February 2 Workshop Plans

The work is continuing on schedule, and we have alot to do this Saturday! We have something for everyone - that is for sure!

Updates Since Last Weekend
The front gift shop / visitor center is now undergoing the last pains of color coordination and we have settled with a reddish brown to top it all off.... this will be intermixed with a dark green on the already white and cream colored main colors:

Using this many colors is interesting - - but the basic layout will look like this around our windows: (This is not finished - - but you get the idea)

As you can see the poles will be the dark reddish brown all the way to the ceiling, where they will meet the molding and that line will follow acrossed the ceiling and down the walls:

And then there is a small edge on each side of the reddish brown that will be painted that dark green when they get to it, and that will follow the molding acrossed the ceiling as well...

By the time you get there for the workshop on Saturday, it will be looking alot different than the old Phillie Sales folks...and more cultural as well I think....Don;t have time to get dirty? Stop in and let me just give you a quick tour or take a look at Ted's new display anyway!

Anyway - - hope to see you on Saturday at 345 Broad Street, Waverly, NY from 10 - 2pm!

Can't to see what I am talking about?
You are welcome to stop in and just see what we are up to - and - hey - - I know you are dying to see the place!

( ;

deb

1/27 Workshop "Packed"

You know you are getting alot done when someone asks "what's next?" at one of our workshops ~ and that is EXACTLY what happened this Saturday!

As you can imagine we have stages of development of each part of the building that we are working on and believe it or not, we finished all we had planned to get done until next week...granted that we couldn't paint the east wall because it needed one more coat of spackling and sanding which was completed, but that now will be moved to the agenda for this coming weekend's workshop.

Marti and Guy Abell, Jess Quinn, Jordan, and Dick Cowles all worked hard and got ALL of the rest of the peg board down on the west wall which looked like this just last weekend:



But now with the peg board down it is ready to spackle and paint:

Meanwhile, Tom, Jack and Angelo were working on the metal back door and getting it up to code with a panic bar etc.... We actually got a quote of $2,000 to get a brand new door installed, but we had one upstairs that was too big and Tom and the gang actually cut that one and the frame and made it work for our new back door....savings of $2,000!

( ;

Marty Borko and Jeri Sanders sanded and spackled the west wall and I said, got it ready for next weekend, then Marty helped out at other tasks the rest of the day.

At the same time, Gloria Riegal and Marti Abell put inserts into our SRAC Journals and labeled as well as inserted rejoin letters for any members running out on their memberships, then put the postage on them and then Gloria ran them over to the post office! If you are a member - - you should be receiving yours any day! The Journal is now 18 pages, and will only be getting bigger and better!

Susan Fogel ran around and did errands for us all day long and I'll tell you there is nothing better than having someone who is willing to do all of that!

Later on, Jack Rowe and Jordan ran over to Betty Crosby's house and picked up an organ that she donated for our next auction fund raiser coming up in March!


We also had Ted Keir who brought in new artifacts and changed out what we had there in our front windows all last week for this week, and then made sure to spend time with everyone to teach them about what he had brought!



Visitors included John Borits, Sheila Campbell, Bob Varner, and Anne Meikle~who is going to be one of our volunteers in our gift shop as well at some of our events when she can!

When I came home last night my head was swirling and then I got the email about our bathroom grant request to the Mildred Faulkner Truman Foundation. We were notified that we did not get the grant.

This morning I called all of the board members and we switched to Plan B - That is we are going to scale down the project and move ahead with it on our own....

Hey - when you have the people who are willing to help you like we have and know how blessed we are to accomplished all we have....I guess I just don't know enough to see anything as a negative....

Call me ignorant if you like, but I'll tell you that if you spend anytime around SRAC - nothing is.

( ;

SRAC Workshop 1/26 - Painters Needed!

Painters and mailing stuffers will be greatly appreciated at our next workshop this Saturday from 10am - 2pm at our new Center at 345 Broad Street in Waverly.

Painting:
Tom, Jack, Angelo, and Duane worked all week to get the rest of the dry wall up on the east wall of the building and we hope to have it ready for any and all that care to take rollers to them!


Meanwhile our hired painters will be finishing up the visitor center/gift shop area in the coming weeks and finishing up the large display window we had them put in. (door is closed in this image) - - Also - notice the new wall colors!



Mailing Stuffers:
We just got our newsletters back from the printer and they are AWESOME! But we also need to put inserts in them and get the mailing labels on them...come and sit and chat with us and help us get this tedious job done for the quarter so that we can get these out to our membership pronto!


