By Alan W. Skelly, J.D.

Transcription

1 By Alan W. Skelly, J.D.

2 The Water Serpent and River Rock Art This article will introduce you to the concept that a second Serpent may be located near Serpent Mound. The second Serpent may be the Water Serpent and is located in the Serpent Mound Valley Grotto. It will also introduce you to some of the Ancient People who lived in the Serpent Mound Valley, as told by them, in their carved and modified - river rock art artifacts. For the past year, I have been privileged to spend a great deal of time, walking the streams and Valley of the Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio, in search of ancient artifacts. I got started on this path out of plain curiosity. For years I had heard that Indians lived around here and that ancient people built the Mounds and the Serpent Mound itself. After enough history channel and Discovery channel shows on Ancient people in Mexico, Egypt, and Cambodia. I became curious about who was here in Ohio, in ancient times. What I discovered was that Ohio and the Serpent Mound Valley, were occupied by an amazing race of people, the Ancient Ancestors of our native American tribes. These people were hunters, gatherers, farmers, astrologers, artists, engineers, shaman and magicians, and they built villages and lived through out the Serpent Mound Valley. A visit to the Serpent Mound Valley Grotto - is well worth your time. (The Grotto is located about a hundred feet down the path left of the front drive to the Park. Follow the grotto path along the Ohio Brush Creek towards the Serpent Mound and you will come to a series of ancient boulders and the Grotto ) The Serpent Mound Valley Grotto is a special place. It has a feeling of power, energy, ancient mystery, and magic. When you go there it easy to visualize ancient ceremonies and rituals being performed at the foot of the hill, as the drums and chants of the people, echo off the Valley walls. By visiting the Serpent Mound Valley Grotto-you can walk in the same place and see and feel what our ancient ancestors felt, over 3000 years ago, when they first discovered, the Serpent Mound Valley Grotto. You too can discover- the Water Serpent of the Serpent Mound Grotto. (Like too many other ancient sites, we need to clean up the Grotto, fix it up, give it the respect it warrants, and preserve it for our children and grandchildren to enjoy). I use river rock artifacts that I found in the Serpents Mound Valley - Ohio Brush Creek, near ancient Village sites, to illustrate various ideas in this article. River rock artifacts or river rock art is not recognized by the established archeological community in Ohio as artifacts. Provenance is the key to determine if something is an artifact. To establish a stone as an artifact you must be able to show its history- provenance the circumstances and facts of the find, and that man/ or woman has modified it in some way. Often it is the association of an artifact to a known ancient site that gives it provenance. River rocks can end up in a location from many sources and from far away. The force of water can move even the largest boulders hundreds of miles. Further, people have an intuitive ability to see faces and animals in clouds and rocks and stones, etc. This core ability for us to see animals and faces in things- is why we have so many Jesus sightings in toast. Rocks and stones can take on amazing shapes from the forces of water and grinding, all of which makes river artifacts, very hard to confirm as actual artifacts and not just river rocks. I would like to note that I have received the strong encouragement of Alan Day of Cambridge, Ohio an experienced and authoritative expert on the Ancient people of Ohio and stone artifacts, as I have gathered the Rock Art Artifacts used in this article. He publishes an excellent website on the concept of Ancient Man and portable rock artifacts. ( I have also received a friendly ear from Tom Johnson of Locust Grove,Ohio,and his wonderful family. Tom owns the House of Phacops Museum. Tom is an expert on rocks and minerals and the crypto explosion that created the Serpent Mound Valley. Tom and his Native American born healer/educator wife, Terri Sings with Ravens, present a truly enjoyable native American blend at their House of Phacops Museum. The House of Phacops includes herbs, art, fossils, rocks and minerals ( It is 4 miles down Rt.73 from Serpents Mound. Alan W. Skelly, J.D.-Cincinnati, Ohio House of Phacops Locust Grove, Ohio

