A Small Granite Mountain.

 I have recently been informed that my work was showing up at the University of Maine. Of course I am curious of what work and in what context it was mentioned. In the process of trying to find out, I decided it may be a good time to present my work to the Anthropology department. I have been working on developing a teaching tool to help folks start seeing this material all around us. As I go doing my best to expose people to this material, I am uncovering new matter, which I love to share in real time along with the excitement I feel in this process. This process has the dual purpose; to document as well as provide an opportunity to learn. I was invited to share my observational research with Maria Antonieta Mendes Costa. 

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonieta_Costa

I have also worked with the Smithsonian Indigenous Museum. I did my best to introduce them to my work and spent a couple of years corresponding, and with great respect, I leave it to them. To work with Costa was a great opportunity. Costa already has a routine she has worked out with local government to provide tours to local stone monuments to share the stone work with the public. I spent a couple of years writing articles comparing my findings with those of the Azores. Now, I am back to Maine and will be hanging around close to home. I have chosen to concentrate on a small granite mountain here along the coast of Maine. There are many lifetimes of study on this little mountain and I will be covering this site for as long as I can foresee. I am skimming over the surfaces today to see what type of style and some of the topics to then go back and do more focused studies. 

 I have added an introduction to how lithic literature teaches humans how to manufacture, use, as well as history of a particular tool. The tool may have been one of the first employments of lithic literature. If this is your first time visiting this blog it is a good introduction to how all this works. Thank you for looking.

https://karolabryant.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-maine-totem-stone.html

The University of Maine is where I received 2 Bachelor degrees; one in fine arts and another in science in nursing. In art, I focused in printmaking working with Susan Groce and James Linehan. I continued in printmaking at Mass College of Art with Henry Issacs. As a printmaker I was able to study the many ways a human can leave a mark. While studying art I was fascinated by the dark ages. UMO still had a great collection of the Venuses in its Museum, which were captivating. I fell in love with the black ink and how it filled the design I had etched, scraped, carved and burnished into the zinc plates and hovered over every mark. With the intaglio process and the dark ages in mind take a good look at the granite facade again. It helps if the viewer has had some exposer to Professor Richard Bradley of Reading university. In his work, he reminds us to read the landscape. Also,  Maria Antoneita Mendes Costa, who has many books and videos where she documents all the exciting news in archeology happening in Portugal as we speak. I have included a link to an article I put together with Costa as we interacted and at times worked together to break the code in the design engraved in the stones around us.

https://karolabryant.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-atlantic-connection-connecting.html

I did spend a couple of months on Terceira Island in the town of Ribeirinha studying the stones for the very purpose of comparing it with the material here in Maine. If you are interested I have a few more links below on the subject.

https://karolabryant.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-dragon-conglomerate-or-player-in.html

https://karolabryant.medium.com/the-venus-in-lithic-literature-an-observational-comparison-of-the-venus-figure-in-maine-spain-bd7140f92f07

  

 Above is a photograph of the facade of the small granite mountain. I assure you this whole mountain is a monument to the ancient folks that carved out an existence here is Maine. As you explore the surface of the stone with an open mind, I am trying to emphasize the importance of acknowledging that there is information etched into the granite cliff. Information etched on to the stone surface by earlier humans. There is some dissonance here with academics. The idea there may have been sad times when politics, science, and religion hoodwinked themselves and everyone around them. A time when those in power thought it was in their best interest that  humanity forget they once communicated in a pictorial manner. By doing this, it allowed the colonist to separate the indigenous people from their history and their land. Stories like the Tower of Babble gives a hint of its enormity. I also look at the Asian character writing and how it may be linked to the design we are about to explore. What I am saying is that we are looking at a mode of recording and communicating data by humans that lasted millions of years. It begins recording, at least as early as habilis. It makes sense when you begin to grasp the complexity of the design as it flexed and made room for millions of years of humans recording their experience. We, as humans, toyed with the design for as long as we have been human. Below I have added a link to an article that brings in an industrial stone site from1.2 millions years ago.

https://karolabryant.medium.com/the-deer-and-the-alligator-94ecda756f51

 I am not suggesting that we need to go back to this method of recording that lasted millions of years but, I do not think we should pretend it does not exist. People throughout history have been looking at the plethora of stories on the stones. Humans were looking at the stones at times trying to rediscover themselves after bottlenecks, we may be looking back with the same wonderment today. I really believe if we take what we now of history today and apply it to the design we may be able to apply some of the information to fill the gaps in our understanding of our own history as well as our natural world. 

