not the End) of Four “Stone Walls”

               May be more than:

 “a juggernaut of wishful thinking masquerading as science”

“a shakedown culture complete with lawyers, fake science, and internal schisms (that) makes Timothy Ives’ book both a microcosm and a warning about the direction of our country"

“farming relics” and  “pseudoscience that goes into determining that the stone piles are related to Native American rituals.”

Snake Head Variations







*Máunumúet(ash) - place(s) of ceremonial gathering (ehenda mawewink, Lënapeuw, mawighunk, Mahhekanneuw). Themes of connectedness, reciprocity, prayerfulness and continuity are expressed through máunumúetash.

Nohham Rolf Cachat-Shilling

Bulletin of Society for Connecticut Archaeology (2018)

https://www.academia.edu/40876479/SCASubmission



1 comment: