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Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
The Arrowhead
THE ARROWHEAD by John Homer Luffman1910-1987
I FOUND A FLINTY, GLIST'NING ARROWHEAD IMBEDDED IN A HILL IN TENNESSEE. DID SOME BRAVE WARRIOR, NOW AMONG THE DEAD DEFEND HIS LAND - LAND OF THE CHEROKEE? WAS IT INTENDED FOR AN UNKNOWN FOE OR MEAT WITH WHICH TO FEED A HUNGRY CLAN? AND DID IT HIT THE MARK OR DID IT GO AMISS, CONTRARY TO THE MARKSMAN'S PLAN? HOW LONG WAS THIS BEFORE THE TRAIL OF TEARS, WHEN NATIVE SONS WERE FORCED TO LEAVE THEIR LAND. NO ANSWERS FELL UPON MY LIST'NING EARS FROM THIS SMALL THING I HELD WITHIN MY HAND. IT COULDN'T SPEAK AND I WILL NEVER KNOW ALTHOUGH, IT IS A FACT, I WONDER STILL WHO AIMED THE ARROW ONCE SO LONG AGO I FOUND IMBEDDED IN THE RED CLAY HILL.
I FOUND A FLINTY, GLIST'NING ARROWHEAD IMBEDDED IN A HILL IN TENNESSEE. DID SOME BRAVE WARRIOR, NOW AMONG THE DEAD DEFEND HIS LAND - LAND OF THE CHEROKEE? WAS IT INTENDED FOR AN UNKNOWN FOE OR MEAT WITH WHICH TO FEED A HUNGRY CLAN? AND DID IT HIT THE MARK OR DID IT GO AMISS, CONTRARY TO THE MARKSMAN'S PLAN? HOW LONG WAS THIS BEFORE THE TRAIL OF TEARS, WHEN NATIVE SONS WERE FORCED TO LEAVE THEIR LAND. NO ANSWERS FELL UPON MY LIST'NING EARS FROM THIS SMALL THING I HELD WITHIN MY HAND. IT COULDN'T SPEAK AND I WILL NEVER KNOW ALTHOUGH, IT IS A FACT, I WONDER STILL WHO AIMED THE ARROW ONCE SO LONG AGO I FOUND IMBEDDED IN THE RED CLAY HILL.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
An Ancient Place to Wonder about our Survival
'It’s a fairly pristine desert landscape. When former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt recommended national monument status for the area to President Clinton, he said, “this landscape offers us a chance to study an entire culture, one that may have been as rich and diverse as the one we have today.” He argued that archaeological sites should not just be protected individually, “but rather as part of a landscape or ‘anthropological ecosystem.’”'
He said, “The real science on these landscapes doesn’t come out of digging out a room and extracting a few pots. The real discoveries today come from asking the deeper question of ‘How did communities live in spiritual and physical equilibrium with the landscape?’”
...a question I often ask; a question relevant for the past, as well as for the present. Native Americans seem to have lived as part of the landscape, as part of the entire universe. They did not command control over the earth, rather they showed immense respect for the environment that supported them through their lives. The footprint left by prehistoric and modern Native American peoples is slight compared to that being created by non-natives of today. Compare the pueblo dwellings with the concrete and skyscrapers of modern American urban environs.
http://www.archaeologynews.org/Link.asp?ID=306241
He said, “The real science on these landscapes doesn’t come out of digging out a room and extracting a few pots. The real discoveries today come from asking the deeper question of ‘How did communities live in spiritual and physical equilibrium with the landscape?’”
...a question I often ask; a question relevant for the past, as well as for the present. Native Americans seem to have lived as part of the landscape, as part of the entire universe. They did not command control over the earth, rather they showed immense respect for the environment that supported them through their lives. The footprint left by prehistoric and modern Native American peoples is slight compared to that being created by non-natives of today. Compare the pueblo dwellings with the concrete and skyscrapers of modern American urban environs.
http://www.archaeologynews.org/Link.asp?ID=306241
Monday, July 14, 2008
History of an ancient symbol
"Visitors to New Mexico in the late 19th century would have been pleased to purchase a souvenir rug, pot or piece of silver jewelry decorated with a swastika. "The tourists loved the motif," wrote Margery Bedinger in her popular 1973 book Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. "Between July, 1905 and 1906, 60,000 swastikas in various forms, some by Indians and others not, sold to tourists in New Mexico as genuine Indian articles.""
Legend of the Crystal Skull
http://www.archaeology.org/0805/etc/indy.html
"Sixteen years ago, a heavy package addressed to the nonexistent "Smithsonian Inst. Curator, MezoAmerican Museum, Washington, D.C." was delivered to the National Museum of American History. It was accompanied by an unsigned letter stating: "This Aztec crystal skull, purported to be part of the Porfirio Díaz collection, was purchased in Mexico in 1960.... I am offering it to the Smithsonian without consideration." Richard Ahlborn, then curator of the Hispanic-American collections, knew of my expertise in Mexican archaeology and called me to ask whether I knew anything about the object--an eerie, milky-white crystal skull considerably larger than a human head..."
"Sixteen years ago, a heavy package addressed to the nonexistent "Smithsonian Inst. Curator, MezoAmerican Museum, Washington, D.C." was delivered to the National Museum of American History. It was accompanied by an unsigned letter stating: "This Aztec crystal skull, purported to be part of the Porfirio Díaz collection, was purchased in Mexico in 1960.... I am offering it to the Smithsonian without consideration." Richard Ahlborn, then curator of the Hispanic-American collections, knew of my expertise in Mexican archaeology and called me to ask whether I knew anything about the object--an eerie, milky-white crystal skull considerably larger than a human head..."
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