3 The second Serpent effigy is located at the foothill of the Great Serpent Mound effigy,in Ohio Brush Creek, Adams County, Ohio. This second Serpent may represent the Underwater Panther or Water Serpent/ Spirit. The Water Serpent is often depicted by the native people as a snake/panther combination and believed to be a "good ruler of the water and under world- which was not a bad place. Officials call it just a river rock there may be more to it than that. I believe this needs further investigation, was it modified by man? Is it 100% natural? Was it worshiped by the people? Is there another Serpent at Serpent Mound? There exists in the waters of the Ohio Brush Creek adjacent to the Great Serpent Mound effigy in Adams County, Ohio, a much older, but also in prehistory-a possibly-greatly revered -other -Serpent effigy. You can find this second Serpent by taking the path to the left of the driveway, at the bottom of the driveway at the entrance to the Serpent Mound Park, and walking towards the Serpent Mound, a couple of hundred feet, along the shoreline of the Ohio Brush Creek. This other Serpent effigy is a large stone boulder that is ignored by our experts today. It s just a river rock. This magnificent second Serpent would have been interpreted as the "Water Panther Serpent, ruler of the Underworld and of the waters and rivers- of middle earth. The ancient people who lived in the Valley, would have appreciated this formation. The Water Serpent matches their myths and legends. It is the type of object they would observe. The Water Serpent may indeed be the original Serpent Mound Valley- Serpent - and its location below the Serpent Mound effigy hill, may be one of the reasons why the later occupants of this special Valley choose the hilltop above it as the setting for the Great Serpent Mound effigy. E.G. Squire one of the original archeologists to map the Ohio mounds and other sacred native sites, in Ohio and elsewhere, for the Smithsonian Institute wrote: The superstitions of the Indians extended to remarkable objects in nature. A tree or stone of singular form seldom failed to command their reverence. A stone which, from the action of natural causes, has assumed the general form of a man or an animal, is especially an object of regard.... E.G. Squier, Antiquities of the State of New York Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. II, 1851 There is a magical feel to the Water Serpent- Grotto that is worth a small side trip, to anyone who comes to visit the Great Serpent Mound effigy-above the Water Serpent. At nearly 25 feet in length, there is no way that native people who walked, fished, and hunted along this rivers edge-for over a thousand years -would have failed to notice this other Water Serpent effigy stone. We know that this Water Serpent effigy was worshipped by the people of the Valley by the fact that they carved numerous rocks and stones in its shape and form. The people of the Serpent Mound Valley left us various images in rock and stone that both show us who they were and about their religious beliefs.

4 The Serpent Mound Valley is believed to have first been settled by the Archaic people over 2500 years ago. (Although archeological finds may support an earlier date for first occupation of the Valley that takes us into Paleo times.) The last glacier in the region ended just 4 miles from the Serpent Mound hill. The first human inhabitants in Ohio (known as Paleo-Indians) migrated to Ohio at the end of the Wisconsinian glaciation over 10,000 years ago. At that time, the glacier was the literal end of the earth and rose as high as a mile into the sky. (1)What a magnificent site that must have been, to come upon, and behold. It has also recently been determined that 250 million years ago, a comet struck the earth and created the Serpent Mound Valley and hill.(2) According to William F Romain, Director of the Serpent Mound Project-Ohio State University, in his article about the Newark Earthworks, In shamanic thought generally (e.g., Eliade1964; Furst1976) and among Native American peoples in particular ( e.g., Lankford 1987; Hudson 1976), the cosmos is often thought of as having three basic levels i.e., Upperworld, earth, and Lowerworld. These three levels are vertically connected by an axis mundi. In Native American cosmology, the Upperworld is the realm of the sky, sun, and stars, as well as powerful celestial birds known as Thunderbirds. By contrast, the Lowerworld is a watery world, located opposite to the Upperworld. It is the realm of fishes, frogs, snakes, and related creatures. Chief of the Lowerworld creatures is either the Great Horned Serpent or Underwater Panther. The Upperworld and Lowerworld are antithetical to each other. (5) The attributes of the Water Serpent- Water Spirit include : a) an unusually long tail and often represented with a man face with horns in petro glyphs b) often accompanied by other water animals c) ruled the waters- underworld-not a bad place d) could come to the earth level in the form of a man (6) Adena, Hopewell, and Ft. Ancient burial mounds are located in the Serpent Mound Valley (on the hill above the Water Serpent effigy) and elsewhere - nearby. Several ancient village sites are located in the Serpent Mound Valley, along the streams that drain into the Ohio Brush Creek, both above and below the Serpent Mound Park site. (3) Today, our archeologists call the early confirmed villagers who lived in the abundant, fertile, and magical, Serpents Mound Valley, by the names of mounds and other burial site locations-first noted in the late 1800 s. These names include the Adena (800 BC to 100 AD). Adena was the name of the 5000 acre Chillicothe, Ohio estate of one of Ohio s first governors that had ancient burial mounds on itmeaning in Hebrew- delightful place. The Hopewell (100 BC to 400 AD) and later the Ft. Ancient people (1000 AD to 1650 AD) named after an Ohio, Hopewellbuilt,hill top enclosure ( that does not include a Fort.)(4)

