Recognizing Signs of Paranormal Activity in The Archaeological Record

One of the most controversial challenges facing field archaeologists today is the identification of ritual activity in the prehistoric fossil record. As no site to date has contained artifacts labeled, For Ritual Use Only, it’s always a daunting challenge in itself to delineate utilitarian artifacts from ceremonial–a challenge beyond the purview of most archaeologists of the past. In recent years, however, a number of cross-disciplined specialists (like myself)–with concentrations in psychology, religious studies, and ancient history–have emerged from the field of anthropology, educated in recognizing the signs of ritual activity, and thus the realm of the paranormal.

Image via spiritofmaat.com

From January to August of 2009, I was part of a team excavating a 1,500–1,800-year-old Weeden Island/Safety Harbor shoreline midden (debris deposit) at Parque Narvaez on Boca Ciega Bay in St Petersburg, Florida, part of a site containing a large platform mound and two burial mounds first investigated by famed Florida archaeologist William Sears in the 1950s. Our primary objective was the retrieval of shell tools, animal bones, ornamentation, and other artifacts indicative of Weeden day-to-day life. Although a limited history of these industrious peoples has been slowly pieced together over the past 85 years, there is much we still don’t know about their social structure, division of labor, diet and food procurement, trade system, and religious practices, so this was an opportunity to add key elements to a prehistoric picture that could illuminate virtually every aspect of this remarkable culture. And while thousands of pots and pottery sherds, arrow and spear points, shell tools, shell and stone beads, bone hair pins, carved figurines, black pearls, and even articulated (in tact) skeletons have been unearthed from the vicinity, clear evidence of ritual activity has been elusive. And even though one can reasonably assume that any human remains found in this setting would have been ritually interred (and therefore done in accordance with early man‘s understanding of the paranormal realm), recognizing artifacts that reflect this supernatural relationship takes a keen eye for detail and an even keener understanding of human behavior.

To recognize signs of paranormal activity in the archaeo-record, one must first be well-versed on all that is known about a given culture. As regards the Weeden Island people of Florida, we know that they were among the most southern indigenous groups to be part of the Ohio Hopewellian “sphere” of influence which began about 2400 BP in southern Ohio. Best known for their elaborate mound and earthwork complexes built all across the Eastern half of what is present-day United States, the Hopewell are believed to have influenced architectural, artifact, and settlement design for virtually all native groups from the Rockies to the East Coast, as well as instituted the first continent-wide religious practices even known. And while we can’t know exactly what their rituals entailed, evidence of ritual behavior appearing repeatedly in thousands of mounds and ritual setting across the continent–from Maine to Florida–suggests a thoroughly integrated–almost intimate–relationship with paranormal activity.