But this one
Posted on 04/07/2007 8:00:18 AM PDT by Dacb
Archaeologists aren't sure why Mississippian Indians engraved small sandstone tablets with birdman images and crosshatching 1,000 years ago.
Maybe the tablets were used as visual aids for spiritual storytelling. Maybe they were dipped in dye and stamped on deerskin to create patterns.
"Maybe (a tablet) was displayed when you were traveling from one place to another," said Bill Iseminger, assistant site manager at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville. "It was a passport to show your rank or status or authority."
Whatever their purpose, the tablets are considered archaeologically significant because they provide rare pictures from an ancient culture.
Cahokia Mounds has a newly discovered Mississippian tablet, thanks to Elizabeth Kassly, 50, of Swansea, who donated it to the historic site. It's now on display in the interpretive-center lobby.
"I think it was just meant to be at Cahokia Mounds," said Kassly, a contract archaeologist with Powell Archaeological Research Center in Fairmont City. "Because of its potential, because of the stories it can tell."
The tablet actually is half a tablet because one side is broken off. It's about the size of a playing card, only thicker. It's estimated at 800 years old.
Kassly found the tablet in 2000 while surface collecting on a farm near Valmeyer in her free time. It's known as the Kassly-Schaefer Birdman Tablet because Vernon Schaefer owns the farm.
The front shows a birdman's dotted torso, fringed kilt-like garment and outstretched right wing, and a rattlesnake-like image across the top. Crosshatching covers the back.
"Birdman symbolism of similar hawk or falcon dancers is common in Mississippian iconography," according to interpretive materials. "... The meaning here is not clear with part of the left side and the head missing and the snake element in place of it, but raptorial birds are known to represent the 'upperworld' (spiritual world), humans 'this world' and snakes the 'underworld.'"
Cahokia Mounds is the former location of an American Indian city that flourished from about 950 to 1350 with a peak population of 15,000 to 20,000 residents known as Mississippians.
The historic site has portions of several sandstone tablets, but only one that's whole. It was found during a 1971 archaeological dig near Monks Mound.
That tablet is engraved with a different birdman image. It serves as the historic site's logo and appears on area highway bridges.
Officials believe the Kassly-Schaefer Birdman Tablet may have been engraved in the Cahokia Mounds area. The Mississippian artist probably used a flint tool.
"The thought is, maybe (tablets) were made here and distributed or carried to other places as Cahokia's influence spread," Iseminger said. "It could have even been like missionaries spreading the word about their beliefs."
Contact reporter Teri Maddox at tmaddox@bnd.com or 345-7822, ext. 26.
Birdman
GGG ping.
The mound builder culture was destroyed by global cooling.
Early version of a credit card?
A stamp used in ancient scrapbooking? Oh my, the list could be endless.
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Fascinating. Thank you for the ping.
These must be some slow witted right-wing scientists. Obviously the "bird-man" image represents the Sky (climate) god Allgoar and these tablets are carbon credits used to offset the damage done by killing corn, gourd and bean plants.
birdman cults were also popular on easter island for a time
In the 1970s there was a Birdland cult for a while when the first Weather Report album came out. ;’)
yes yes the bird is the word.
The hawkman from Buck Rogers - I remember that show! Are the eps available on DVD?
BTW, the guy that played Hawk on Buck Rogers came to Pittsburgh for a Sci Con, this was like twenty-five years ago, and a friend of mine was in charge of picking the actor up at the airport and showing him around town, and he said this person was very nice, very personable to everyone. (Thought I'd throw in that little snippet.)
My first thought on reading the title was this has something to do with The Birdman of Alcatraz, LOL!
The actor is Thom Christopher. That is a cool “brush with fame” story. It is good to hear about an actor or actress who has not forgotten that they are a human being.
I watched the show dutifully when I was a kid both when it originally aired and when it entered into syndication. Thanks to that show, I still have this thing about women in spandex (especially Erin Grey).
SciFi runs a day of them, every now and then. I’ll pop in an 8-hour tape, and fast forward to the “better” epis, or ones I don’t remember.
"We asked, 'Are trying to tell us something????'"
Thanks for the info that the Sci Fi channel runs the old “Buck Rogers” TV show eps. I’ll try to catch them when they’re on, because the price that Amazon is asking is pretty high.
Thom Christopher went on to perform in one of the TV soap operas, then I lost track of his career. Sometimes I wish The Powers That Be in TV and Movieland would bring back all these fine character actors for even a bit part in some current production, much like Mel Gibson did when he made “Gunsmoke” and hired Robert Fuller from the old Wagon Train series, plus a number of old-time cowboy actors, for a small but memorable poker-playing scene in his film.
The tablet represents myths associated with watery constellations. These include Aquarius, the “Water Bearer” and Capricornus, “The Water Bison”, among others. See:
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/051007_night_sky.html
Aquarius seems to match the central figure on this tablet (including the deep line to the right) and Capricorns is well represented by the four fish- skeletons or downward branching lines with the upturned corners, in my opinion. The pottery head found directly above the tablet could represent the head of Pegasus stylized as the square with invisible lines representing serpentine streams of life blood flowing from it.
See: http://lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/clayheadkasslypage1.htm
http://lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/kasslytabletbirdlarge.htm
The faint line superimposed over the central figure exactly corresponds to the moons path as it crosses the water bearer (Aquarius) and Capricornus.
Incidentally, the Archaeologists that aren’t sure why the tablet was made are wrong about the date too. They blatantly assume all engravings are from 1000 years ago. It more likely dates to at least 5000 years ago, based on the site materials that it was found with, including Greenbrier projectiles, hand-axes, hematite cones, and thousands of other archaic artifacts.
See? I was right. ;^)
Yes, those archaeologists are half-witted and they recently allowed destruction of the site that is their job to protect. This August, they used backhoes to dig into Monks Mound, the largest central mound on the Cahokia Mounds World Heritage Site. They removed over 30,000 cubic feet of the mound with backhoes, and dumped it into dumptrucks without any screening or archaeology done. They also dug into a large cremation chamber that was surrounded by limestone slabs. It is frustrating that they could do this since the laws prohibit it. They claimed to be doing this to “save the mound” from rainwater eroding it all away. Now they are denying everything about the fiasco.
Oh and you are also right about the tablet representing a carbon credit. Do you know where you read that good information?
Visited the site of Cahokia a few years ago and want to return . We just did not allow enough time to see all of it. I cannot beleive that such huge dramatic ancient structures are right in the middle of the USA and right next to the interstate. It should be a MAJOR tourist site!!!!!
I think it should be such a major tourist site too! The largest ancient earthen archatecutre there is Monks mound, (22 million cubic feet). It was said by the travel channel that Monks Mound is the world’s largest pyramid. Unfortunately, Monks mound was being destroyed by backhoes in August 2007, by the site management, under the official claim of “emergency repairs”. There was no emergency from the rainwater and they were just out digging through with massive earth movers so they could expose the central tomb structure.
This action reminds me of the destruction done to Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Buddhas:
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=4,2377,0,0,1,0
Are they that desperate for news that they would dig there? How awful. National Geographic needs to do a huge special on This amazing and major site.
Oh and you are also right about the tablet representing a carbon credit. Do you know where you read that good information?
No, where do I read that? I'm right so seldom I need all that I can get. ;^)
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