 You are very perceptive noticing that I am showing the same image multiple times. I am hoping that each time I show you the granite cliff you will see something new. This is the way the brain works when loading up new material. It begins with a little bit of understanding and then uploads more information with each encounter. It is how the brain learns. All day our brain is looking for patterns and identifying them and storing them for the future. It is how we get safely through the day. In the design that I have labeled Lithic Literature, humans did a great job of documenting patterns of human history. Patterns like childbirth, human development, maps, the food chain, etc. By documenting our history and knowledge it allowed us to build our knowledge. It allowed us to be prepared for the future. Like any good collection of encyclopedias, it is well organized and user friendly once you understand the setup.  The design works like a complex crossword puzzle accept it works with images. That is why I highlight my findings, because with each new layer in the design it provides clues to the next layer and how the subjects connect. 

 I am returning to the granite cliff looking for sea life. I am not surprised to find beautiful sea creatures. The humans who worked on this monument were comfortable with their knowledge of the sea. I have just skimmed the surface of the water and I am already swimming faster with the idea of great white sharks. Look at the suggested sea creatures below. The giant squid and the whale are perfect together. The presences of the great white does make me uncomfortable. I am not adding anything to the image other than my efforts to document the subject to be able to compare with other examples. Please look at my effort to highlight whales in blue and the great white in darker blue. A giant squid pops up in pink. The subject of the shark, the whale, and squid are well linked. Looking at what the lines offer as whales, you can start to see the seal group swimming from the right. If you are tired of swimming from the shark we can join the humongous  walrus on the warm stones on the ledges on the left. 

 

I can show you where I have seen the sea life and I think it would be a good time to compare this sea life with the sea life on the rim of the caldera of Ribeirinha. 

I am comfortable with the comparison of the two monuments. I had no problem going back to the granite mountain and finding the octopus there too. What is important here is the style of work that may give us clues to who and when these designs where applied to the stone. As an art student I studied art history. Art history is man's history in my eyes. We studied the Madonna expressed through the ages. Each style, medium, and technique had its hay day. You can follow Picasso's development through his many Madonnas. 

I have set up a few views of the cropping on the Azores so you can explore the subjects without my highlighting. As you start to pick up other layers don't be surprised of all the subjects you will find. Relax a moment and try to stay on task with locating sea creatures. Look for the squid. Find your own perspective on the octopus.  

Now go back to the small granite mountain cliff and look again and spot the octopus and his tentacles. You can find the squids long body stretch across the design leaving room for all its predators. The seal is happy to chomp them up. Once you spot the seals feeding frenzy you can see the great white shark plunging in for a bite. Yikes! Is that a person in the water?

I have to admit I get very excited, because every time I delve into the design, I see something new and I love divulging my findings in real time. I have had this little granite mountain on my mind a long time, but I was distracted with sharing and exploring other parts of the world. It is like buying a good book but having to put in on the shelf to read later. Now I am back to see what we can find. It makes sense to study a site close to home and to have a local university be involved at some level. This is where the Anthropology department could take a leap of faith and foresee how being able to decipher the information  all over artifacts and landmarks, could lead science into new venues of study. We could be one of the first colleges to offer a study in Lithic Literature😁😁. Everyone would at least be curious enough to take it as an elective like I did when I took folklore with Sandy Ives at the university, back when everyone was captivated by Joseph Campbell . He was a wonderful Professor that took interest in each student. This is just the beginning of understanding that this material is all over the state of Maine. It would stand the academic world on its head as we try to figure out  how, and when we did this. 