Next BIG Job Ahead of Us:
We had the auction house come and get the stuff we wanted them to sell for us - so now we can begin taking down the last of the peg board ~~UGH~~ on the west wall and see what we have to face under it! The good news is that this is just about the last of the walls on our main floor that we need to worry about !


Other updates:

• Inga has been trying to organize the supplies and cleaning up the messes we make as well as painting the office floor.
  

• Inga is also working on the volunteer list for people who would like to volunteer to work in our museum, gift shop or even at our events...so stop in this Saturday and talk to her if you are interested in helping us or call her days at 607-565-7960.
  

• Claire Borits didn't have enough fun on last Saturday's workshop - so she came in ON SUNDAY and painted our bathroom!!

• Dick Cowles and Tom Valilee are working on replacing our back door to meet code and should have that done by Saturday!

• Tom Valilee, Jack Rowe, and Angelo and Duane Welles have put in ALOT of hours this week to work on things we needed to finish up - - thanks to each of you guys...I don't know what we'd do without you!

And if you cannot come and stay or whatever - that is fine too - - - stop in and have me show you around and have Mr. Ted Keir show you some of the collection he has set up for you to come and see!


Hope to see you this Saturday!

1/19 Workshop a HUGE Success!

As you now - SRAC has scheduled workshops for every Saturday from 10 am - 2pm...

Next weekend will be mostly painting and spackling, cleaning, and misc small construction work...

Hey it sounds like more fun ahead and YOU are invited join in it!!!

( ;

Today we had around 15 people at the workshop and I must say that we accomplished quite a bit!

Helpers Throughout the Day:
Jeff Terwilliger and Jess and Joe Quinn took a load of garbage to the dump and separated out metal to send for scrap and that will all be gone on Monday.

Inga Welles started storing alot of the materials we now made storage for in the back area and helped move stuff and get the furniture ready for the auction house.

Jess and Joe Quinn, (shown below) "cousin Luke," Marty Borko also moved the rest of the tables and desks upstairs and I am glad to report that we are finished moving furniture now for a while...

~Whew~!

Mary Vanschaik and Claire Borits spent the day cleaning and painting the upstairs office, and Claire has volunteered to come in tomorrow to paint the bathroom!

Tom Vallilee, Jack Rowe, Angelo, and some other friends worked on more of the east wall (future museum wall) that we are framing and dry walling, and Tom also worked on some other construction projects that we needed to get done.

Meanwhile, Ted Keir had three tables filled with artifacts and photos for everyone to stop and look at all day long, he also helped with some small construction things, and even bought and delivered pizza for us all at the end of the day!

Below is a picture before setup of Ted's table space set up in front of our large front windows:



Donations for the Auction
We also had Mary Vanschaik, Jack Rowe and Beryl Cleary donate items for the SRAC auction sale on Tuesday.

For any of you that cannot make a drop off before Tuesday - - please just drop the items off any Saturday between 10 and 2 between now and mid March when we will do a "Spring Cleaning" drive for another sale to raise funds through auction.

Thanks to ALL Who Helped Today!
Thanks to all that worked so hard today!

I want to extra specially thank Tom Vallilee for not only working today - but working most every day at the building for the last few weeks...

Tom we would be lost without you my friend!

Other Updates:
We had the ceiling painted for the Visitor Center/ Gift Shop area, and the painters have respackled the west wall up front one more time before the final coat of paint goes on. All the walls on the east wall have been repaired, drywalled and spackled, and just need the paint added.

We also cut out the area to the west of our entrance and put in a huge plexiglass window and a door on the inside for us to be able to post the Calendar of Events and posters for all of the "happenings" for the Center throughout each month. We are working on the lighting for this aea right now.


As you can see it is VERY large and we wanted it this way so that people driving by would be able to see it.

So Where Do We Stand 1 Month and 1 Week Since We Bought the Building?
As it stands, if we get the grant for the public restrooms I really believe that we will be able to open our doors by the end of March...We would just need to get flooring and that is all we have outstanding!

Put us in your prayers and stay tuned as I will know about the grant sometime this coming week.

G'night!

The SRAC Journal

SRAC as a non-profit has been around since 2005, and since then we have not only acquired our first building, but we have also outgrown our quarterly publication from a newsletter to a full-fledged journal. Members of SRAC now get a newspaper-styled publication filled with articles and high quality images at no additional cost, even though this next newsletter coming out next week is 18 full pages (8 1/2 x 11) of great information about the history and archaeology found in the surrounding region of the Northern Tier of PA and Southern Tiers of NY.

