SDM STONE BIRDS
COPYRIGHT 2011
The first stones identified as Bird Effigies had
what looked like writing inscribed on them.
These were initially thought to be grave stones
written in a script most like Iberian Punic, a
phoenician related alphabet found in Spain and
Portugal that dates to 1,000 BC. Unfortunately,
no 3,000 year old artifacts have been found on
the SDM Site to support that time period.
Everything found is clearly Paleo, with maybe a
trace of Early Archaic.
Many of the "inscriptions" turned out to be
marks from agricultural machinery, commonly
called "plow marks". Some, however, are not.
Similar abstract symbols inscribed on rock
appear in Western Europe by a distantly related
culture over 15,000 years ago. That script was
used strictly for religious and ritual purposes.
Many Hundreds of roughly triangular granite
stones without inscriptions have been identified
as "Bird Effigies" because of the surface
alteration done to them by pounding, pecking
and chipping, in obvious contrast to the
normally rounded and smooth glacial finish.
These stone "Bird Effigies" range in size from
under one inch to about four feet high, though
most are under about twelve inches.
In numbers as well as mass, stone Birds are the
most prominent artifact found on the SDM Site.
Natural 'Bird' shapes are not uncommon if you
look hard enough anywhere that stones or rocks
are exposed. Most stones were found
somewhere off-site and brought here to SDM to
be modified.It is possible that 'birds' were made
of other material as well such as bone, wood, or
clay for example, and left at the funeral site
where only the stone effigies survived.
The idea and practice of making and using the
"Bird Effigy" at a funeral or to be left at the
cemetary in the far distant past evolved into
the erection of the uncounted thousands of
Megalithic standing stones that start to appear
all over the World well over 6,000 years ago.