SYRACUSE - The summer sun had started to set on the end of a clear, cloudless day. The water was calm as the three men pushed their boat closer to the rock face. A few fishing boats floated nearby.
Then the screaming began. All three men. In unison.
“It was only moments later we realized we had broken the rules of proper boating etiquette,” said Francis Scardera. “We were all standing in the boat. And we were so loud in our excitement, it appeared we upset people.”
The Canadian high school archaeology teacher had rediscovered a rare example of Indian rock art long thought to have been erased by centuries of weathering. Scardera reported his find for the first time this fall at the Conference on Iroquois Research at The Rensselaerville Institute Conference Center.
The red ochre-streaked rock face was last recorded in a 1920 photograph kept by the New York State Museum in Albany.
“The photograph very much resembles what's out there today,” said State Archaeologist Christina Rieth. “If it is the same pictograph and it's still intact, it would be a pretty amazing find.”
There are only two known Indian pictographs in existence in the Northeast - both in Maine - and the only other known site in upstate New York was the “Painted Rocks of the Mohawk,” near Amsterdam, which have long been lost to history.
For the past seven summers, Scardera, who works at Loyola High School, a private, Jesuit school in Montreal, has moonlighted as a crew chief for a Colorado State University research team. The team is helping U.S. Army officials at Fort Drum search for any important archaeological sites that could be disturbed by ongoing construction to prepare for the infusion of 6,000 new soldiers.
Over two summers, the 38-year-old Scardera used his free time to search for the pictographs. Scardera said the drawings were so well hidden that the people who had owned the property for the past 15 years weren't even aware they were there.
Scardera said it appeared most of the pictographs are concentrated on a single limestone and sandstone panel, about three feet above the water.
“Unfortunately, the images have slowly faded over the years - effects of the elements. The images that have survived are difficult to decipher, and any attempt in identifying them at this stage would be pure speculation,” said Scardera.
“It was only moments later we realized we had broken the rules of proper boating etiquette,” said Francis Scardera. “We were all standing in the boat. And we were so loud in our excitement, it appeared we upset people.”
The Canadian high school archaeology teacher had rediscovered a rare example of Indian rock art long thought to have been erased by centuries of weathering. Scardera reported his find for the first time this fall at the Conference on Iroquois Research at The Rensselaerville Institute Conference Center.
The red ochre-streaked rock face was last recorded in a 1920 photograph kept by the New York State Museum in Albany.
“The photograph very much resembles what's out there today,” said State Archaeologist Christina Rieth. “If it is the same pictograph and it's still intact, it would be a pretty amazing find.”
There are only two known Indian pictographs in existence in the Northeast - both in Maine - and the only other known site in upstate New York was the “Painted Rocks of the Mohawk,” near Amsterdam, which have long been lost to history.
For the past seven summers, Scardera, who works at Loyola High School, a private, Jesuit school in Montreal, has moonlighted as a crew chief for a Colorado State University research team. The team is helping U.S. Army officials at Fort Drum search for any important archaeological sites that could be disturbed by ongoing construction to prepare for the infusion of 6,000 new soldiers.
Over two summers, the 38-year-old Scardera used his free time to search for the pictographs. Scardera said the drawings were so well hidden that the people who had owned the property for the past 15 years weren't even aware they were there.
Scardera said it appeared most of the pictographs are concentrated on a single limestone and sandstone panel, about three feet above the water.
“Unfortunately, the images have slowly faded over the years - effects of the elements. The images that have survived are difficult to decipher, and any attempt in identifying them at this stage would be pure speculation,” said Scardera.
The Citizens' Say
There are No comments posted.