5 The concept that one would find artifacts shaped like a snake nearby the Great Serpent Mound seems a generally easily accepted concept and offers little to support that our water based Serpent was worshipped by the ancient occupants of the Serpent Mound Valley. Mouth is evident when viewed in person Note scaling and distinct bottom However, when we compare actual artifacts found in the Ohio Brush Creek near the Serpents Mound to the water Serpent -a pattern develops. Do you see the smaller stone in front of the big water Serpent in the stream picture? Compare it to the little Serpent or tail or additional snake in front of the big Serpent in the artifact (right middle) look familiar? Large Water Snake Water in between Additional small snake companion or tail More Examples of Water Serpent/Underwater Panther- stone ceremony sticks found in Ohio Brush Creek

6 This then leads us to another obvious basic question ( it is the Serpent Mound Valley we are talking about) How do you know that the people didn t make their Serpent Mound- Serpents look like the water serpent artifacts and pictures? The later Serpent Mound has a very unique configuration that includes a wide open mouth with a distinctive Y at the mouth with an oval coming out of it The occupants of the Serpent Mound Valley represented the Great Serpent Mound in their artifacts in a clear and different manner from the water Serpent. The artifact above is a good example, note the Y and the oval coming out-very different from the previous water serpent artifacts. (This artifact was also found downstream of the Serpent Mound State Park at a site in the Ohio Brush Creek near a former Village) Spirit face in front oval coming out of mouth Circle Wide open mouth Y structure Lidar image of the Great Serpent Mound (8)

7 Another point of view of the water serpent note the large second boulder to the right, it looks as if it might at one point in time been a part of the Water Serpent. If it was, it creates an even closer image to what is found in our river stone artifacts representations of the Water Serpent. Wonder if the pieces fit? May be interpreted as the end of a battle between the Thunderbirds and the Underwater/Panther-Water Serpent. Here is another example of a Serpent Mound River Stone Artifact. Note the extended snake mouth jaws with a circle in it. Here is another view of the same snake rock. Note the extended mouth with spirit face in red. Below is the Spirit face from another angle. Note the drilled eye hole. Far right bottom- Loltun Yucatancave drawing of spirit figure (9)

8 The Great Serpent Mound as interpreted by the People who worshipped it

9 Y at mouth like on Serpent mound Serpent Mound Y The Spirit inside the Serpent

10 Snake-Bear Birdman tribe symbol on other side from snake side of Serpent Mound Artifact

11 On the bottom of the Serpent Mound stone is a story Sculpted Upper World Serpent- Draco? Pigmented Birdman Shaman drawing. Similar in style to petroglyph stained/ cave art type images Sculpted Underworld Water Serpent Petalloid Headed Feathered Serpent Belt/Rear feathers similar to Adena Pipe Feathered Serpent seems to be taking something from Draco and Underwater Serpent; then something is coming from the mouth of Feathered Serpent and being absorbed into Birdman. Is Spirit Essence; Power; Knowledge; Energy; being passed to the birdman Shaman by the Feathered Serpent obtained from Draco and Underwater Serpent? Tell me your interpretation of Serpent Mound Stone Story send an to: gmail.com This is the story of the Snake- Bear- Birdman; Draco (the Upper world Serpent); the Water Serpent (Underworld Water Panther); and the Celestial Feathered Serpent (the Great Serpent Mound)... I ll post the best replies on a blog -coming in May 2013 Tiny under water snake companion

12 It is interesting to note the similarity of the story being told on the previous Serpent Mound stone to this story in an Olmec cave drawing in Juxtlahuaca, Mexico ( although without a birdman absorbing the spirit, power, energy or knowledge.) Certainly a common ancient tale as to how spirit energy/ force is created. (10)

13 The world of Thunderbirds, Underwater Panthers, Spirits And the Snake-Bear- Birdmen of the Serpents Mound Valley In Ohio between 12,500 and 10,000 years ago the last Ice Age wall began to melt and recede North. The climate then was still very cold similar to Canada and Alaska today. Between 10,000 years ago and 5000 years ago the people began to occupy various parts of Ohio, including the Serpent Mound Valley. Between 5,000 and 2,500 years ago, a physically large race of people; a culture, who possessed ancient knowledge, and who were astronomers, engineers, mathematicians, and shamans, whom today we call the Adena, moved into the Valley. The Adena arrived about the same time as there was a shift to a greater emphasis on crop growing and less of an emphasis on merely hunting large game animals and gathering of nuts, berries and fruit for food. The Valley would later be occupied by the Hopewell and the Ft. Ancient cultures, who adopted many of the ways of the Adena. A bearded man in headdress of animal skins - water artifact After the glacial melt, the Serpent Mound Valley had various attributes that particularly made it attractive to our first inhabitants. 1) It had numerous streams teaming with a large variety of fish and mussels and various small game including deer, rabbit, turkey and grouse amongst others. 2) It had a magnificent array of stone and clay, including chert used for arrowheads and scrapers, spear points and knives. 3) It had iron and other minerals. 4) It had various large meadows with excellent soil and rolling hills -good for farming squash, sunflower, pumpkin, gourds, and possibly corn. 5) Serpent Mound Valley includes a broad variety of fauna and nut trees and berries and other food plants 6) Salt springs were nearby. Over the centuries the Serpent Mound Valley would blossom into one of Ohio s true wonders. Today, it is home to various original forest black walnut trees that stretch to the sky and often have a base of 6-10 feet. It is also home to an amazing variety of animals, ranging from fox, to beaver, to deer, to wolf, to panthers and bears, etc. The majestic eagle and the stunning blue heron still call the Serpent Mound Valley and the Ohio Brush Creek home.

