ClayCoNews - New Discoveries Related to Red Bird Petroglyph

AROUND TOWN
by Susie Lambert

New Discoveries Related to Red Bird Petroglyph

The Red Bird Petroglyph

The Red Bird Petroglyph, located in the Stinson-Rawlings Park (across the street from the main picnic area) is a familiar sight to many of us. On December 7, 1994, the 50 ton stone broke away from the sandstone cliff it called home near the Red Bird River and rolled onto highway 66 at Lower Red Bird. On December 9, 1994, with the help and financial support of a number of people and institutions, it was transported to the Stinson-Rawlings Park where it remains today. The Red Bird Petroglyph has been known since pioneer days and is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites.

The 8 different "Old World" alphabets carved on the stone were extinct by the time Christopher Columbus arrived in the "New World" in 1492. The alphabets are first century Greek and Hebrew, Old Libyan, Old Arabic and Iberian-Punic (which probably dates from the 9th century B.C.) as well as Ogham, Germanic Runes and Tiffinag-Numidian.

Now why would so many diverse ancient peoples stop at this point and carve on the stone? This stone is located on an Indian path known as the Warrior's Trail. It's a good place to set up camp and rest. The trail starts around the Great Lakes in Michigan and goes down to Portsmith, Ohio where it crosses the Ohio River. It then goes up Licking River and crosses over to the Kentucky River Watershed. It continues on to Oneida where it goes upstream to the headwaters of the Red Bird River and on into Bell County, Kentucky, then across the Cumberland Gap to the Tennessee River Valley. It continues to head south to the Gulf of Mexico. In ancient times, people coming into North America over the Bering Straight used this trail to go from north to south and vice versa. Other peoples, already in North America, picked up the trail at different points along the way.

The Petroglyph stone fell from a cliff near the Red Bird River and landed approximately 2,000 yards from a recently discovered, narrow cave. There is carving inside the cave in Old Arabic or South Semetic. The cave entrance is also of stone where Ogham is carved. There is a stone outside the cave where carvings in Ogham, an early Celtic alphabet, and Old Arabic or South Semetic are also found. These carvings are just like some of those found on the Petroglyph stone that fell. Another fascinating feature is that during the winter solstice, the sun shines directly into the cave somewhat like a gun barrel!

About 20 miles upstream from the cave, in a tributary of the Red Bird River, resides another newly discovered phenomenon. There are 2 round, flat stones - one is up on end (not pictured) and the other one is in the brook. The stones are approximately 5 1/2 feet in diameter and 12 to 15 inches thick. While the concentric lines in the stones are thought to be a natural phenomenon, it appears that some of the lines have been deepeded by hand to create Ogham letters.

No matter how new or ancient a civilization, no matter how diverse the people or their beliefs, we all want to leave our mark to tell future generations, "We lived, we were here."