Ron et al,
Carmen is referring to an email I sent her. I took her photo and showed it to Dongya Yang down the hall from me:
http://www.sfu.ca/archaeology/faculty/yang/index.html
Dongya is a native Chinese speaker, and was clear that the characters in photo say "heaven" (top character) and "big" (character under that). It is clear that the item is broken and has several other Chinese characters surrounding these two.
Dongya is not a linguist nor an anthropologist of language, but he did say (as a native speaker) that Chinese characters can vary somewhat in meaning depending on the context of other characters around them.
Carmen - I'm sure he's happy to be cited as "pers. comm." in a report, but obviously for a "serious" analysis of the characters you would want a trained Chinese linguist....
Ross
Ross W. Jamieson
Associate Professor, Archaeology
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6
tel. (778) 782-3087
fax (778) 782-5666
http://www.sfu.ca/person/rossjami/
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron May" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, 29 September, 2009 00:22:35 GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: rock carved with asian symbols in North Idaho?
You really need to document who said what about rock art. Unless I hear it
from a Native American who can vouch for older generations as the source, I
would be really cautious about interpreting symbols.
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
In a message dated 9/28/2009 11:31:17 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
I found someone who thought that the two whole symbols translate as
"heaven" and "big" but it's not a lot to go on. Also, I was told that the
writing was not "normative". I also believe there must have been more to it in
size originally but it has since broken apart. I wonder, do you still think
it would be a keepsake or fetish if it was actually larger than it is
now? know that it's rather large and heavy for a portable fetish or keepsake.
I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you, Carmen
> Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:44:22 -0700
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: rock carved with asian symbols in North Idaho?
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> The size suggests it might be a keepsake or fetish. I suggest you show it
> to someone who can read Chinese characters.
>
>
> Allen Dart, RPA, Executive Director
> Old Pueblo Archaeology Center
> PO Box 40577
> Tucson AZ 85717-0577 USA
> 520-798-1201 office, 520-798-1966 fax
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> URL: www.oldpueblo.org
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > This rock was found recently near Priest Lake, Idaho.
> > I was wondering if anyone has seen something similar or could identify
the
> > characters. The carvings are raised, not engraved. The rock is hard
and
> > fine
> > grained. I do not know how the carvings were done. I wet the rock with
> > water to make the characters stand out more for the photos. When dry,
the
> > rock is a light gray I am interested in it's meaning and purpose. Could
> > it be a
> > grave marker? It looks as if the rock was bigger at one time but was
> > broken
> > apart long ago based on the smoothness and wear. I have been told that
> > many years ago, Asian laborers were brought into the United States from
> > Canada on a trail through this area, perhaps it was carved during that
> > time?
> > Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Carmen.
> >
> > View the photos at:
> >
> > http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=383329026/a=512041026_
> > 512041026/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/
> >
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