[Image: Standing stones beneath Lake Michigan? View larger].
Posted on 01/08/2009 12:15:48 PM PST by BGHater
In a surprisingly under-reported story from 2007, Mark Holley, a professor of underwater archaeology at Northwestern Michigan University College, discovered a series of stones – some of them arranged in a circle and one of which seemed to show carvings of a mastodon – 40-feet beneath the surface waters of Lake Michigan.
[Image: Standing stones beneath Lake Michigan? View larger].
If verified, the carvings could be as much as 10,000 years old – coincident with the post-Ice Age presence of both humans and mastodons in the upper midwest.
[Image: The stones beneath Lake Michigan; view larger].
In a PDF assembled by Holley and Brian Abbott to document the expedition, we learn that the archaeologists had been hired to survey a series of old boatwrecks using a slightly repurposed "sector scan sonar" device. You can read about the actual equipment – a Kongsberg-Mesotech MS 1000 – here.
The circular images this thing produces are unreal; like some strange new art-historical branch of landscape representation, they form cryptic dioramas of long-lost wreckage on the lakebed. Shipwrecks (like the Tramp, which went down in 1974); a "junk pile" of old boats and cars; a Civil War-era pier; and even an old buggy are just some of the topographic features the divers discovered.
These are anthropological remains that will soon be part of the lake's geology; they are our future trace fossils.
But down amongst those otherwise mundane human remains were the stones.
[Image: The "junk pile" of old cars and boat skeletons; view larger].
While there is obviously some doubt as to whether or not that really is a mastodon carved on a rock – let alone if it really was human activity that arranged some of the rocks into a Stonehenge-like circle – it's worth pointing out that Michigan does already have petroglyph sites and even standing stones.
A representative of the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology has even commented that, although he's skeptical, he's interested in learning more, hoping to see better photographs of the so-called "glyph stone."
[Image: The stones; view larger].
So is there a North American version of Stonehenge just sitting up there beneath the glacial waters of a small northern bay in Lake Michigan? If so, are there other submerged prehistoric megaliths waiting to be discovered by some rogue archaeologist armed with a sonar scanner?
Whatever the answer might be, the very suggestion is interesting enough to think about – where underwater archaeology, prehistoric remains, and lost shipwrecks collide to form a midwestern mystery: National Treasure 3 or Da Vinci Code 2. Even Ghostbusters: The Return.
But only future scuba expeditions will be able to tell for sure.
“Nobody knows who they were or what they were doing.”
Hey, they were just a bunch of guys sitting around near the lake over a mastodon barbeque sharing some ice fishing stories.
“Hairy, I swear to you that was a megolodon I almost caught, but he broke that darn mammoth-gut line and got away.”
Hail Atlantis!
Looks like they were trodden on by a dwarf.
You sure that isn’t a image of the Virgin Mary making a grilled cheese sandwich?
Damn.
In the left foreground, I can just make out my keys.
______________________________________________________
You, too, huh? Couple of summers ago I did actually recover a leather Aussie bush hat about 4 months after I dropped it in Canyon Lake. Still looks good, and now it has a STORY! Which is always better.
Colonel, USAFR
I’m kinda familiar with Grand Traverse bay. Think about this: This alleged Stonhedge type of structure was found in approx. 39 feet of water. That means that the inhabitants of that time made that structure when Lake Michigan was at least 40 - 50 feet shallower.......
Back when I was younger than I am now,(1995 or so) I remember Art Bell having this scientist lady on and they used a Side Sonar off the Coast of Cuba, saying it looked like anunderground city, blah blah blah, it was Sponsored by the LIFE Magazine or something too. Never heard what became of that.
Underwater Archaeologists Find Possible Mastodon Carving On Lake Michigan Rock
AHN | 9-4-2007 | Nidhi Sharma
Posted on 09/05/2007 10:26:08 AM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1891549/posts
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Thanks BGHater. Pharmboy sent the link to the mummy queen story, I planned to post it anyway. :') |
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You would be surprised how right you are.
During the last ice age, the water levels were much lower around the globe, and since humans like to live near water, it makes sense that our history, beyond the past 12k years or so, is under water.
It would also explain why every culture has a flood story.
The mastadon, IF that is what the lines are (I’ve seen some really weird “pictures” in supposedly random-pattern linoleum) doesn’t mean a lot, as the boulder could have come from elsewhere; it doesn’t look ‘native’ to that spot.
As to the rock formation, wasn’t the area of Traverse Bay either under ice or under even deeper water up until around 4,000 years ago?
Me either. Plus lots of years of storms and currents could move things about to form about anything.
The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes:
Flood, Fire, and Famine
in the History of Civilization
by Richard Firestone,
Allen West, and
Simon Warwick-Smith
I’ll be damned - it’s a shrine to Ancient Looter Guy!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/40939571.html
[heading] Archaeology: Undersea Adventures and Pre-Columbian Mingling
Eric Powell, a senior editor at Archaeology magazine, says some of 2009’s most exciting digs will be undersea.
“There is a lot of good work on everything from Bronze Age shipwrecks in the Aegean to Paleolithic archaeology,” he said.
“People are starting to think of underwater archaeology as focused not just on nautical history, but on the prehistoric landscape that existed when glaciers had water tied up and sea levels were much lower,” he said.
Powell expects new evidence of pre-Columbian mingling to shake-up the field as well.
“I think in the coming year you’re going to see some discoveries announced that shed light on the New World/Old World contacts before Columbus came,” Powell said.
“We may realize that there was much more contact than we previously thought.”
Looks like another mastadon above and to the right also. Hope the Japanese can clone them:)
ROFLMAO!
Cheers!
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