{"id":553,"date":"2005-11-02T21:32:00","date_gmt":"2005-11-02T21:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=553"},"modified":"2005-11-02T21:32:00","modified_gmt":"2005-11-02T21:32:00","slug":"553","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=553","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The stone circles of Massachusetts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the 1970s, the publication of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.equinox-project.com\/drfell.htm\">Barry Fell&#8217;s<\/a> <em>America BC<\/em> introduced me to the an idea that was then completely out of fashion in mainstream archaeology: That other Europeans besides the <a href=\"http:\/\/collections.ic.gc.ca\/vikings\/\">Norsemen<\/a> might have crossed the Atlantic before Columbus. Critics referred to this as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ramtops.co.uk\/\">&#8220;cult archaeology&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That sentiment has eased, but not much. Still, some amateur archaeologists and epigraphers (people who study stone inscriptions) soldier on, collecting data. <\/p>\n<p>Fell, an oceanographer who became interested in ancient sailing voyages, suggested that many enigmatic stone structures in New England were built by Pagan Celts (and\/or the Norse settlers in &#8220;Vineland&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>I honestly have no idea, but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boudillion.com\/journal\/journal.html\">this site and its links<\/a> will give you lots information, photos, and hypotheses.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, without the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mnsu.edu\/emuseum\/prehistory\/vikings\/viknfl.html\">kind of artifacts<\/a> that ended up substantiating the Norse sagas, these hypotheses remain untested. As one disparaging archaeologist told me about another site suggested to be pre-Columbean European, &#8220;We won&#8217;t dig what can&#8217;t be dug.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/archaeology\" rel=\"tag\">Archaeology<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/barry+fell\" rel=\"tag\">Barry Fell<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/technorati.com\/tag\/massachusetts\" rel=\"tag\">Massachusetts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The stone circles of Massachusetts In the 1970s, the publication of Barry Fell&#8217;s America BC introduced me to the an idea that was then completely out of fashion in mainstream archaeology: That other Europeans besides the Norsemen might have crossed the Atlantic before Columbus. Critics referred to this as &#8220;cult archaeology&#8221;. That sentiment has eased, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-553","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10676,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10676","url_meta":{"origin":553,"position":0},"title":"Teach the Kids to Build a Henge","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The paleontological\/archaeological team at Twilight Beasts reviews The First Foresters: Explore the Neolithic in Scotland\u2019s native woodlands, by Kim Biddulph and Matt Ritchie. This little book contains a potent emphasis on environmental awareness, incorporated with attention to structures and material culture, such as timber circles and cursus monuments of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"agriculture\"","block_context":{"text":"agriculture","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=agriculture"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cartoon version of Neolithic farmers in Scotland","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/neolithic-family.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/neolithic-family.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/neolithic-family.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7456,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7456","url_meta":{"origin":553,"position":1},"title":"New Grange Before It Was &#8220;Restored&#8221;","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Before excavation and restoration (think \"concrete wall\") began in the 1960s, the famous Irish Neolithic temple of New Grange\u00a0 (older than the Pyramids!) looked quite different. The Irish Archaeology site offers sketches and photos from the 18th century forward.","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/irisharchaeology.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Old-photo-newgrange.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":696,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=696","url_meta":{"origin":553,"position":2},"title":"Megaliths, archaeology, and the &#8216;stoned age&#8217;","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"In graduate school, I took a couple of classes on Mesoamerican religion taught by Dav\u00edd Carrasco, an scholar of such edifices as El templo major in Mexico City.One thing I came away with was that such structures served often to demonstrate how King Somebody's reign was in sync with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3881,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3881","url_meta":{"origin":553,"position":3},"title":"Ancient Europeans Were First to North America?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This announcement might upset some apple carts. Actually, the idea that some of the early settlers of North America might have come from Europe as well as Asia has been kicking around for a while. Now the claim is made that based on analyses of stone tools, they were first.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1070,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1070","url_meta":{"origin":553,"position":4},"title":"A Ritual with Swan&#8217;s Eggs","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The November\/December 2008 issue of Archaeology magazine contains an article titled \"Witches of Cornwall,\" about odd, ritualistic or votive burials of skins, eggs, and other items at a place called Saveock Water.These burials took place from the 1640s at least through the 1950s.There is as yet no link to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1107,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1107","url_meta":{"origin":553,"position":5},"title":"Needed: Druids with Scuba Gear","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, the news of a possible stone circle under Lake Michigan has been \"surprisingly under-reported.\"If verified, the carvings could be as much as 10,000 years old \u2013 coincident with the post-Ice Age presence of both humans and mastodons in the upper midwest.","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}