What's in a name?

[stoneaxe]

This may have been done before. NancyMc's recent name change made me think about handles (names) and their origin. Some of them are obvious...some not so much.

Here's mine:
I've been using the name stoneaxe online in a number of forums since I found this.


I found this stone axe while mowing between the trees on my treefarm. You can see the mark where I hit it with the lawnmower. I actually threw it in the woods but noticed it felt and looked unusual just as I tossed it. The tip is broken off this one. It would have been about 3" longer unbroken.

An archeological dig was done years later about 1/4 mile behind my house along the path of a new road being constructed. They found a major settlement right behind my house. I spoke with the women in charge of the dig and she said my axe is between 5,000 and 8,000 years old.

She showed me a number of blades and axes that had been ceremonially buried with a body that were amazing. Finely polished and still very sharp edged. I was surprised by the quality. It looked like it had been machined.

Amazing when you think of people living here 8,000 years ago and able to thrive without all our modern conveniences.

[Kathy M]

Amazing...I can't wait to show this to my husband...he's a fifth grade teacher who loves this kind of stuff!!!  Terrific find.   You learn a lot about folks from their user names!!!  Thanks for sharing a bit of history.

Kathy

[sgerrard]

Very nice. I like the idea of holding it with your hand in the same place someone was holding it 8000 years ago.

Quick, go put it back so someone can find it again 8000 years in the future.

Steve

[klangel]

wow that's so cool! where is your tree farm located? maybe you could find some more relics in the area. i think it's amazing that the axe is 8000 years old. i love old stuff. i like to imagine the person who wielded it and think of what their life must have been like. my husband and i help take care of a tiny abandoned church and cemetery here in n.e. pa. it is one of the few places left where i sense a bit of peace since my surgery but it is not even close to 8000 years old! i find that truly amazing. when i was little i grew up on the east end of long island n.y. and we used to find native american paint pots and arrowheads in our backyard and the surrounding woods also fossils of trilobites. ancient artifacts are fascinating. in my mind they connect us yo humanity and all of its conditions. find some more!and thanx so much for sharing the axe with us.   
                                                                                                 kerri

[NancyMc]

You're always giving me goosebumps.  Couple years back I took my son up to Orkney (way up yonder in Scotland) on his way to his second year at U of Edinburgh to see the 5+K year old ruins.  He's a history major, as you know, so I'll share this with him.
Thanks.
Nancy

[Lilan]

I think mine is obvious, but maybe not. Maybe people think my name is Lilian? (It's not) 

Although it now seems like I have a tumor other than an acoustic neuroma (a hemangioma), my handle came from Little AN = Lil' AN = lilan.

I used it briefly last year on the Cyberknife forum when this was all starting for me and the diagnosis was unsure, and then decided to keep it just in case someone as desperate as I was for information about IAC hemangiomas was trying to follow my story as it developed. Occasionally I'd finally find a single question addressing hemans in this area, then the person would vaporize -- so frustrating -- I really wanted to follow through someone's diagnosis and story but these are just so rare.

Plus lilheman doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

ETA: Now that it's sticking as a handle, I might dip in and capitalize the L!

[leapyrtwins]

Being an old-timer on the forum I remembered that some of us have played this game before 

Thought this link might be helpful http://anausa.org/forum/index.php?topic=6666.0

It's interesting to see how many of us are still roaming around the forum.

Jan

[sgerrard]

Jan,

Besides the screen names, that topic contains the origin of "May I knit you a hat." Little did I know...

Steve

[elliemae]

Steve, great artifact!
I am (or used to be ... ) an amateur archeologist.  Participated in a couple of local digs on the South Shore. I still love it, but haven't been able to dig in several years. I'd be interested to hear more about that dig near you (and where exactly are you?).  I'll bet there's a lot more to be found right on your land!  (Not that I want to come down and "pot-hunt'!)

Sooooo much to talk about tomorrow at the brunch!

Elaine

[leapyrtwins]

Jan,

Besides the screen names, that topic contains the origin of "May I knit you a hat." Little did I know...

Steve

Seriously?  I didn't realize that.  When I posted the link for Stone, I didn't read the entire thread.  I'll have to go back and look at it.

