Strange Rock Carving

[edit on 30-3-2010 by Trueman]

THATS A COOL PIC OF THE TREE OF LIFE.OR IS IT A SHEILD OF A FORGOTTEN KING ANYTHINGS POSSIBLE..



Regarding 'All Caps'... you have a U2U

[edit on 30/3/10 by masqua]

Originally posted by maybereal11
Just an FYI -- there are those making a case for Celts in West Virginia pre-columbus.
LIGHT DAWNS ON WEST VIRGINIA HISTORY
West Virginia Petroglyphs
www.cwva.org...

Sigh. You know when you hit the sentence "As soon as possible, she contacted Dr. Barry Fell, America's leading decipherer of ancient inscriptions. ", that the thread has jumped the shark.

As a leading North American archaeologist once told me "As an epigrapher, Barry Fell is one heck of a marine biologist."

[edit on 30-3-2010 by JohnnyCanuck]

Originally posted by spikey
It's also little known, that 'America' was named after a Welshman, who funded John Cabot, a 15th century sailor on an expedition to the mainland. He was called Richard Amerike.

Cite your sources please.

As with all things called "hoax" the end doesn't justify the means, that was alot of WORK,
what you've got there (by the way; "GOOD FIND!") is evident with a bit of insight...

The Americas were an ancient source of metals being collected/extracted smelted and
cast, as well as this- formed by 'cold forging' which yielded amazing strength of Copper
hammered with rocks while semi-cooled in a 'form' carved like 'bas relief' in a boulder
and apparently this was a Shield bearing the sign of a certain 'clan'!

Again (Wow!); "Great finding there!" CONGRATULATIONS!

reply to post by nenothtu


Thanks much for sharing this with us, Nenothtu. First thing I thought of when I saw the carved rock is that it reminded me of a topog map. Look at the "tree" and see it as drainages. Does the local topography support that hypothesis?

If so, it could be a scaled map to another location. Really cool find!

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck


Good to know. i wouldn't know the man from a hole in the ground.

And while I am at it ...wtf is an epigrapher

So Johnny as you seem to be the one who has spent the most spare time chasing down evidence for early european visitation to the new world...what is your take? What do we have here?

Something modern? Native American? Paegan? Celt?




[edit on 30-3-2010 by maybereal11]

Looks very recent. Wiccan year symbol or something like that. Seasonal rituals.

I looked into symbols once and I recall a Wiccan symbol like that for some kind of seasonal ritual, I think to do with Autumn. Not sure any more. What I found with the Wiccans was that there was no real set symbols or rules. They just sort of made it up as they went along, incorporating stuff from others.

You may have messed up some local groups secret place?

Odd how so many seem to connect everything with the Celts or Druids. The Druids also seem to make it up as they go along.

it s beatiful carving; I quite enjoy looking at it. It seems artistic in intent. It looks like a leaf to me; I did find a reference (in the quick search that I did) to bohdi leaves and karmic stones. It does resemble a bohdi leaf (which is the tree Buddha is supposed to have been sitting under when he was enlightened).

Darn! Someone beat me to it, but I was going to ask if any metal detecting has been done around it.

Of course, there's always the chance that we're looking at the thing completely upside-down, and it's really a depiction of lightning.

Such are the hazards of ancient (or any kind of) symbol interpretation.

Originally posted by jaroddean
Is it just me or does the ring around the tree slightly resemble a weathered Ouroboros? I am probably way off but want to hear from you guys as I am curious...

That was some of my first thoughts when I looked at it is that it looks like the world tree in the center of the serpent that eats it's own tail (ouroborus).
There are tribes that depict the tree within a sacred hoop but I don't think this was carved by Native Americans.

I didn't get to go take any more pictures today, we went out and cut a bunch of firewood for the stockpile instead. I should be able to get up there tomorrow, and hopefully the extra time will allow the stone to dry out some more.

For those thinking it may be a map, that was my first thought, too, but I couldn't figure out a purpose for a map. That's what sparked the map discussion around here. I rigged up a topographic map of the area, overlayed on the elevation model, and there ARE some resemblances, but they may be coincidental. One or two folks were sure that it IS a map, and a like number were equally sure it ISN'T. I myself am still undecided on that matter, because I can't figure out a reason to stone cut a drainage map of such a small (1 or 2 square mile) area, nor could I divine a reason for the circle to be inscribed around the map. The circle itself is the deepest part of the engraving, and has the squarest cut sides. Looking at the circle, the "tree" pattern appears to almost be an after thought. I'll post the map I rigged up which sparked the debate as well, so you can come to your own conclusions in the matter:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a5c049516064.jpg[/atsimg]

I've blacked out the place-names, and marked the location of the stone with a red X.