14 Thunderbird -River Artifact The world of Thunderbirds, Underwater Panthers, Spirits and the Snake-Bear-Birdmen Tribe of the Serpent Mound Valley Underwater Panther = Water Serpent Thunderbirds and Serpents In ancient times years ago and perhaps earlier. The people believed in spirits, magic, astronomy, and animism. They believed amongst other things that their was a war going on around them between powerful forces and spirits, some of which they could control, some of which they could influence through ceremony and respect, but not all. They believed that there were good and bad spirits all around them all the time, and that those spirits influenced what happened in the peoples daily lives. River Artifact Spirit Images One of the key constant battles was the fight between the Underworld Snake- Panther Spirit and the Upper world Thunderbirds. The thunderbirds both create thunder and wind through the flapping of its wings and shoots lightning bolts from its eyes. People who live near the Great Serpent Mound Valley will tell you that because of the rock formation the Great Serpent was built over, it is a natural conductor and draws in electric power. That lightning strikes there often. Clearly a battle between these great adversaries must have occurred in the Valley because the Water Serpent is broken in two.

15 Animism The ancient Archaic and Woodland time period people, who occupied the Serpent Mound Valley held a totally different perspective on things from what we do today. In order to understand better who lived in a particular region thousands of years ago archeologists and anthropologists often turn to both artifacts left by them at their village sites and in various grave or mortuary sites. They will also look to their descendants who may have kept faith with old ways and concepts to help fill in the gap. In our case, the Adena, Hopewell and Ft. Ancient seem to have followed historical religious concepts that closely parallel the Algonquin tribe ways. The ancient people of the Serpent Mound Valley, lived in a time when Animism was believed to be real. Animism is the belief that inanimate objects such as the sun, stars, the planets, the moon, the wind, the thunder, rain, rocks and water all have souls or spirit essence in them. They believed that every tree, plant and animal had a soul/spirit. They believed that you respected the spirits around you or they could cause you trouble. The spirits could also help you. A tree Spirit Stone Artifact A Bear Spirit Stone A falcon with a man s face in its tail

16 They believed that their was a constant battle going on between good and bad spirits all around you. The people believed that they shared a common great ancestor with everything and in fact, a tree or animal nearby, could be a reincarnate of a persons soul from a prior life. They believed that each object with a spirit or soul was our actual brothers and sisters because we all came from a common Great Spirit. The People An early Snake-Bear- Birdman stone image- note animals on head dress -also bearded The people believed that they had multiple spirits and souls. That these spirits could be both human or that of an animal, plant or other object. That a persons personality and role in the world could be influenced by the spirits and souls that they were made of. They believed in duality and that there was a constant conflict going on between good and bad spirits influencing every day, daily decisions and situations. Another key concept of their beliefs is that humans possess multiple souls and that those souls have life apart from our human bodies. The people believed that Shamans and others could become their animal spirits by adopting their manner and dress. The Shamans of the woodland times could shape shift and were medicine people.. They were intermediaries with the spirits and could help influence situational outcomes through magic. This is an example of a large Shaman Birdman Stone with multiple animal and people spirits. On the back is a large Panther Face. If you change the angle of view on this stone other faces come out.

17 Snake Face Bird face Bear Head Lion or Panther Head Face of the people who worshiped at the Great Serpent Mound Valley carved by them in River Rock this is a shape shifting stone A Snake- Bear- Birdman Tribesman (Pre Morphing-Shaman /no beard Ft. Ancient or Hopewell possibly)

18 This one strikes me as a lady Shaman or Chief, which women often were with just her eyes showing beyond her ceremonial garb As to the spirits in her- what do you see? She shifts images depending on lighting and angle of viewing

19 I believe this is another Shaman stone done by the same artist as the previous one or from the same time. Do you see the spirit figure face that comes out in different lighting and with a different angleshape shifting?

