Manitou: Sacred Landscape of New England's Native Civilization

(Paperback)

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Description

In the summer of 1974 Byron Dix discovered in Vermont the first of many areas in New England believed to be ancient Native American ritual sites. Dix and coauthor James Mavor tell the fascinating story of the discovery and exploration of these many stone structures and standing stones, whose placement in the surrounding landscape suggests that they played an important role in celestial observation and shamanic ritual.

Reviews

". . . among the few innovative advances in the field of New England archaeology in recent years . . . looks at a class of data which are ordinarily overlooked by both prehistorians and historians, and begins to fit them into a new paradigm . . . sensitively written and generally well-supported by documentary and excavational evidence." * Massachusettes Archaeological Society *
"Through this work we see our landscape anew. Now when we go to the woods, where before we saw just low walls, we have learned to see stone mounds and marked trees, vigil places, pointer, marker, and god stones. Walking there has come to be an honoring of a time when all life was holy." * Nancy Jack Todd, Annals of the Earth *
"This ground-breaking treatment, handsomely illustrated with photos, maps, and line drawings, will unquestionably propel the emerging field of American geomancy considerably forward. A contemplation of the manitou worldview, presented here with excellence and mature excitement, yields a radically different appraisal of a fundamental aspect of our national history and geography, while suggesting new land use and conservation parameters for the future." * Yoga Journal *

Author Bio

James Mavor was an oceanographic engineer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. He was one of the designers of the deep submersible Alvin, and he initiated the Minoan excavations on Thera, which culminated in the publication of Voyage to Atlantis. Byron Dix, now deceased, was an optical designer. For fifteen years they worked together researching New England anthropology and archaeo-astronomy.