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THE AMATEUR ARCHAEOLOGIST ONLINE
ABSTRACT STONE SCULPTURES OF ANCESTORS: EXAMPLES FROM PREHISTORIC NORTH AMERICA
By Richard Michael Gramly, PhD
The inspiration for this paper is a remarkable pair of ground stone sculptures measuring 19" and 16 ½" in length from Monroe County, northeastern Mississippi, which reside in the collection of David Walley, Fulton, Mississippi (Figure 1). We surmise that they were unearthed from a mound of the Benton archaeological culture in Monroe County (Figure 2) dating to the Middle Archaic period. It is thought that Benton developed at the end of a warmer and drier Hypsithermal Interval as climatic conditions began to ameliorate (McNutt 2008). In all likelihood, these sculptures were created between 4000 and 4500 calendar years B.C.
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The fluorescence of Benton culture along the Tombigbee River and its tributaries is revealed by numerous caches of flaked stone bifaces — some being gigantic versions of the common Benton point and others being "turkeytails" 8" to 10" in length (Johnson and Brookes 1989). These over-sized objects, one presumes, were not employed for mundane tasks. On the other hand, there is no record of associated human remains, and I know of no large cached bifaces being dressed with red ochre.
Even rarer than extra-large Benton points and turkeytails are elliptical (pointed oval) ground stone sculptures. Usually they are found in pairs at sites where large flaked stone bifaces also occur. Altogether, fewer than 10 sets are known to collectors and archaeologists; most are on record for the state of Mississippi (but see CSAJ 52-3: page 132 for an example purportedly from the state of Georgia). I intend to delve into the meaning of these enigmatic objects and others like them in eastern North America and among Old World cultures.
Human Geometry and Its Abstraction
The sexual union of male and female can be represented as slightly overlapping circles with male on the left and female on the right. At the point of overlap the ascending and descending curved lines can be likened to the spread-eagled limbs of an human being with the ellipse forming a body trunk (Figure 3). A stylized spread-eagled human being as an isolated motif seldom occurs (but see Figure 4); usually it appears multiplied hundreds of times within complex, inter-linked arrays (Figure 5). These arrays are favorites of textile weavers who see them as a challenge to their skill. A shorthand way of representing sexual union and progeny is to draw a simple ellipse, which stands for a body trunk. Arrays of linked ellipses (Figure 6) — just like inter-linked, spread-eagled human beings — express marriages and descent; on a grander scale both patterns show the inter-connections (relations) among all human beings.
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The Y-shaped intersection of arms and legs with a body trunk is itself sculpted in wood, antler, and stone and becomes a component in ceremonies. It is called a Y-form or Y-post. Y-shaped anthropomorphic ladders, which are usually quite functional, are carved by tribal craftsmen in New and Old Worlds (Figure 7). Some ladders and posts are decorated with concentric circles, concentric diamonds (lozenges) and ramiforms (Figure 8). What the meaning of these symbols may be to their creator can only be guessed. The steps of Y-post ladders, too, can be regarded as symbolic, decorative elements.
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We should not be surprised to learn that motifs appearing on Y-posts are sometimes transferred to elliptically-shaped artifacts such as shields (Figure 9), for, as we have stated, the ellipse may be taken to represent the human body. Therefore, we have the churingas or tjurungas of the Australian aborigines, which are covered with patterns of spirals, concentric circles and diamonds as well as segmented lines (Figure 10). It is thought that these motifs, which are distributed among aboriginal Australians across the sub-continent, are connected with totemic spirits, ancestors and mythic heroes who lived during "dream time."
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Churingas, Je-stones, and Equivalent Forms
Such important ceremonial artifacts, requiring considerable time and skill to manufacture, are kept in isolated storehouses at some distance from settlements. Remote rockshelters, many with ritually important designs painted upon them (Figures 11 and 12), are favorite places for secreting bundles of churingas. Caching churingas — particularly stone ones — by burying them in the earth might be practiced although I can find no mention of it.
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Among the Dugum Dani of the Belem Valley, Highland New Guinea we find counterparts of churingas. Through a trade with quarrymen who live at considerable distance from the Belem Valley, the Dani procure narrow, thin slabs of greenstone, varying in length from a foot to three feet. These symbolic stones are colloquially known as "je-stones" (Figure 13). Some are kept secreted within men's houses and are never taken outside and put on public view (Heider 1970; Hampton 1999). Others, however, are exhibited upon low platforms or benches made of fibre during funerals, weddings and other important social gatherings. The Dani placate the spirits of the dead by "inviting" them — through the medium of je-stones — to participate in events.
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Although je-stones may be ornamented with bands of plaited fibre, feathers and fur, among the Dani they are not engraved with archaic motifs as are Australian churingas. Some stones in regions east of the Belem Valley are dressed with red ochre and other pigments. Painting them, even with a simple red stripe, renders them "sacred" and may restrict their usage in open places.
Most je-stones are roughly oval or elliptical in shape with subtle. intentional asymmetry, and it is worth noting that similar asymmetry is also seen on some Australian churingas. One of the broad sides is usually flattened or slightly concave and is likened to a person's face or front; while, the other broad side, which is convex, is considered to be the je stone's "back." If one of the ends is more pointed, it is termed a stone's "head" and the opposite broader end the "buttocks" (Heider 1970: 288). By applying such anthropomorphic designations, it is clear that Dani regard these almost featureless stones as beings. They seem to be highly abstract embodiments of ancestral spirits. They are equivalent, in principle, to the simple ellipses that are formed when pairs of "male" and "female" circles intersect.
