What is the Maine Stone Totem doing in the Wonderwerk Cave?




   In a recent publication about the Wonderwerk formation in the Kalahari desert, it is described as the oldest home ever found. It states that the cave was occupied 1.8 million years ago. It is said to contain the earliest records of tool making and fire. In the article there is a large stalagmite pillar in the middle of the photograph. A colleague had recognized the same patterns in the pillar as in the totem designs I was finding here in Maine. In this article the researchers are using the orientation of the clay particles and the history of the magnetic field at the time the particles settled on the cave floor to find dates. They are also able to get information from grains of sand collected on the cave and the varying isotopes to further workout the time frame for stone tools and debris left behind in layers by our ancestors. It was pointed out by my colleague that this may shed some light on when the totem design took shape. 
     I was able to contact the McGregor Museum Kimberly, South Africa. I sent some pictures that I had highlighted and explained how interesting it might be to find some dates associated with the actual totem. The archeologist are mainly looking at the cave floor, treating the cave floor as the actual artifact.   


In the picture below there is a common technique of layering profiles in what appears to be in chronological order. In the figure seated with his hands on his knees has a series of profiles. 




   The image below is put together by Pedro Duarte who has also been finding the totem design in his area. He too is eager to get some idea where and when the pattern of the totem began. 


    I did get a response from the museum. They where very kind to send another picture of the pillar. They also explained. That to them the pillar was only a massive stalagmite which has formed over millennia near the entrance to Wonderwerk Cave. In the wet season there is a drip from the ceiling of the cave so that it actually continues to grow. A fine moss grows on it as well which becomes quite green in the wet summer months (photo below was taken a month ago). I would not at all disagree it is a huge stalagmite, but I also see it as a totem design sculpted by early man at some point. Below are a few more views of the giant stalagmite. I may be totally wrong as always, but I am seeing the pattern of the totem very much as seen here in Maine. 
  




Once again thank you so much for looking. 





 










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Maine Totem Stone

Image
  I live in the state of Maine. I spent time painting water scenes along Maine's rocky  coast. With good eyes one can easily spot arrowheads lying about, some with almost perfect symmetry. These symmetrical points are associated with the Red paint people. They are beautiful and easy to identify.        In the image above, carefully observe the napping patterns on the surface of the stone. You can get familiar with the surface of a worked stone. This period began some say, as early as 10,000 to 7000 years ago. You want to get familiar with napped surface and edges to be able to identify them in the future.        One day while painting on the beach, I began to notice other tool shapes as well, like curved scrapers, serrated edges, awls, adzes and chisels.  After getting comfortable identifying many tools, I began to notice animal forms napped into the stone that were associated with the function of each tool. For example, h...
Read more

The Fishhook Layer in Lithic Literature.

Image
THE FISHHOOK LAYER   I am going to try to keep rocks and fishhooks exciting for the viewers 😅. I feel it is helpful to document my findings and at the same time make them accessible to folks. In some ways my simple vocabulary to explain a complex design is not a bad thing. I may need to teach people how to see the material in order to speak about content. In this article I will cover the fishhook history as described in the design. I am hoping that with this article covering fishing tackle, I may lure a co-writer from academia that might find my work interesting. I have chosen a garden stone with some oxidized designs using traces of iron in the rock thinking that metallurgy would be a good vein to follow in the fishhook story.  The rusted fishhook designs were not the only images that drew me to this stone as a possible site to explore fishing gear. As I inspected the stone in different positions this flat fish was clear. It may also represent a good method of harvestin...
Read more

The T-pillars of Maine

Image
The T-Pillars of Maine.    I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has joined this endeavor of bringing back to light a form of communication that was used by humans and pre-humans to document their history. I am still processing my visit to the Archeology Dept. I was taken seriously and treated kindly. I was understood as to why I wanted to approach this timeline in reverse, meaning, from the earliest forward. Looking at Erectus first, hopefully removes all the tribal reactions. We all come from Erectus, and during the Erectus reign, Lithic literature was already clearly underway. This means we already had the design mapped out before there were Neanderthals. We also agreed that a co-writer would be a good next step. This may be where I can lift a corner in this academic armor.  Another offering from the university is an interest in fish hooks. When I heard the professor mention fish hooks I immediately responded, "I can do fish hooks!". I have actually been lookin...
Read more