Forgotten petroglyphs in Baltimore park to be studied, displayed [ Susquehanna Valley petroglyphs ]

Centre Daily ^ | Fri, Jun. 02, 2006 | Associated Press / Baltimore Sun

[SunkenCiv]

Eventually the more than two dozen Native American carvings, which may be thousands of years old, will be put on display. The carvings are called the Bald Friar Petroglyphs. They are older than those of the Aztecs and include concentric circles, fishlike designs and shapes that appear to depict the sun and humans... On Thursday, state archaeologists used chisels and crowbars to dislodge the carvings... The petroglyphs arrived in Baltimore in 1926 after preservationists removed them from the lower Susquehanna Valley to avoid their being inundated by Conowingo Dam. The stones were found in the Bald Friar area of Pennsylvania. Because the rocks were too large to carry, they were blasted into smaller pieces with dynamite. Some were reassembled like puzzles into concrete that was ordered from France. Many of the carvings were collected by the Maryland Academy of Sciences. When the academy moved in the 1940s, the rocks, too large to fit into the academy's new space, ended up in Druid Hill Park... On Thursday, archaeologists chiseled the rocks free from the concrete foundations, then pounded wooden wedges under the approximately 300-pound rocks to lift them up slightly. Officials passed ropes under the carvings and used an electric lift to transfer them onto a flatbed truck.

[SunkenCiv]

seen on ArchaeoBlog

[SunkenCiv]

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[coconutt2000]

I wonder if some ancient primitive ever considered that thousands of years in the future a bunch of heritage starved "modernists" were going to fawn over his equivalent of sketching in the margins.

[ClearCase_guy]

Let me get a jump on the research: "These petroglyphs indicate that Native Americans had deep understanding of astronomy and a calendar system far more sophisticated than any found in Europe."

I can come up with more, but I'll need a grant.

[SunkenCiv]

:') Petroglyphs were some kind of symbolic system, but only some of the time. Probably. They're either so old that the people who used to make them died off, or were killed off by their PreColumbian neighbors, or weren't easy enough to use and teach that they arose a number of times and croaked out each time.

[BJClinton]

It was prolly just some stone age gangstas taggin' their turf.

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.buzznet.com/buzzwords/petroglyphs/

http://www.buzznet.com/buzzwords/kayak/photos/?id=1248216
http://www.buzznet.com/buzzwords/kayak/photos/?id=1248217
http://www.buzznet.com/buzzwords/kayak/photos/?id=1248218

http://members.aol.com/Susquekal/SusquehannaRiverRockArt.htm

[ThanhPhero]

Interesting use of dynamite as an archaeological tool.

[Dustbunny]

Wonder when we'll see pics of them?