The Ancient World Around Us
2021 Explorations and Experiences
2021 Explorations and Experiences
2021 has been a bizarre year by any measure.
I’ve found some solace from the madness of the present uncovering hidden history, seeking out suggestions of the past and possible pasts hiding in plain sight around Vermont, New England, and beyond, sharing experiences so folks can join in on this fascinating voyage of discovery, at least vicariously, and perhaps painlessly learn something new while sharing in some wonder.
What is hiding in plain sight?
How about The World’s 5th Largest Pyramid — mostly unknown though it’s near the Mississippi River in Illinois, within sight of the Saint Louis Arch? Ever hear of Cahokia?
Or the Largest Effigy Mound in North America, over 1400-foot-long Serpent Mound in Southern Ohio?
Then there’s Northeastern North America, which appears to hold another, previously unknown legacy: Ceremonial Stone Landscapes — Indigenous stone and earthworks dating back thousands of years.
Ceremonial Stone Landscapes?
There are over 250,000 miles of stone walls and stone rows across New England. Conventional wisdom once held these all to be of Colonial settler origin, but the math doesn’t quite compute, with the number of farmers and time allowed.
Every vertical assemblage of rocks and stones in the forests of the Northeast had been also attributed to settler farmers, clearing their fields. There were a great many more farms in the past — some at much higher altitudes than we find today. But the somewhat random, piled heaps of rocks and stones found on the edges of pastures and farmers’ fields bear little resemblance to the apparently artistically or perhaps ritually constructed stone assemblages which resemble “cairns” found in independent clusters elsewhere.
Some old stone works most certainly are the work of farmers and settlers. But there is a growing recognition that Indigenous Peoples of Northeastern North America worked with stone, and that some built stone rows and other more complex stone assemblages, in effigy, for many thousands of years prior to Contact and Colonization.
I search out possible examples of these ancient stone works in New England and beyond. What I find can sometimes be surprising, beautiful or amazing — or all of the above! Come along on a year’s worth of experiences and explorations!
The Burlington Sea Caves
In January 2021, I shared my first look into the Donahue Sea Caves in Burlington, Vermont.
The interior hadn’t yet iced over — could only look in.
Inside the “Devil’s Den”
The Donahue Sea Caves’ Ancient Beautymedium.com
When the interior did freeze solid in February, I went back and found curious shapes on the cave walls…
Ancient Cave Art?
Discovering Possible Glyphs in a Burlington, Vermont “Sea Cave”glowinthedarkradio.medium.com
The Wonders of Burlington
The Sea Caves in Burlington, Vermont’s Intervale were only a short distance from Lake Champlain, and so I headed that way, up and over the city’s north end plateau past the recently shuttered Burlington High School, through Arms Forest, to where Lone Rock Point Peninsula draws you even further out.
Stone ruins found in Arms Forest and some interesting research discoveries led me to wonder about the more esoteric repercussions of some wasteful nineteenth century actions.
Did Desecration Doom Two Schools?
Possible Repercussions From a 19th Century Clergyman’s Follyglowinthedarkradio.medium.com
I came across a few curious-looking stone formations in exploring the Lone Rock Point Peninsula. The entirely natural Champlain Thrust Fault is breathtaking in and of itself. Other stone works may have more human origins.
Exploring Lone Rock Point
Burlington, Vermont’s Hidden Gem Reveals Wondersglowinthedarkradio.medium.com
Science Can Be Beautiful
The Champlain Thrust Fault — Lake Champlain, Vermontglowinthedarkradio.medium.com
Possible Large-Scale Great Serpent Stone Work?
Exploring in the Champlain Valley this Spring, I repeatedly came across what seemed to be possible large-scale Great Serpent Stone Work on mountains, ridges and ledges, with some of the apparently largest found on a small mountain on the shore of Lake Champlain just north of Burlington. Eagle Mountain in Milton was also said to have been the site of an Indigenous Peoples’ Mound, in the past.
A Machu Picchu in Vermont?
Exploring A Possible Mountaintop Discovery in Northeastern North Americaglowinthedarkradio.medium.com
On The Road to Find Out
The highlight of my year in exploring was a Summer Road Trip out to some significant sites in New York, Pennsylvania and the Midwest. It began in Lewis Hollow on Overlook Mountain in Woodstock, New York, with a visit to a possible Ceremonial Stone Landscape with author and researcher Glenn Kreisberg. Great thanks and appreciation to Glenn once again for showing me around the Hollow.
