Lithic Literature

Went out for a run in woods the day before yesterday, stopping where the previous night's heavy rain had washed away debris from a stream side. You can zoom in the image above,and note that just about every stone in this image is an artifact. Up here in Maine, it is like this, tools strewn everywhere. These artifacts come embellished with information. Tools, pendants, counting stones, stela, as well and large scale cliff carvings, and erratic, stones all covered with information. Information created by humans, for humans. Information intended to be seen and understood by fellow humans. 

 At first it seemed to recall the totems of the Haida folks of the northeastern coast of the U.S. 

A pictorial form of writing foreshadowing character writing as in the Asian format. After spending a lot of time looking at the design I began to realize this is more then a totem design. A friend living in Spain, Roca,  who also finds stones to carry communications from the past in his back yard, suggested calling this Lithic Literature.  I super agree! I want to remind people this form of communication worked for humans for hundreds of thousands of years and here in the US it lasted a little longer due to the isolation. This huge time line explains the amount of material. As always I encourage anyone to venture out and pick up a rock and take a good look.  

When you walk outside among the stones you are in a lithic library. As in books, there is a format depending on the timeline and function. This is where things appear to get a little repetitious, but don't give up! in this case repetition is good. I am introducing a new format of communication. Well not new, actually super old. The point of all this is that there is a pattern. A pattern that repeats like opening a book and finding the table of contents and choosing a subject in which you wish to proceed. 

Although we are looking at stones these folks were truly the bone and hide folks. Unfortunately this is a very long time ago and very little bone and textiles survive, even stone suffers in this Maine climate. The human had to work hard to survive. A lot of time is put into the tanning and processing hides. This is evident in some of the tools and other stone artifacts. Rather than a tablet format there tends to be the "hide" format.  The design starts by mimicking  an animal hide. 

 

I have posted an beaver pelt  next to a scraper. The little scraper feels feminine in my hand. i find the reference to pelts in most artifacts around here in Maine. There are times that with a good eye you can spot a dozen on any morning run.  

This small feminine scraper fits perfectly into the palm of my hand. Using Adobe illustrator I have tried to separate the possible iconography. I have a ways to go to find the best way to share this format of recording the human existence. I can say that there are more but I have the need to come up for air. There is more! But you can start understanding how this all works. It is more than just a couple of icons. The images start rolling of the stone like sentences off the tip of the tongue.      

 

I suspect I will be back from diving into Adobe Illustrator with more images. I do think this will help in mapping out information on the stones. I hope this is that crack in the wall that may brings us back to the wonders that define us as human. I hope that we can acknowledge our own story so we work together to ensure our survival in our changing world. Thank you again for looking.