According to Schuster and Carpenter (1996: 67) bull-roarers are known on every continent except South America. Generally, they are neatly-shaped ellipses or ovals having a hole, notches or knop at one end for affixing a cord (Figure 14). Their cross-section at right angles to the long axis is a flattened, thin oval — resembling in some respects an airfoil. A tapering cross-section is critical, for when a bull-roarer is spun rapidly using a cord, it turns on its long axis making a buzzing or roaring sound of low frequency. Among some traditional practitioners this curious noise is regarded as the "voice" of ancestral spirits. It draws attention to a sacred rite that may be in progress and warns persons who have no business there to leave the neighborhood.
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The oldest surviving bull-roarers are made of bone or antler and date to the Aurignacian archaeological culture of the European Upper Palaeolithic; slightly less ancient examples made of polished stone are known from European sites, as well (Schuster and Carpenter Ibid.). In North America bone and ivory bull-roarers were used in recent times by the Eskimo peoples (see J. G. E. Smith 1980: 84), and according to Hall (1983: 88) nineteenth century Navaho used flaked stone bifaces as bull-roarers during curative ceremonies. In general, stone bull-roarers may have been more commonly used during North American prehistory than is recognized. Examples among Middle and Late Archaic cultures have been overlooked or have been mis-classified. For example, the long elliptical "whetstones" with a hole at one end that are well-known for New England's Red Paint Culture (aka Moorehead Complex) — see Figure 15 — are considered to be whetstones despite Moorehead's cautions to the contrary (1922: 121):
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The largest of the Red Paint culture's suspected bull-roarers approach 50 cm (20 inches) in length (Bruce Bourque, personal communication; see also Moorehead 1922: Figure 35 for a specimen approaching that length); most, however, are half to two-thirds that size.
Other possible examples of bull-roarers are turkeytail-shaped flaked stone bifaces of the Benton archaeological culture. The mean length of Benton turkeytails is 20-25 cm or 8-10 inches (Johnson and Brookes 1989: 136), which is about the same as Red Paint Culture bull-roarers. Instead of a drilled hole to accommdate a cord, Benton turkeytails have a pair, sometimes two, of side-notches at one end.
It is conceivable that some of the larger turkeytail flaked stone bifaces that are found in mortuary caches at Red Ochre sites of the Late or Terminal Archaic period (Converse 2003: 145-165) functioned as bull-roarers. Others may have been intended as knives. Such a duality in function for an elliptically shaped object is not out of the question — especially in mortuary contexts (see Hall 1983; Hagens no date).
Although replicated bull-roarers of wood, 20-48 cm (8-19 inches) long and weighing at most 170 grams (six ounces) work very well — especially when their length/width and width/thickness ratios fall within a certain range (Dana Klein personal communication) — the question remains: Do heavier bull-roarers of flaked and polished stone function as noise-makers? I can offer no experimental results addressing this question, but it seems that many would be a challenge to spin because of their weight. Without the aid of a long handle to which the bull-roarer cord is affixed, a stone bull-roarer might move too slowly making no sound at all. An analogy would be trying to fly a very heavy airplane with a small, low-speed engine: There is insufficient lift to get the plane airborne.
Clearly, some bull-roarers were never intended to be spun by mortal human beings. The monstrous pair of Benton bull-roarers that I mentioned at the beginning of this presentation are good examples of non-functional bull-roarers. They are sculptures of bull-roarers or, if you will, "votive bull-roarers." By their shape alone, they represent human procreation, descent, and ancestors. Paired, side-by-side in the ground, and one slightly smaller than the other they represent sexually dimorphic male and female ancestors. This symbolism is obvious. Had they been dressed with red ochre — the color of the west and the realm of the dead — their spiritual identity would have been even more emphatic.
The Earliest Votive Bull-roarers
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These large, heavy, almost tear drop-shaped, flaked stone sculptures were buried side-by-side within a red ochre-painted container made from a perishable substance — perhaps basketry, bark, or wood (Gramly 2004a, 2004b). The tips of both bifaces pointed upstream, and the larger artifact lay on the left (Figures 15-17). Their non-domestic nature is underscored by the location of edge-grinding on them. It is presumed that edges of flaked stone bifaces are ground smooth in order to facilitate hafting. In the case of the Olive Branch biface pair, remarkably, grinding is at the center of the basal edge rather than along the sides. Obviously a cord extending from the notches touched each biface at the center of its base. Thus, provision had been made either for a looped cord handle or for a cord to swing them as bull-roarers. The great weight of these bifaces — each about a pound — likely made them impractical for noise-making.
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The red-painted container containing the bifaces had been interred within a Dalton ceremonial precinct. To judge by the many artifact caches of flaked stone points, adzes, and other objects that were unearthed within this part of the Olive Branch site (Gramly 2002, 2008) and by analogy to caches and human bone at the Sloan site in Arkansas (Morse 1987), this precinct was a cemetery.
To personify votive bull-roarers — themselves symbols of ancestors — by according them the same treatment as a pair of dead human bodies carries deep meaning. Perhaps the sculptures stood for all women and all men of the lineage of the Olive Branch site's inhabitants? To bury them in the warm sandy soil of the Mississippi's floodplain was, in my view, a bold statement of intention. The inhabitants had decided to make these fair lands bordering the most southerly rapids of America's mightiest river their own. There they put down roots. Heirs to a roaming and seasonally transhumant lifestyle that was pursued by their Palaeo-American forebears, these Early Americans had settled at last — forever.
Converse, Robert N.
Gramly, Richard Michael
Hall, R. L.
Hambly, Wilfrid D.
Hampton, O. W.
Heider, Karl G.
Johnson, Jay K. And Samuel O. Brookes
McCarthy, F. D.
McNutt, Charles H.
Moorehead, Warren K.
Schuster, Carl and Edmund Carpenter
Smith, J. G. E.
Captions & Figures
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