Another thing I neglected to mention is that the engraving is oriented horizontally, not vertically.

There are several questions here, so I'm going to go back through the thread and attempt to answer them. If I miss yours, don't get upset, just poke me again, and I'll get to it.

Somethings I just noticed: Sorry if they were mentioned before and I might have missed it.

There is a carving of some sort at 3 o'clock. It looks to be a fish. The head is at the top. It is definitely 3 - D.

Also there is an ICTHUS symbol at 4 o'clock, maybe closer to 5 o'clock; though this symbol looks to be 2-D. That ancient christian symbol is also the symbol of pisces.

In fact the whole right side looks to be riddled with fading symbols. There is also something directly at 9 o clock which also looks to be 3-D.

I would send an email with pics to scott wolter of hooked x fame. I think he would be especially interested in it. Be careful and dont reveal its location to anyone. www.hookedx.com...

Originally posted by DrJay1975
Just from the picture I venture the guess that this is a very modern carving. I think what you have are some youngsters trying to carve their version of The Tree of Life. The carving itself isn't, from what I can tell a typical location for a native american carving. And as you said, lots of flooding. That could have washed away any human evidence if it is recent. But I tend to thing you have young wiccans carving it into the ground for some sort of ritualistic purpose.

This is a small hollow, and the stream is very small. It probably goes completely dry in the summer. We've had flooding in the area, but "flooding" at this stream isn't like you see in the movies. It might buffet the upper surface of the rock for a while, but it wouldn't get high enough to wash away any evidence of occupation. Even the leaves are still present relatively close to the rock, and I'd imagine they would be the first thing to wash away.

I'm acquainted with some of the witches of the area, and they're not anything like wiccans. Nor are they cauldron-broomstick-pointy hat witches. They tend to view wicca as a 20th century synthesized construct.

Originally posted by Exuberant1
Maybe this is the work of potheads.

This is the spot they all get stoned at and they carved a peace sign into the rock.

Eventually the potheads decided to expand the work and it is now on it's way to becoming a marijuana leaf (evil weed).

Time will tell. If only we could see this thing a year from now.

Haha! That's awesome ... for some reason you seem to know the habits of those types of people pretty darn well! Snootchy Bootchies!

In all serious...

Have you ever ridden (not driven) in a car down a road you've been down 1000 times and noticed something new? I am a firm believer that people do not see what they are not looking for.

I'd be hesitant to contact a University or any professional investigators yet...As long as you don't disturb the site ... research and gather as much as you can. Who *knows* what will happen once "Professionals" get to it. (most likely it will be taken away and you'll never get to study it AND it will never be heard about again)

Take as many pictures measurements, maybe use a compass and set bearings from the "branches" and walk that direction. Perhaps more stones are located on those directions?!

Originally posted by lambs to lions

On the other hand, may I suggest buying a camouflaged 'trail-camera' that can be hung on a nearby tree and that will snap pictures when it's motion sensor is triggered. So cover your tracks, and leave no trace of yourself or your discovery, and appoach the situation that way...

This is a possibility. There are probably hundreds of game trail cameras in this general area, due to the avocations of the locals. The problem will be talking them into using them, there, at the right time.

Moving through these stick without a trace is something of a specialty around here. I think some of these guys don't even displace the air where they stand!

Originally posted by sos37
Is it my imagination or does the circle look like a ship's porthole?

You also might do well to research the history of this location and see if there was anything unusual - legends of buried treasure, lost treasure, a secret tribe, etc. You never know, this could be the location of someone's time capsule.

Most of the local legends involve ghost stories and unusual animals. There is a legend of a lost "treasure" that belonged to a travelling tinker who was killed several miles downstream.

Originally posted by lambs to lions
reply to post by sos37

 

Wow, I never even considered the time capsule angle. It very well could be a marker of some sort, perhaps marking their life savings or something. If it great depression era, it may very well mark buried cans of coins or something....Yes, time to break out the metal detector (someone already said that).

My dad lived just a few hundred yards up slope from this carving during the Great Depression. There wasn't enough money among the whole lot of the people to justify a burial of savings, and they were too busy surviving on what they could get to bury it.