Peterborough Petroglyphs - Decipherment - More Detail

Peterborough Petroglyphs - Decipherment - More Detail
see also http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files

Do All Glyphs represent Stars?

I think most of the glyphs (300 clearly redrawable and ca. 600 vague
ones) represent stars.

Some of the rock art figures do not represent stars but are in my
opinion clearly symbols of the so-called Tifinag script. The Ojibwa
Algonkians also had a symbolic script.


How old is the site?

Found at the site also were 30 gneiss hammer-stones (ca. 2 pounds
each) used for carving. NOTHING ELSE at the site has been found from
the original era except for some small pieces of clay pottery which
could have been put there at any time. On the other hand, small
stones with an origin in this Great Lakes region were found at the
Miami Circle in Florida (see the LexiLine files) – a site which I
date to ca. 3117 BC.

Modern experiments have shown that a smaller glyph could be pecked
out of the limestone in about 30 minutes - so that the makers of the
petroglyphs did not have to stay long to finish their work, although
perhaps half-a-day's work might be required for some of the larger
figures. (but they may also have used copper – see below)
Material in quotes from the Vastokas book. The Sacred
Art of the Algonkians: A Study of the Peterborough Petroglyphs by
Joan M. Vastokas and Romas K. Vastokas, Mansard Press, P.O. Box 443,
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, K9J 6Z3

The rock exposure for the glyphs is "roughly rectangular and is
sectioned by several fissures, seams, and a series of pits."

The "north half of the decorated surface is divided by a deep
fissure, almost a foot wide, at the bottom of which runs an
intermittent underground stream [this in my analysis represents the
St. Lawrence Seaway]. Several other narrower fissures and seams
subdivide the surface into smaller panels within which are contained
the engraved figures."

"One remarkable [neighboring] Archaic site, east of [Algonkian
Park], on Allumette Island in the Ottawa River, has a radiocarbon
date of fifty-two hundred years ago and has yielded over a thousand
copper artifacts."..."

One site nearer to the petroglyphs [a so-called Laurentian hunter
site] about 2 and 1/2 miles SE at the mouth of Jack Creek produced
finds dating to ca. 5000 years ago."

These will be our ancient Peterborough stonemasons.

These sites would put our Peterborough petroglyph makers around 3117
BC.

Vastokas conclude the petroglyphs date to 900 to 1400 AD. This of
course is wrong. Virtually NOTHING at all supports that date. Quite
the contrary, "It seems that the very deep glyphs were engraved over
eroded or shallower earlier forms."

The map on page 28 of Vastokas book shows a map of the distribution
of Algonkian language speakers in North America - and this pretty
much corresponds to the map formed by the rock drawing - it is
again, as we know from the megaliths, a map defining territorial
borders. As Vastokas write "... the Peterborough Petroglyph site
would have been situated at the borderline between Algonkian and
Iroquoian territory."

Colors in my Peterborough Petroglyphs Decipherment Drawing

I have added the colors to my rough redrawing of the map to show
possible divisions and to much better show the glyphs - black on
white is harder to distinguish - otherwise the
original map is simply black and white. "The rock is white
crystalline limestone, ground smooth and flat by the ice of the last
ice age." To get good contrast, the Vastokas darkened figures with
black chalk or crayon for purposes of photography.

My added colors are intended to show more clearly the demarcations
on the rock drawing on the ground. As one can see, the map is
divided - as I view it - into two halves left and right with a
middle section of creation at Hydrus - which I imagine was regarded
to be the fountain of the deep, and also two halves north and south,
with the St. Lawrence being the dividing line. In Algonkian belief
Midewiwin (viz. Midewegan – location of the first Midewiwin
"lodge", i.e. house) - the "hole in the sky" at the center of the
universe between the earth and sky – is born in the bowels of the earth
and then rises – we see this hole in the sky at Peterborough. The
Algonkian cosmic axis runs along the upward-growing cedar tree –
i.e. the Norse Irminsul – which is also pictured at Peterborough.
The Ojibwa also had Midewiwin bark scrolls and Mide songs, used as
mnemonic devices. The head of the figure I identify as the pole star
has twelve spokes as hairs on its head – the division of the
zodiac into twelve regions. This figure is erroneously identified by the
Vastokas as a "sun-figure" or "the Great Spirit".

The blue color enables easier location of the St. Lawrence Seaway
and Chesapeake Bay (I forgot to mark this latter on my map drawing,
but see if you can find it in the blue region), I made this portion
blue, but of course the blue is not all water - and I do not know
how far the rock drawing viz. rock actually extends beyond the
Vastokas map. The original map color is black and white. I have
added the color for easier identification.

The orange color marks deep - in part man-made, in
part natural - fissures cut into the original rock - deep ridges which
no one has been able to explain up to now.

Geographic features

It is clear that Peterborough near Stony Lake
was near a major prehistoric artery of communication and travel (so
Champlain in describing Huron trails in 1615), being on a waterway
connecting Georgian Bay and the Bay of Quinte.

Previous Astronomical Explanations

The Vastokas book has some general reference to alleged "solar
symbols" on the map e.g., for the two major symbols in the center of
the rock drawing. Of course, that is completely wrong. This is the
NIGHT sky.

Did Native Americans Draw the Peterborough Petroglyphs?

Interestingly, the regional native American Indians had NO KNOWLEDGE
of this rock drawing - either in person, legend or ancient written
records - prior to its discovery in the modern era. If this had been
a sacred native American Indian site, that would be quite strange.
It actually looks as if the rock drawings were once made by someone
long ago - as I allege, by people not from that region - and then
left there for posterity to discover.

The site was only discovered in the year 1954 by mining company
employees.

Moreover, as the Vastokas note, some of the glyphs are quite unique
to North America - but as I might add - find comparables in the Old
World.

The Vastokas allege in the introduction that "external and
internal evidence will readily show that the Peterborough
Petroglyphs were carved by native Canadians before the coming of the
Europeans to southern Ontario. Less easily determined, however,
are ... which particular Indian group made them, when, and to what
purpose." The fact is, there is NO external or internal evidence
at all that some aboriginal Canadians ever made the petroglyphs and as Vastokas
subsequently admit "Reconstruction of the meaning behind prehistoric forms of art ... is a difficult task, and in no small danger of
erroneous conclusions."

Vastokas write, "There is nothing on the site... to suggest
European contact". This of course is not true. All one has to do is
to compare some of the rock drawings on this site with those found
in Norway and Sweden which the Vastokas do - e.g. the boats at
page 123 – only to conclude - surprisingly, ignoring the obvious - that "there is no need for
comparison", in spite of the fact that these boats look Scandinavian to almost
everyone and surely not like canoes. This impossible mainstream blindness to
early European contact to the Americas is widespread among mainstream scholars.