Jan

[klangel]

yeah, you know i was just looking at everyones handle and they are pretty cool. mine is just my first 2 initials and my last name. ( its easy for me to remember haha) kerri lyn angel. i particularly like the lilan. very cute.   kerri

[stoneaxe]

Some great stories...Jan..thanks for posting the other thread...very interesting and funny.

I've often thought of what it must have been like here 8,000 years ago. There is actually a small (3 acre) stand of virgin forest about 1/2 mile from my house. Most of the east coast was covered with forest like that back then. It's an amazing spot...very cathedral like. White pine 8' across at the base and 150' high, they block out the sun so that all there is below is ferns on the forest floor and all you can smell is pine needles.

Our treefarm is in Carver..right next to Plymouth, MA. I don't operate it anymore unfortunately...one of the casualties of my AN. Amongst all the other balance challenging phsically difficult demands of a treefarm you have to be able to circle a tree while swinging a 3' long razor sharp pruning knife. Not a good idea with vertigo.

I'm sure there is lots more in the ground out there. I've done a little looking here and there but no real effort. The dig that was done was BIG...they held up the construction of the road for almost a year while it was excavated. A large temporay structure was built over the site to protect it while they dug (through winter). The burial they found was of a chief based on what they found. The soil here is very acidic so there is no body, just a stain in the soil where it was. They did find the contents of a necklace. Evidently it was a practice to put the burnt bones and such of animals in a leather pouch around the neck. Those contents do remain and were found with in the burial site.

Months after the offficial dig was over a amatuer archeologist was out there frequently digging. He found many arrow and spear points. I found something years before but was told it wasn't what i thought it was. I thought I had found a fire pit in my tree farm. While digging a tree I hit a large stone, approx. 2' x 2' x 3' , I found it's twin about 5' away. Both were blackened as if by fire on the inside faces. I thought it was curious so I dug down to the bases and found a loose ring of stones. I was more interested in planting trees at the time so i simply removed the stones (the big ones are spots to sit in our Japanese Garden). I told this story later to the archeologist in charge of the dig and she said that native americans actually didn't build stone rings around their fires. It seemed kind of dismissive to me. The arrangement just seemed too purposeful, big flat topped stones on either side of a fire pit seems to make a pretty good kitchen to me.

[Crazycat]

Bob,

  Interesting stuff! There are a couple of books that you may be interested in written by Barry Fell, Professor Emeritus of Biology at Harvard University. They are "Bronze Age America" and "America B.C.".

They address the possibility that North America had been explored and colonized by peoples other than American Indians. In fact, certain tribes may be directly related to these outsiders, some more than others.

For instance, I went to school with a guy that was 100% Iroquois Indian. To look at him he seemed as white Anglo Saxon as anyone else.

Fell links these peoples—such as the Phoenicians—with artifacts as well as writing inscriptions found throughout the country. He claims that this expansion of seafaring peoples was spurred-on by the quest for resources during the Bronze and Iron Ages.

There are also amazing similarities some of these inscriptions have with Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

I bought these books in the late '70s and early '80s when they were first released. They have long since been out-of-print but are available through Amazon if you're willing and able to spring the cash for them.

Here is a link to the Barry Fell books....

http://www.amazon.com/Bronze-Age-America-Barry-Fell/dp/0316277711/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240423817&sr=1-1

I also have another ultra-rare book in my possession, "A Bend In The River", by John Pendergast, who was a professor of Irish Literature as well as an archeologist. The book is a study of the prehistory and contact period history of native American tribes in the Merrimack Valley area of Massachusetts. The book was signed and given to me by the author.

John (Jay) was a friend and we would get-together for free form jazz jam sessions where he'd play flute and recite beat poetry. It was a blast! I still have all the recordings.

Here is a link to more information on it....

http://www.alibris.co.uk/booksearch?qwork=629737&matches=5&author=Pendergast%2C+John&browse=1&cm_sp=works*listing*title

Paul

[stoneaxe]

Hi Paul,

They all look interesting. I've long thought it likely that there were contacts with europe long before Columbus. A ship blown out to sea in storms from the south or following the ice in the north. It would make sense that small widely spaced contacts would spread technology like clovis points and a sprinkling of genetics through the native population.

Bob

[NancyMc]

Oh, man, I love this stuff.  Thanks, Guys.  The kilted one will be fascinated as well.

Next year's convention . . . Boston with a field trip to the virgin forest in Bob's backyard!