Take the relatively recent example of the Kennewick Man, one of the oldest known skeletons ever discovered in North America in 1996. The worst part of this whole situation is that there are people out there among the pagan community who are still preaching this extremely harmful and racist rhetoric. Sort of like how those Ancient Astronaut Theorists of Ancient Aliens claim that Old Kingdom Egyptians couldn’t possibly have built the pyramids, no? □ So of course, the white, male, archaeologists of the day claimed that they were made by some prior white race who had been subsequently wiped out by current ‘savage’ tribes. These ‘runestones’ seemed to prove that the Vikings had settled in North America prior to Columbus, thus giving those of European descent an ancestral claim to the land they had colonized just a few hundred years prior.įurthermore, it was beyond belief that the ‘savage’ natives of North America could have possibly constructed monuments like the Great Serpent Mound of Ohio or the incredible cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloans. At the time these ‘runestones’ started surfacing, debates about ethnic origins and superiority of the races were still alive and well. Unfortunately, the answer is pretty bleak-racism and notions of white superiority. So what would prompt someone to make fake runestones? The discovery of the Norse Penny seemed to validate this claim but has since seemed to merely suggest the extensive indigenous trade networks present at the time. It is indisputable that the Norse settled in North America (L’Anse aux Meadows) but any evidence for their venturing further south has so far been inconclusive. If the three rune stones were found to be authentic, they would be a landmark discovery as they would provide the first archaeological evidence of a Norse expedition into Maine. What’s really interesting to me (especially as a pagan), is the historical significance behind these kinds of hoaxes. I was able to obtain the high-resolution photos in this post via a request to the museum who graciously sent them to me. They are in the possession of the Maine State Museum and as of my most recent request last year, they were out on loan for analysis. As far as viewing the runestones, I have been unable to. While there are no runestones to be found, it’s still a lovely little walk with some beautiful views of the pond. The preserve offers views of the Morse River salt marshes as well as an old mill dam, and bountiful stone walls. I visited just a few weeks ago while out on a day trip with my family. Spirit Pond itself is a tidal pond near Popham Beach. It contains an easy walking trail and is open to the public. Spirit Pond Preserve is managed by the Phippsburg Land Trust. The curator at the time identified them as containing possible runic inscriptions. On closer inspection, Elliot realized that they were special and the next week brought them into the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath for another opinion. Two of them contain lines of text and the third has what some have identified as a map of sorts. He picked it up and then looked for more, quickly spotting two others. He was ‘poking’ around shell middens when he supposedly spotted a stone with markings on it. They were found by Walter Elliot Jr of Bath, Maine, a self-identified hunter of old ‘Indian artifacts’ (a.k.a-destroyer of archaeological sites). It is the home of many significant historical sites, including the site of Popham Colony- the first known English settlement in New England. It lies on a peninsula dividing the Kennebec River from Casco Bay within the Gulf of Maine. It has a total area of 71.20 square miles, of which 42.62 miles is water. The stones were ‘discovered’ in the small coastal town of Phippsburg in Sagadahoc County, Maine. Photo from my recent visit to Spirit Pond, it was as cold as it looks.
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