The faced artifacts that you see here were discussed in the last publication in an article that discussed a recent field trip that some of the SRAC board members took to the NYS Museum to catalog all of the artifacts they had in their possession from our region.

The main article is by Dr. Marshall Becker, PhD, Senior Fellow in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as SRAC Advisory Board Chair. The article includes 4 incredible pieces of wampum that we were able to see at the Oneida Nation near Syracuse, NY, as well as a summation of many years of research by Dr. Becker on wampum usage.

You can now download a low res version of this last quarter's publication by clicking here.

This quarter we have renamed our publication to the SRAC Journal for two reasons. First we believe that as a publication it demands such a title change, and secondly, we want our authors and other researchers to be able to cite the articles in our journal for future references.

The Journal Volume 3, Issue 4 that is coming out next week has some pretty great article as well. First is an article by our Board Chairman Ted Keir concerning a little known collection to scientists called the Jake Vanderpoel collection which was for the majority a collection from an incredibly historic site called "Tioga Point." This is the place that General Sullivan set up camp before joining Clinton's army in 1779. This is also the "meeting of the waters" between the the Cheming and Susquehanna rivers. This is the place that the old "Forbidden Path" - otherwise known as the backdoor to the Iroquois nation ended. Unfortunately, the collection went to auction, but our own Ted Keir was with Jake for many digs at the site and lucky for us has photos and records of many artifacts that we fear will never be seen again in real life. The deer antler artifact shown here is an example of items that are in the article, and this was dated in Ted's records at 1615 - 1630 AD....which may very well be an argument that the area WAS in fact inhabited during that time period that some have said wasn't possible! Other photos include a copper hair coil found with 2,428 white beads, 107 black beads, and 33 cobalt blue Russian beads (dated 1727-1734 AD,) a stone with an incised spiral design, and many other items.

Of the several other articles of note in the SRAC Journal, the other favorite of mine is on the ARC Site in NY, by Stanley Vanderlaan, which is the Paleo site which is said to cover over 100 acres and the author claims it is the largest Paleo site in all of New York State. Several images of the Paleo material are included in the article as well.

Rest assured that all of you that are SRAC members are going to be receiving a wonderful publication next week in your mailboxes!

Not an SRAC Member ? Click here to join online and to begin receiving your SRAC Journal with your membership today or click here to download our membership form to mail in!

Want To Submit an Article for the next SRAC Journal* ? Contact me at dtwigg@sracenter.org.

*Subject to review process

Workshop Update!

This Saturday January 19, 2008, we will again have yet another workshop from 10am to 2pm and invite all of you to join us!

What Can You Expect?
Well - a good friend described the experience of working at our workshop one Saturday as "like being back in college - but without the beer!"

I assume that means we had good fun, and it re-ignited this person's youthful feeling of being involved with something that really can make a difference and can make each individual better for being a part of it as well....

But hey - maybe she just wished we had brought beer....

( ;

Anyway ~~~~

Last week we had lots of strong backs and we moved ALOT of furniture up to the second floor, took things to the dump, and cleaned out the upstairs office, and since then we have done some things that you will notice since last week- trust me!

This week we will be doing some different things to include having Ted Keir bring some artifacts and to be on hand to discuss them with anyone who wants to stop in and see them and to get a tour of the place and hear what we are up to as well as learn more about SRAC's mission and vision. We also have breakfast snacks, coffee and drinks (sorry no beer!) and supply lunch, so stop in anytime to sit and chat if you are not able to do anything else... Ted would love to show you some "stuff" and we want more people to know about what is going on in the building and with SRAC -- so just stopping in is really appreciated!!

Work To Do!
We hope to have more help to continue moving things off the main floor this Saturday, but also need help to paint the office and other spaces as well as some of our display pieces. We also have some small construction things that can be done as well, depending on who comes and what they want to do. Just say what you want to do and we are happy to have you do it!

CALL FOR HELP!
I am also in need of help finding someone who can give us a good deal on flooring for the gift shop visitor center, or funding to help us pay for it to get done...This is really the only outstanding issue for us to get the gift shop / visitor center open, as we are just finishing up the rest that need to be done as we speak....PLEASE let me know if you have any ideas at: dtwigg@spanishhill.com or stop in and see us on Saturday!

Thanks for your continued support, and I hope to see you Saturday!

Red Ocher / Ochre Thoughts from Ohio!