   We can go in so many directions from here. If we are so familiar with the ocean and its creatures we must have had boats. If you have been following this blog you know that I always look for boats. Boats tell a lot about the people that built them. You can find the first raft as a tremendous pile of bound coconuts providing food drink and floatation for its crew. Boat building, star maps, sea creatures are all embedded into the design to help guide you through ocean living of the sea people. Below, I have included a link to a previous article on boats and surviving long voyages if you are interested.

https://karolabryant.medium.com/the-batman-story-in-the-stones-56962837bff3

Before we swim away from the boat I wanted to share the scene of the shark attack. It is the story of a female with the infant in her arms punching a shark in the nose as it breaches out of the water aiming for her languishing partner. I can place this scene on both monuments.

 In the image above I have made one more effort to highlight the event of the maiden and the boatman as the maiden does her best to support and protect the ailing man. you can spot the maiden highlighted in pink, on the right leaning into the sailor who is highlighted in light blue supine position at the bottom of the small boat  as the shark breaches in from the left. The sea creatures are beautifully rendered and give way to the sea people and their way of life. I was really surprised how much of the early human activity was connected to the sea.  I am always trying to find a new way to share the movement conveyed in the design that shows how to react in different situations. Below I have isolated a shark form as it breaches out of the water as it attack the female who is wise enough to know that the human fist is a good defense. The female is ready as she prepares the stuns the shark with a right jab. If you take a close look that the punch lands on the sharks eye suggesting it may be a vulnerability.

  In this study, the focus on the animal characters makes the study family friendly. I have highlighted a few more animals on our little granite mountain. Beginners often pick up the subject like a cat, a dog or even a woolly mammoth, but actually, there is more to the structure and with a few more explorations, the viewer can make out the whole lifecycle and placement in the food chain. It also includes the subjects interaction with humans. Below is another article where the food chain is the topic.

https://karolabryant.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-dragon-conglomerate-or-player-in.html

I have a few more animal scenes from our new site here on the little granite mountain. The deer and the alligator are not new in the stones and have layers on this facade.

I have included the original image without my suggestions for you to see what your brain finds in the design. It is really fun to have your own sightings of subjects left behind directly by the hand of our ancestors. With that said I ask that you focus on my suggestions. There is enough material to go around for everyone, but for this moment, I ask the deer and the alligator to step in to the front of your minds eye.

I have included a link to the deer and the alligator story from a previous article comparing the Azores to Maine. Please take a look. 

https://karolabryant.medium.com/the-deer-and-the-alligator-94ecda756f51

I would like to add the bear moving through the granite. The bear is very prominent in the Maine stones. I have covered the pattern of the bear in other articles. The lifecycle of the bear is endearing due to the adorable cubs always trying to have fun. 

See if you can make out your own bears in the image below. You should be able to make out the cub being adorable climbing on its mother and up a tree trunk. 

 

The bear looms over the design in this part of the world. The bear cloak is the back drop of a lot of what happening in the home life of the ice age. I have included an article about another Maine monument carrying the bear front and center. I think we find the common elements and then distill the differences and see if they can be placed in a particular culture and at a particular time. 

https://karolabryant.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-maine-granite-wall-totem.html

I certainly think that other subjects are just as important to investigate, but to be inclusive and family friendly the animals are a easy popular subject, but I think studying all the subjects is valuable. I think the university setting is an appropriate place to open up other subjects.  I have worked hard to highlight subjects on different sites to compare their treatment by the artist.  I have added a link to an article about the Venus and how her life and times are depicted in the stones. The story of the Venus was part of my quest. Please click on the link and explore how Maine has just as much happening as Spain or Portugal as far as Anthropology goes if you start looking with lithic literature.

 

https://karolabryant.medium.com/the-venus-in-lithic-literature-an-observational-comparison-of-the-venus-figure-in-maine-spain-bd7140f92f07

 I have included a little video or two 😉 of myself to introduce myself and my work. I am doing this all by myself and obviously could use more refining. There is so much work to do I think I need a whole university dept to get it done. 

