Is there a mini-Stonehenge beneath the waters of Lake Michigan? - The Diigo Meta page

• 14 Jan 09
  

  Tony Pisano

  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

  science archaeology underwater history michigan anthropology architecture

• 

  Sheryl A. McCoy

  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.
  

  stonehenge bldgblog archaeology North America Michigan submerged radar

• 09 Jan 09
  

  Malachi Smith

  michigan lake lake-bottom stonehenge ice-age mastadon carving usa survey lake-michigan stones 10000-bc underwater submerged-stones

  • Stonehenge Beneath the Waters of Lake Michigan
  • [Image: Standing stones beneath Lake Michigan?
  • 14 more annotations...
  • • 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.
    • 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
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • But down amongst those otherwise mundane human remains were the stones.
    • 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;
    • 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:
    • But only future scuba expeditions will be able to tell for sure.
• 08 Jan 09
  

  Monica H

  prehistoric neolithic stonehenge

• 06 Jan 09
  

  Adam Green
  • In a surprisingly under-reported story from 2007, Mark Holley, a professor of underwater archaeology at Northwestern Michigan 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.

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