20 Very felionish = a person who became a panther Two more of the people of the Great Serpent Mound Valley 1 2 Snake-Bear -Birdman Tribe Shaman

21 Bird Bear Snake- ( Water Serpent Bottom Shape) Same stone different angles in all 4 pictures Snake-Bear-Birdman Tribe

22 Birdman? Bird Snake? Bear Face In this snake river rock (same as shown earlier) do you see the snake, bear, bird? In the shadows? Draco- Ruler of the Upper- 4 layer Cosmic World Assisted by Thunderbirds, Eagles and Falcons Underwater Serpent Panther with man face emerging? Ruler of the 4 layers of the Underworld and the rivers

23 The Great White Hare Manabazho Incarnation of vital energy, restorer of the Earth after the great flood, author of life, giver of animal food, lord of bird and beast sometimes a trickster* * Mythology of All Races- the Forest Tribes- Hartley Burr Alexander (1916- North America-Vol.10-pg.39) Rabbit like in appearance

24 Small Sampling of more traditional river stone artifacts: 1) Snake-Bear- Birdman Tribe symbol on stone 2) Rabbit 3) Snake 4) Spear Blade 5) Woodland Period Face-one closed eye - looking at things from a different perspective 6) Blade 7) Axe

25 Additional- Small Sampling of More Traditional River Stone Artifacts 1) Arrowhead 2)Point or Drill 3) Arrowhead 4) Drill 5) Arrowhead 6) Arrowhead or scraper 7) Bird Stone of Chert 8)9) 10) Tools 11) Small Clay Bird12) Hide Scraper 13) Scraper 14) Tool 15) Nut and Berry Crusher/Grinder 16) Stone Axe 17) Scraper 18) Shaman stonenote -eye hole-drilled- small face/ nose sticking out of Bear/Panther Skin mouth

26 Footnoted Sources 1) Michael C. Hansen (1997 the Ice Age in Ohio- ODNR Educational Pamphlet 7, Division of Geological Survey 2) William F. Romain (2011) Current Research in Ohio Archaeology Lidar Views of the Serpent Mound Impact Crater 3) Dale Lute, (2012) Edition, Finding Ohio Mounds a Guide to Ancient Earthworks of Ohio 4) Bradley T. Lepper (2005) Ohio Archeology, An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio s Ancient American Indian Cultures 5) William F. Romain, Ph.D. Newark Earthwork Cosmology: This Island Earth -Hopewell Archeology: The Newsletter of Hopewell Archeology in the Ohio River Valley Volume 6, Number 2, March ) Deb Twig Director, Susquehanna River Archeological Center Website accessed 3/3/13 7) Lidar Image- Clinton County, Ohio GIS accessed, 3/3/13 8) Andrea Stone, Regional Variation in Maya Cave Art. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 59(1): ) Photo by Matt Lachniet, University of Nevada at Las Vegas A photo of a red feathered serpent from the Juxtlahuaca cave in Mexico, permission filed. General: Richard C. Adams (1904) The Ancient Religion of the Delaware Indians William Martin Beauchamp (1892) the Iroquois Trail, Footprint of the Six Nations Nelson Wiley Evans (1900) A History of Adams County, Ohio Ross Hamilton (2012) Star Mounds Legacy of a Native American Mystery Graham Hancock (1995) Fingerprints of the Gods Mark Raymond Harrington, (1921) Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape Mary Catherine Judd (1915) Wigwam Stories of the North American Indians Charles Godfrey Leyland (1904) The Algonquin Indians of New England- Myths and Legends William C. Mills (1900) The Baum Prehistoric Site, November Issue, The Naturalist F.W. Putnam (1887) Abstract of Lecture Upon the Ancient Earthworks of Ohio TRACT No. 76.before the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio William F. Romain, (2009) Shamans of the Lost World, a Cognitive Approach to the Prehistoric Religion of the Ohio Hopewell Edward Burnett Tylor (1920). Primitive Cultures Fletcher Wilson and E.P. Grondine (2010) A Guide to Serpent Mound Susan L. Woodward (1944) Indian Mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley

27 In 1939, University of Cincinnati Department of Geology- Geologists, Robert Pavlovic and John H. Harstork, performed a Topographical survey of the Serpent Mound Park. Together with other significant features such as the Great Serpent Mound, the Adena and Hopewell Burial Mounds, and buildings located on the property, they also specifically noted and highlighted the Water Serpent in the Valley below. The Water Serpent Enlargement- of the Water Serpent site All contents of this article are Copy righted by the Author However, this article may be freely used for non -commercial and educational purposes without the copyright holders pre approval