The discussion concerning Ocher / Ochre usage in the Northeast has become quote interesting, as the last three posts on the topic show:

• 11/27/2007
• 12/05/2007
  
• 1/14/2008

Most recently, I received this information today from Dr. Mark Seeman at Kent State University:

"Red ochre is an interesting material. As you may know it can be made from grinding up iron-rich hematite or limonite (hema= blood). It has two primary uses among Native peoples that I am aware of.

First, it is a fine abrasive similar to jewelers' rouge. As such it can be used to polish a variety of substances such as bone, ivory and even flint. Use of red ochre as an abrasive dates from Paleoindian times ca. 11,000 BP.

The second use is as a pigment. It can be either sprinkled on a surface or mixed with fat or tallow to make a red paint. Red is an important color for many Native peoples, signifying life (blood), but also in some cases is associated with warfare and other concepts. Sometimes it is used in symbolic complementarily to white (white paint can be made from galena, a lead sulfide ore). With the first European trade, vermillion, a red, lipstick-like product, was in high demand and it generally replaced red ochre as a red pigment after 1600 AD.

Red ochre is often found on human remains or as portions of grave lots. Sometimes it appears that the pigment was on clothing or flesh, but in other cases it appears that the human remains had been defleshed (secondary burials often in ossuaries) and the ochre sprinkled or painted directly on the bones. Sometimes burial offerings (e.g. flint bifaces) are also coated with red ochre.

Although it is found earlier in burial association, it is particularly evident in the Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods in the Midwest, beginning ca, 1300 BC."

Dr. Mark F. Seeman
Office: 215 Lowry
Phone: 330-672-2705
Email: mseeman@kent.edu

Still more on Ochre / Ocher usage in the Northeast

As most of you know - we have been trying to get all of the information that we can possibly get concerning the usage of red ochre ( ocher ) in the Northeast. See the previous posts below:

1. Red Ocher usage in the Northeast (11/27/2007)
   
2. More on Red Ocher (12/15/2007)
   

Since then I have had a couple of responses that I think are very informative and that I wanted to share the information with all of you:

I was contacted by Martha Otto of the Ohio with the following tip:

Dear Ms. Twigg:

Your inquiry about the use of red and yellow ocher by American Indians in the Northeast found its way to me. The first thing that comes to mind is the so-called Red Paint people, a Late Archaic period society in Maine . One person who has done considerable research in this area is Dr. William Fitzhugh at the Smithsonian (fitzhugh@si.edu). You can see a resume of his research at http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/about_fitzhugh.html.

Martha Otto
Martha Potter Otto
Senior Curator of Archaeology
Ohio Historical Society
1982 Velma Avenue
Columbus, OH 43211
614/297-2641

When I contacted Dr. William Fitzhugh at the Smithsonian as suggested, he gave me the following comments:

"There's a long-standing tradition of the use of red ocher in ceremonial contexts in northeastern Indian cultures, especially the earliest cultures. In the far northeast it's used especially in Maritime Archaic graves, ca. 7500-3500 BP, but is also very common in their living sites as well, where it appears to have been used as a grinding medium in producing ground slate tools. In the raw state it can be yellow (produced from limonite) which if fired hot enough turns red. The other source is hematite, also red with fire. I've never seen yellow limonite used in sites; it's always bright red. But perhaps under certain conditions the oxidized red state might be reduced to the yellow limonite version.

The northern cultures are all 'archaic' hunting cultures and have no ceramics. Red ocher is spread all over the graves -- the bones and the tool deposits. You should look at James A. Tuck's "Ancient People of Port aux Choix" for a good picture of how this works in the north. And in the living sites, it's found around fireplaces and in patches elsewhere." ~ Dr. William Fitzhugh

However, this again does not fit what was found in the burials at the Englebert site in Nichols, NY nor the Murray site in Athens, PA described here because the red and yellow ocher were found in conjunction with the pottery...

I also received this comment from Lucianne Lavin, Ph.D., Director of Research & Collections Institute for American Indian Studies, Washington, CT:

"The early-mid-20th century collector Edward Rogers had in his collection a cake of red ochre (powdered, then formed into a small brick-like cake) and powdered red ochre. Much of his collection is housed at the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, CT. All were recovered from Gulf of Maine Late Archaic sites (i.e., the Red Paint culture), except a small vial containing soil mixed with red ochre grains from Cayuga, NY (no other information was given for the latter).

The cake of red ochre was partially chipped (powder present in box with cake), and came from Ellsworth , ME.

