Prehistoric Ceremonial Site or Random Natural Arrangement?

Underwater archeologist Mark Holley investigates a circle of stones on the Grand Traverse Bay floor (photo by Chris Doyal)

" based on a news article of the Chicago Tribune, "Underwater stones puzzle archeologists," by James Janega, Feb 8, 2009

"This is going to invite so much controversy that this is where we're going to be for the next 20 years," bemoaned diver and underwater archeologist Mark Holley. He is referring to a strange circle of stones located underwater in Grand Traverse Bay. He located the stones in 2007, but recently a blogger discovered the report and it has become an overnight sensation.

The stones could simply be an ancient shoreline or glacial debris. But their apparent geometric arrangement could indicate that humans placed them. 6000- 9000 years ago the lake floor here was exposed tundra, and roamed by hunter-gatherers. One suggestion for the arrangement is that of a fishing weir in a long disappeared river.

Native Americans are expressing concerns that it may be a sacred site. Archeologists are skeptical, but plan for a laser scan this summer from which a computer model can be built.

There is one claim that a large stone has an etching of a mastadon scratched in it. "It would be a really spectacular find— if it turns out to be true," said Charles Cleland, retired curator of Great Lakes archeology and ethnology at Michigan State University. "It would be the only visual representation of such in the whole hemisphere."

Holley found the site by accident while doing lake floor survey work in summer 2007 for the Grand Traverse Bay Underwater Preserve. After several passes, a row of stones became clear. When divers visited the site to take photographs, they were left vaguely unnerved. "It was really spooky when we saw it in the water," Holley said. "The whole site is spooky, in a way. When you're swimming through a long line of stones and the rest of the lake bed is featureless, it's just spooky."

Hank Bailey of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians said that the rocks appear to be arranged with some purpose. The exact location is being kept secret to avoid disturbance.

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We've Been Skating for 5000 Years!

Archaeological evidence shows that bone skates (skates made of animal bones) are the oldest human powered means of transport, dating back to 3000 BC. Why people started skating on ice and where is not as clear, since ancient remains were found in several locations spread across Central and North Europe.

In a recent paper, published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Dr Formenti and Professor Minetti show substantial evidence supporting the hypothesis that the birth of ice skating took place in Southern Finland, where the number of lakes within 100 square kilometers is the highest in the world.

"In Central and Northern Europe, five thousand years ago people struggled to survive the severe winter conditions and it seems unlikely that ice skating developed as a hobby" says Dr Formenti. "As happened later for skis and bicycles, I am convinced that we first made ice skates in order to limit the energy required for our daily journeys."

Formenti and Minetti did their experiments on an ice rink by the Alps, where they measured the energy consumption of people skating on bones. Through mathematical models and computer simulations of 240 ten-kilometer journeys, their research study shows that in winter the use of bone skates would have limited the energy requirements of Finnish people by 10%. On the other hand, the advantage given by the use of skates in other North European countries would be only about 1%.

Subsequent studies performed by Formenti and Minetti have shown how fast and how far people could skate in past epochs, from 3000 BC to date.

news release of Wiley-Blackwell, "Where and why humans made skates out of animal bones", Dec 23, 2007
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