Posted on 08/01/2010 7:01:22 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A stone effigy monument, in the shape of a Blackfoot creator god named Napi, has been discovered in southern Alberta -- south of the Red Deer River near the hamlet of Finnegan.
The Blackfoot are a people that have inhabited the prairies since ancient times. The effigy dates to somewhere between AD 1000 and AD 1500. It would have been constructed before the time of European contact.
Napi is a deity credited with creating the Blackfoot people and the landscape they inhabit. "According to Blackfoot tradition he's like the creator," said archaeologist Meaghan Porter, who investigated the site.
She said that the image is "made out of rocks and it's in the outline of a man -- it has arms and a torso, head and legs as well as genitalia." It's roughly five meters by five meters long. The rocks are about the size of a fist, they have a mix of black, grey and tan colours. Porter doesn't think these colours were chosen deliberately "I think that's just the rocks that were available," she said.
Some of the rocks have been fire-broken...
Only nine stone effigies like this have been documented in all of Alberta...
Archaeologists have found other sites near the area. One of them is a camp, located about one kilometre away, which is about 400 meters by 400 meters in size. Archaeologists found bone remains, hearths, more fire broken rock and even obsidian -- material that comes from a volcano.
(Excerpt) Read more at heritage-key.com ...
Gee whiz, that means only Paris Hilton could accommodate it.
Interesting. My husband’s great grandmother was Blackfoot. Thanks for this.
It was my pleasure. I hope I look that good when I’m that age.
Thanks JPB, and where have you been? Seems like I’d not seen a ping in a long while.
Actually, I think it’s best to look in Montgomery.
Only the strong survived. :’)
Careful, something like that got Don Imus fired. ;’)
I feel like that big dude...with the target on him.
That went right over my head.
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