By Brent Raynes
(Copyright 2008. Brent Raynes - All Rights Reserved)
Back in the summer of 1995, in No. 31 issue of Alternate Perceptions (when we were a print magazine), I wrote a feature entitled "The Clay Children of Earth."
It concerned the reverence ancient people had for clay, how they connected our very origin with it, and how science seems to offer evidence in support of that very notion. I'm thinking of revisiting this fascinating subject in one of my upcoming Reality Checking columns. I'd love comments or observations from any of you who might have knowledge of such ancient legends, scientific or archeological evidence, or just some thoughtful suggestions or ideas that you may have to offer.
In the meantime, for your enjoyment and consideration, here is my 1995 article:
Even today, after thousands of years it seems that red catlinite
formed from ancient clay deposits is still quarried by American Indians at Pipestone, Minnesota.By law only Native American Indians can excavate the ore there for their pipes.
www.uiowa.edu/~calvin/quarry_10.htm
This ancient site at Pipestone, Minnesota was reportedly visited by representatives from tribes all over the North American continent for centuries in order to obtain this red stone for their pipes. The color red was considered a sacred color of the earth. The smoke from the sacred pipe was regarded as a medium through which the Great Spirit and His children could commune together.
Many ancient cultures the world over held the pigment of red ocher as sacred and special. Ocher, made up of iron and lime, forms in clay. American Indians often painted the faces of their dead with a heavy layer of red ocher.
Dr. A. C. Ross, in his book "Mitakuye Oyasin," wrote:
"NASA chemists have presented evidence that life on earth may have gotten its start in clay. They have shown that clays attract the organic molecules that make up protein and DNA, the ingredients of life, possibly from the sea during high tide. ...
I was excited to read that what these scientists theorized is exactly what the Native Americans and the Bible were saying in their creation stories."
Dr. Lyall Watson, a widely-travelled author of considerable distinction, who has done extensive research in anthropology, archeology, and paleontology, speculated in his book "Lifetide" that all the hoopla over red ocher may have somehow indicated that early man had correctly identified it as the source of life on this planet!
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Elderly Indian Man Holding Peace Pipe |
Cairns-Smith argued that the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecule, found in all life on our planet, is pretty fragile, and he felt that it unlikely that it was the original source of genetic material. He saw the crystal as a likely candidate because it consists of matter that has the capacity to organize and replicate itself.
 Lescaux Cave Paintings, French Pyrenees  |
A burial site in France, estimated at 46,000 years, consisted of the remains of an old man whose body had been packed around with red ocher.
In Africa's Swaziland, the burial site of a child estimated at 80,000 years was found dusted with ash and ocher.
The oldest mine known in the world is near there, at a placed called Lion Cavern, and it was a red ocher mine.
The mine is so old that carbon dating has proven ineffective.
The Swazi, a southern African tribe, reside primarily in Swaziland. It is a small landlocked country of 6,704 square miles (17,363 square kilometers) in southern Africa. There are four distinctive levels of terrain: the high veld, middle veld, low veld, and the Lubombo mountain range. (A veld is a grassland.). The total number of Swazis is about 1 million people. The two major cities are Mbabane and Manzini."
The Swazis referred to such ocher mines as "Ibomvo," which means "the holy red" …
Bakgatla Land, Transvaal, Southern Africa
To the Bakgatla of the western Transvaal it was "the blood of the earth," and was an essential ingredient in the enactment of ancient rituals and ceremonies.