(In retrospect, this article serves not only as an introduction to the fascinating sacred landscape in Lewis Hollow, but also to the concepts involved in Ceremonial Stone Landscapes in general, should you want to know more).
A Ceremonial Stone Landscape in the Catskills
The Stone Effigy Rows and Manitou Hassanash (Cairns) of Lewis Hollowglowinthedarkradio.medium.com
The Sacred Serpent
I mentioned the next significant stop, Serpent Mound, in the intro, above. The Largest Effigy Mound in North America is in southern Ohio, near Peebles, and dominates another incredible sacred landscape. It also happens to be the World’s Largest Serpent Effigy.
A note of thanks: Dr. Brad Lepper of the Ohio History Connection has been more than patient with my emailed questions and ideas on Serpent Mound and related archaeology. Great thanks to Brad for taking the time to correspond.
The Sacred Serpent
Exploring the World’s Largest Serpent Effigy — in Ohioglowinthedarkradio.medium.com
Bonus: There was a small group of Mounds in an old cemetery not far from the hotel I stayed at near Serpent Mound — my visit to Mound Cemetery was a nice surprise addition to the road trip.
Ancient Mounds Among More Modern Dead
Settlers Turned Burial Mounds Into Their Own Cemetery In Piketon, Ohioglowinthedarkradio.medium.com
Watchers of the Sky
More than two-thousand years ago, the Sky Watchers in a place we now call Anderson, Indiana constructed a concentric, circular earthwork to aid in their solar, lunar and stellar observations, with a center island surrounded by a ditch which, in turn, was almost entirely surrounded by a circular embankment.
Apparently, after a couple of hundred years the central island of that earthwork became a burial mound, perhaps leading to the construction of the second, slightly less sophisticated yet similar concentric earthwork nearby.
Ancient Astronomical Earthworks of the American Midwest
Celestial Alignments and Embanked Enclosures in Indiana’s Mounds State Parkglowinthedarkradio.medium.com
Mounds State Park in Anderson, Indiana, gave me an even greater appreciation for how important the stars, moon, sun and sky above were to the Indigenous Peoples of North America, which would be reinforced by the somewhat cringing-ly named “Woodhenge” at my next site stop — Cahokia!
Ancient City of the Mississippians
Cahokia!
The name should stir up images akin to those conjured when mentioning the Pharaohs and Pyramids of Egypt. Instead, it usually elicits a “Huh?”
Indigenous political and religious leaders with Pharaoh-like power living atop Mounds guided an hierarchical society of millions, with Cahokia only being one example of their centers. This city’s populations were larger than contemporary European centers when Cahokia thrived in the 12th and 13th centuries.
The Mounds of Cahokia
“One of the best kept secrets in American history…”glowinthedarkradio.medium.com
The great earthen Mound they name Monks Mound here is the 5th largest Pyramid in the World. It’s surrounded by a now-silent city of many remaining or rebuilt Mounds and Earthworks.
Dogma Be Damned
Meadowcroft Rockshelter near Avella, Pennsylvania and the Ohio border is one of the sites in North America where they’ve found evidence of human habitation pre-dating the previously held idea the first humans crossed onto this continent over the Beringian land-bridge some 12,000 years ago, the “Clovis-First Theory”.
Remains at Meadowcroft appear to date back at least 19,000 years. But Pre-Clovis sites are not eagerly welcomed by some in the North American archaeological community…
Human in Pennsylvania 19,000 Years Ago
Witness History Rewritten at Meadowcroft Rockshelterglowinthedarkradio.medium.com
Bringing It Home
My exploring outpaced my ability to write about it this year, especially after my big summer road trip.
Putting written and video presentations together on those sites took me a while, but that didn’t stop me from going out to new places in Vermont and occasionally Massachusetts. Even teamed up with a Massachusetts-based Stone Site Investigator to check out some legendary features in Central Vermont, of which you’ll soon see more.
There are more experiences and explorations yet to share — and yet to be had!
Despite my “backlog” of sites to tell you about, when I found a possible, huge Serpent Effigy near Indian Brook Reservoir earlier this month, I thought it was worth sharing and reporting on.
New Discovery in Vermont
Possible Serpent Effigy Found Near Essex’s Indian Brook Reservoirglowinthedarkradio.medium.com
2021 has been an interesting year despite the world’s craziness. As in general, more to come…