One small jar of finely ground paint powder, light to medium red-brown derived from Stevens' Cemetery site in North Warren , ME.

We have small cobbles identified as yellow ochre from the Lovers Leap camp site in New Milford, CT.

Also, Dr. John Pfeiffer found red ochre powder associated with Late Archaic Laurentian and Terminal Archaic Broad Spear cremation burials and grave goods at the Bliss and Griffin sites in Old Lyme. Pfeiffer discusses other Terminal Archaic Broad Spear cremation burial sites in CT that also contained red ochre -- see his articles in the Archaeological Society of CT Bulletin (1984), Man in the Northeast (1980), and Experiments and Observations on the Terminal Archaic of the Middle Atlantic Region (1990, edited by Roger Moeller).

The little evidence we have for its use prehistorically appears to be mortuary. I assume that indigenous peoples used it as a pigment for red coloring in a variety of objects, as well as body paint. But given the acidic soils in the Northeast I doubt if much evidence for this would have survived." ~Lucianne Lavin, Ph.D.

Lucianne Lavin, Ph.D.
Director of Research & Collections
Institute for American Indian Studies
38 Curtis Road
Washington, CT 06793
(860) 868-0518
FAX (860) 868-1649

Thanks to all that have added helpful information to this conversation! I think it is worth continuing, and hope that we can get more responses concerning this usage for all of us to share here and to see the broad uses it had since archaic times.

Please help me spread the word about this request for information.

Please send me your comments at dtwigg@sracenter.org, or use the "Post a Comment" link at the bottom of this post or click here. If you wish to remain anonymous, please let me know!

Update Before the Workshop

I just wanted to send out a quick note to let everyone know that when they walk in 345 Broad Street, Waverly tomorrow - - that YES - - it is the same building!

Here is a picture of what you saw just last Saturday (west wall) :

(Dick Cowles and Jess Quinn)

When I left tonight, I took this picture of the same wall:

Since Dr. Barry Skiest has donated the cost of the work of Jeri and Mike Sanders who are really skilled painters and spacklers, and so on, it is obvious the difference it has made in the first week! The wall you are looking at is not finished..but it is spackled and primed and ready to be painted later this weekend...

Jeri and Mike just finished the ceiling for the gift shop / visitor center today as well:

Hope to see you tomorrow (Saturday from 10 - 2pm)

- - and YES we are still in the "Old Phillie Sales Building" but just with a whole new attitude thanks to Dr. Barry Skiest and Jeri and Mike Sanders!

( ;

Workshop Plans for January 12th

SRAC's next workshop will be held this coming Saturday from 10 am 2pm.

This Saturday we will be doing different things such as cleaning, painting, light construction, and moving some of the furniture upstairs to clear our floor for more work that needs to get done, so tell us what you want to do and we will be happy to oblige!

ALL SRAC MEMBERS: I also wanted to say that we understand that all members of SRAC cannot come and do work, and that is ok too! We have a table and several comfortable chairs set up and welcome all members especially to stop in and chat a while. Support comes in many forms, and we would love to see you and give you a chance to see the building and all of the progress we are making!

Make sure to dress warm and to plan on getting dirty no matter your plans!!

Remember our building is is on the corner of Broad and Park Street downtown Waverly (345 Broad Street) - and you can call us if you need to at the building (607)565-7960 to get better directions, or call me personally after five any night before Saturday with questions(607) 727-3111.

Hope to see you Saturday!

What a Workshop!

This Saturday's workshop was - well - even more than I could have ever dreamed it could be - - (and trust me - when I say I can dream pretty big!)

Over twenty people showed up throughout the workshop today and the amount of work that we accomplished is to be proud of!

Danny Hakes did an incredible job sweeping the floor, moving items, and washing down walls and windows.

I want to thank Danny and Sue for taking some time out on their Saturday to come and help us out. Truth is that Danny and his mom planned on staying for an hour - but they said they were having so much fun that they stayed alot longer. Here is Sue and Jeff T.'s dog Alley(below)..Sue was doing "double-duty" because Alley was very nervous and decided she needed Sue's attention while Sue continued to wash the windows! I cannot believe just what a difference Sue's hard work made in the end ... (with Alley too!)



Meanwhile Jeff was helping Jess Quinn who was tearing down the huge peg boards that had the old store signage, (see below.) This was a welcomed renovation to be sure!



Jeff also is working on our padded cases that were donated to us by Lockheed Martin in order for us to be able to make up "learning cases." These cases will be filled with actual artifacts and learning materials for schools, boy scout and girl scout leaders and so on to sign out for educational purposes.

