Posted on 01/08/2009 12:15:48 PM PST by BGHater
In a surprisingly under-reported story from 2007, Mark Holley, a professor of underwater archaeology at Northwestern Michigan University College, discovered a series of stones some of them arranged in a circle and one of which seemed to show carvings of a mastodon 40-feet beneath the surface waters of Lake Michigan.
[Image: Standing stones beneath Lake Michigan? View larger].
If verified, the carvings could be as much as 10,000 years old coincident with the post-Ice Age presence of both humans and mastodons in the upper midwest.
[Image: The stones beneath Lake Michigan; view larger].
In a PDF assembled by Holley and Brian Abbott to document the expedition, we learn that the archaeologists had been hired to survey a series of old boatwrecks using a slightly repurposed "sector scan sonar" device. You can read about the actual equipment a Kongsberg-Mesotech MS 1000 here.
The circular images this thing produces are unreal; like some strange new art-historical branch of landscape representation, they form cryptic dioramas of long-lost wreckage on the lakebed. Shipwrecks (like the Tramp, which went down in 1974); a "junk pile" of old boats and cars; a Civil War-era pier; and even an old buggy are just some of the topographic features the divers discovered.
These are anthropological remains that will soon be part of the lake's geology; they are our future trace fossils.
But down amongst those otherwise mundane human remains were the stones.
[Image: The "junk pile" of old cars and boat skeletons; view larger].
While there is obviously some doubt as to whether or not that really is a mastodon carved on a rock let alone if it really was human activity that arranged some of the rocks into a Stonehenge-like circle it's worth pointing out that Michigan does already have petroglyph sites and even standing stones.
A representative of the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology has even commented that, although he's skeptical, he's interested in learning more, hoping to see better photographs of the so-called "glyph stone."
[Image: The stones; view larger].
So is there a North American version of Stonehenge just sitting up there beneath the glacial waters of a small northern bay in Lake Michigan? If so, are there other submerged prehistoric megaliths waiting to be discovered by some rogue archaeologist armed with a sonar scanner?
Whatever the answer might be, the very suggestion is interesting enough to think about where underwater archaeology, prehistoric remains, and lost shipwrecks collide to form a midwestern mystery: National Treasure 3 or Da Vinci Code 2. Even Ghostbusters: The Return.
But only future scuba expeditions will be able to tell for sure.
This has more info.
ping.
Picked this over the Mummy Queen. Maybe its not henge, maybe find Hoffa.
Very cool. Thanks for posting it.
But we all want to know when Spinal Tap write a song about it ...
In the left foreground, I can just make out my keys.
bump for later
looking at the one on the left i see the face of a very grizzled old man....
Nobody knows who they were or what they were doing.
You’re right!
I DO see the very grizzled Helen Thomas!
The carvings are from my outboard, nice carvings, lots of repair.
There is a priceless old B.C. comic in which one character is drawing bison on a cave wall.
Another character is criticizing the mediocre artwork.
The one doing the drawing replies something like,
“A million years from now, they’ll eat this stuff up.”
Other than the pic in post 1, i don’t see any kind of arrangement similar to sstonehenge, or anything that would make me think it’s manmade.
Someone please feel free to provide further explanation.
Your not suppose to ask serious questions.
:)
Cool imagery, though
Did you major in redundancy?
... And minored in unnecessary redundancy.
And the mastodon? No — it's a face. See the frown? And the two eyes?
Plank Henge
Located 1 mile north of Pentwater State Park on Lake Michigan. Sundial in center has correct time twice a day. Virgins sacrificed the 1st Tuesday of the month. Interesting beach artifacts. Tours daily. Donations welcome.
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