Playing Hooky.

Now that the last "epic" [mastodons et al] is over, I'm going to relax a bit. Doing those almost-a-review-paper type entries is just a little too much at the moment. Instead, I'm going to fish a while in shallow waters... probably catching nothing, but maybe blundering upon little bits of weirdness which might be mildly entertaining --- and who knows?, could point to bigger things. Whatever the result, these things are going to be shorter.

Today: a little housekeeping from the info on the A.Hyatt Verrill dig at Cocle, Panama. In the mass of stuff unearthed were pottery vessels having painted on them things labeled by the archaeologists as "unidentified animals". Well, "I've got your identification, right here".

The thing on the left above ["a"] is a serpentine beast, but with the peculiar feature of [stylized] forelegs just past the head, but no other pairs. This is a feature of "mythological?" creatures going back to Mesopotamia  [one of our mis-named "dragon types"] which also is prominent on the Pacific coast of the Americas. In the Pacific NW, it is a feature of tales and glyphs of the Wasgo or Sisiutl monster, which may relate to the Pacific NW sea serpent and even Ogopogo.

The second bowl ["b"] is a different version of the same thing. In Native American craft of the Pacific NW, the Wasgo or Sisiutl is painted on "banners" and canoes as a symbol of power in the waters. It is the two-headed thing here simply to represent that it protects all ways. I find the other "flares" of the design of the bowl art eerily matching of the face and plumes of the Pacific NW version above.

So, we were communicating our culture and our myths [and our monsters?] all up and down the Americas pre-Columbus.

On another bowl. Ah, I speculate, I know what THIS is: a Dragon! Wait a minute Bud, you say, that looks like a chicken or a parrot to me! Hmmmm.... maybe you're right.... could be, I guess.

No, wait a minute!! The archaeologists are on my side. Dragon it is.

Till next time, fishin' in the shallows....