Meanwhile, Rita and Craig Maurey stopped in to volunteer to help us with building cases and to do other finish work. They just happen to have a workshop just a few buildings down from us and took measurements for a couple of projects that they have offered to do for us for nothing more than the cost of supplies.


I don't know how to express how grateful we are to have decided to have our Center in Waverly, NY and to have been welcomed by the Village and such people as the Maureys who have been so generous to us.

At the same time on the other side of the building, Tom Vallilee, Jack Rowe and our new friend Angelo all were getting ready to dry wall an area in our gift shop/visitor center for us.



And directly opposite to them, Mary Vanschaik was high atop a ladder preparing the wall for spackling and painting, which none of us were looking forward to doing....



But then in walked Ron Nogar who was there to discuss the mural he is doing on the outside of our building along with his friend Dr. Barry Skeist. Come to find out, Dr. Skeist came to offer to pay for the expense of the work to spackle and paint, etc in the form of a donation to SRAC, and we accepted this incredible offer in awe of his generosity! (NO KIDDING!)

Meanwhile Inga Welles and Claire Borits were working away on cleaning the poles and doorway area respectively.


Sadly I do not have pictures to show that Susan Fogel, Dick Cowles and Ted Keir were also cleaning, moving, fixing some things downstairs as well as in the office and upstairs area, and Dick being the engineer of the group, was figuring out some other things for future workshops such as tiling the bathroom floor, and so on...And other friends of SRAC stopped in to chat a while and to see what they could do or to say they would be there for next Saturday's workshop.

Unbelievably, within an hour after Dr. Skiest left, the worker's he had hired for us, Jeri and Mike Sanders came in and started laying out plans for the spackling and painting work they will begin immediately.

After working out the plans with them, I ran across the street and ordered two pizzas from the Rail House which they so kindly delivered to us so that I could get back to the Center...

We then all sat down with the two pizzas and Susan's home made brownies, the cookies my mom and dad stopped in with earlier, and some other goodies Inga had gotten for us and chatted for a while...

Strangely, I noticed that people would get up and just have to go back to what they wanted to get done...then come back over and chat some more...then get back up to measure something or whatever and so it went...and I thought to myself just how far we had come since 2005, and how everyone there today had realized that this snowball we had built had become an exciting AND INSPIRING ride to be on...one that we would all be proud being a part of...

Although the workshop was supposed to be over at 2pm, we were still chatting and finishing up little things until after 3pm, until I had to tell Dick and Ted that we had to lock up and that we could continue where we left off next Saturday...

As Susan and I helped Dick load up his car (after he had just trotted across the street like he was twenty again,) Ted waved as he stood by his car with that smile he gets sometimes when he is ever so proud to be our Chairman of the Board...and at that moment, I had to ask myself how anyone could have had a better Saturday anywhere in the world than we did today.

Thanks to all of you who made today such a success in so many ways!

SRAC will have Saturday workshops every Saturday from 10 am - 2pm. Please stop in for a bit if you get the chance....

You too might just get back more than you expected.

Faces.

Since showing the local collector's faced rock last week, I have been thinking about all of the artifacts that we know of that have faces on them, and thought you might like to see a handful of what I am talking about. I must also add that I have been asked why I do not say what these things are - and I have to tell you it is because I do not know - and the reason for my posting these is for anyone around the country to give us an insight if possible.

If you are as interested as me to see what explanations we may get, just check back to look at the comments!

Other than the Bath, NY rock - all others were found within a 15 mile radius of Spanish Hill and Waverly, NY, and are parts of several collections in the area.

First - recall the faced rock I posted last week:


This reminded me of a couple that I know of. The first was an image of a rock from the Bath, NY area. The person that sent me this image below said they had found several from the same site up there:


But a better example I think is a faced rock that was found here locally (Sheshequin, PA area) by a field walker and is shown below:


But faces do not just show up on rocks in our local archaeology, they actually show up on just about anything - as is shown on this pipe that was made from a deer toe bone:


Of course we have faces on clay pipes as well:


and another...



We also have artifacts in our area that have faces incised into pottery rims:


And we also have other carved faces that I don't even know how to categorize!

This one is made of a steatite like material and if you look at the mouth, has a feature that one person claims is two birds facing opposite ways...any thought on that would be greatly appreciated. It was found at the base of the hill about 30 years ago.



This pecked rock art piece was found in the riverbank just noth of Spanish Hill.

Have a comments on any of these items? Click here now to post them!