 This is just the tip of the iceberg as they always say. The small granite mountain is covered with imagery like the Cathedral of Notre Dame and needs to be properly studied.   For some folks all the new information is overwhelming. For some there is a reaction of anger as the dissonance rings loud in their heads that Columbus discovered America. Some other people find relief that this is real and eager to explore the possibilities. The idea that humans have been artist, mathematicians, engineers, doctors, etc. for millions of years is not crazy. Give intelligent humans some rocks and a couple million years and I am sure they will come up with something amazing, something like lithic literature😁😁. I really think we can show the rest of the world how really smart early humans were and at the same time learn a lot about ourselves.  I feel like I have made a bit of a mess trying to share everything with you at once but it is getting so big. This small granite mountain is more than a facade. There are stone lean-tos and chambers all covered with information. Each time I explore I find something new. What brought me around this time was the reference of the walrus. It made me think of Greenland and the Saqqaq or Dorset folks. I have explored the Venus in a Dorset artifact and it maybe that it was they who stopped at our little mountain as they followed the walrus to this part of the world. If you are interested, please check out the link below.

https://karolabryant.medium.com/the-venus-quest-the-end-of-a-long-journey-77b0525e0d0a

I will close with a series of images from our little granite mountain. 

This is just one of the huge granite megaliths. In the following images I am just exploring the surface for subject and style. In the first one there appears a pregnant female. The great female starts recalling the Venus from the Catal Huyuk seated on her throne surrounded by beast. You can also start to make out the different boat designs and the water levels. 

After exploring some the boats I landed the giant guffa which was used as a large ferry to transport the large quadrupeds. It recalls Irving Finkle who did us a great service by part taking in the creation of such a vessel. 

https://youtu.be/s_fkpZSnz2I

  I included Finkle in this following article. Thank you for looking.

https://medium.com/@karolabryant/lithic-literature-is-asking-to-be-read-a-quick-glance-at-the-past-19f6b9dc987f

In the following image I have highlighted the giant basket like design of the guffa. You can scale the size the the ferry when you spot the giraffes and elephant taking a ride in the top third of the megalith.

I am really excited about this finding above. It is the Mona Lisa of the little granite mountain. I have recently written about the use of the stones by artist. In this article I focused on the Renaissance. Here, I have highlighted the pretty lady in pink with reddish tinged hair. Using your new skills in this way of seeing stones see if you can make out the wolf on the far left of the megalith lunging on to the ladies arm. I will give you a moment to zoom into the image and look at the animal in the stone. It could also be seen as standing, posing as a companion.  It could also be read as a fur wolf Stoll.  Below the lady with the wolf stole, there is highlighted in blue, three sailors/fisherman on a boat form. I have not taken the time to highlight it but you can spot the boat litany below the sailors and choose the boat that best fits the position and size of the sailors. I promise I will be looking into this image here. Below is a fascinating article where I reveal the stone design in Leonardo's Mona Lisa. It begins to explain why he spent so much time on one painting. Here is a link to the article. Please enjoy, it is amazing how long we have been using this design and still are using today. 

https://medium.com/@karolabryant/the-stone-and-the-pieta-the-mona-lisa-and-melancholia-a-story-from-lithic-literature-d74356ad9fb1

 

  

Above the maiden collects honey from a tree hollow on the left and eggs from a nest to the the right. If she hatches on of the large eggs, the chick will imprint itself on the maiden. Raised correctly with the right nutrition, the large egg could be turned into an immense flying raptor under her control to train and develop. 

I have included some pictures of the stone lean-to. There are multiples of the these structures skirting the small mountain giving them a flying buttress look which brings to mind Notre-Dame. I love over laying the two structures in my mind. The earthy approach to the subjects without shame is shared in the great cathedral and the small granite mountain.

 

This is the stone lean-to form the other entrance. I think it is amazing. The design work on it is rich in detail. I have been thinking as I look around the ocean fauna is exquisite. This layer could have been sea peoples.  If you can, try to make out the bear head, it reads more like a polar bear. There is a whole animal encyclopedia of animals of the ice age and more. I can not wait to dig in. It would be fascinating to explore the surface and find out which marks were laid down first. The initial structure and subject of the design may give insight of it origin. I have been thinking it began with tool making, maybe. 

Below we look back at the facade looking for the bovine family only to compare to the wonderful bull on the Azores.

 This is tremendous knowledge and may take a moment to sink in.  It is millions of years of early human history! It really needs to be looked at. Maybe academics have the timeline for "prehistoric" wrong if our history is documented here. One only needs to open the mind and a brain and it will be deciphered. I hope sharing with university is a positive direction to take Lithic Literature.   Thank you so much for looking.