38 Archaeological Geology (Posters)

Monday, 19 March 2012
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Ballrooms A & C and Ballroom Pre-function Area

NATIVE AMERICAN NORTHEASTERN PETROLEUM GEOLOGY: UTILITARIAN AND SACRED

Paper number: 38-9
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 1:30 PM – 5:30 PM

Authors

  • Douglas Schwartz Presenting Author
    Native American Cultural Landscapes Study Group, Groton, CT

Abstract

Native Americans utilized oil springs for utilitarian and medicinal purposes, sinking thousands of pits to harvest crude and tar for their trading networks. It is clear they also attached great cosmological significance to these deposits in the northeastern United States and southern Canada. The nature of both these mines and the ceremonial stone architecture associated with these sites will be discussed.

Native American ceremonial stone constructions are frequently found in conjunction with geological anomalies, particularly faults. Faults were significant because they provided entrances to the underworld. Petroleum springs form a special class of such anomalies. It is apparent that the locations of the principal petroleum surface deposits had been mapped, and carefully integrated into the cosmological framework of a landscape perceived to be sacred.