Description
Book SynopsisA ground-breaking study of ceremonial stone landscapes in Northeast America and their relationship to other sites around the world.
Presenting a comprehensive field guide to hundreds of lost, forgotten, and misidentified megalithic stone structures in northeastern America, Glenn Kreisberg documents many enigmatic formations still standing across the Catskill Mountain and Hudson Valley region, complete with functioning solstice and equinox alignments.
Kreisberg provides a first-person description of the “Wall of the Manitou,” which runs for 10 miles along the eastern slopes of the Catskill Mountains, as well as narratives about related sites that include animal effigies, reproductive organs, calendar stones, enigmatic inscriptions, and evidence of alignments. Using computer software, he plots the trajectory of the Hammonasset Line, which begins at a burial complex near the tip of Long Island and runs to Devil’s Tombstone in Greene County, New York. He shows how the line runs at the same angle that marks the summer solstice sunset from Montauk Point on Long Island, and, when extended, intersects the ancient copper mines of Isle Royal in Upper Michigan. He documents a several-acre area on Overlook Mountain in Woodstock, New York, with a grouping of very large, carefully constructed lithic formations that together create a serpent or snake figure, mirroring the constellation Draco. He demonstrates how this site is related to the Serpent Mount in Ohio and Ankor Wat in Cambodia and reveals how all of the vast, interlocking sites in the Northeast were part of an ancient spiritual landscape based on a sophisticated understanding of the cosmos, as practiced by ancient Native Americans.
While modern historians consider these sites to be colonial era constructions, Kreisberg reveals how they were used to communicate with the spirit world and may be remnants of a long-vanished civilization.
Trade Review“The Northeast has been totally and inappropriately marginalized by the mainstream. Kreisberg’s work shows the Northeast is right up there with the Southwest, Midwest, Effigy Mounds, Lower Mississippi Valley, and other traditions in terms of archaeoastronomical alignments, sensitivity to landscape features, and cosmological understandings.” * William Romain, author of An Archaeology of the Sacred *
“Archaeoastronomy does not have to be incredibly difficult. In fact it can be fun! Guided by Glenn Kreisberg’s aptly titled
Spirits in Stone, even the untrained reader can share in the excitement of discovery experienced by some of the foremost explorers of Native American and pre-Columbian stone structures in the Northeast. This is a clear, easy-to-follow introduction to a field that was once shrouded in secrecy and clouded by conflicting opinions. Many readers will be shocked by their own proximity to ancient cultures as they turn these pages. I truly recommend this book, especially to young explorers who sense that the old history books are wrong but don’t know where to begin. Begin here!” * Evan T. Pritchard, director of the Center for Algonquin Culture *
“Kreisberg’s work will contribute greatly to demonstrating the fact that not only did Native Americans construct impressive stone structures throughout the eastern United States but that these sites are sacred and an integral part of their cultural traditions and should be protected!” * Harry Holstein, professor of archaeology at Jacksonville State University, Alabama *
“Reading Glenn Kreisberg’s deeply and thoughtfully researched book, I can hear Joseph Campbell intoning the words of Hermes Trismegistus, from the Emerald Tablet, ‘As Above, so Below!’ If you want to understand the truths of prehistory, look for the writings of the heavens on the earth.
Spirits in Stone shows us how very substantial the insubstantial lore of mythology can be, in the very caves and megalithic sites of northeastern America. The ground we walk on is hallowed ground!” * Stephen Larsen, Ph.D., director of the Stone Mountain Counseling Center *
Table of ContentsForeword by Graham Hancock
Acknowledgments
Preface: An Unknown Purpose in an Unknown Time
Introduction: An Expression of Their Worldview
SECTION I Exploring Ceremonial Stone Landscapes and Cultural Features Their Practical Purpose and Spiritual Connection
1 On the Neolithic in North America: Maritime Cultures and Mastodon Manipulation
2 Mysteries in Stone: The Big Picture
3 The Hammonasset Line: A Solstice Line across the Land
4 Serpent of the North: The Overlook Mountain/Draco Correlation
5 Cairns and Ceremonial Stone Sites in the Catskills
6 Turtles, Eyes, and Compass Stones
7 Frost Valley Inscriptions: More Ancient Mysteries in the Mountains
8 Alignments in the Northeast: Native, Natural, or Nonsense?
SECTION II Spirits in Stone, Science in Stone 9 Council Rock Mountain by Dave Gutkowski
10 The Ancestral Native Americans’ Sacred Landscape by David Johnson
11 Carnac: Stones for the Living--Pierre Mereaux’s Classic Work Translation and Commentary by Ros Strong
12 The Mystery of Orbs and the Work of Paul C. Muir
13 Mission Malta: Exploring Sound and Energy Properties of Ancient Architecture
SECTION III Spirits on the Land
Landscape Archaeology and Archaeoastronomy
14 Woodstock’s Main Streets Act as a Giant Compass and Cosmic Calendar
15 Dancing with the Devil, Dancing with the Sun: A Solstice Star Rise Alignment on the Hudson River
16 Stones and Stars Symposium: A Watershed Event Hosted at Colgate University
17 The Megalithic Revival: The Raising of Sophia
18 Site Preservation, Protection, Conservation, and Education
19 Concluding by Looking Forward
References
Index
