Petroform

Petroforms in North America were originally made by various Native American and First Nation tribes, who used various terms to describe them.

They were originally made in North America by native peoples for astronomical, religious, sacred, healing, mnemonic devices, and teaching purposes.

Stone circles are still being made in Wales as part of the Eisteddfod movement, which incorporates this among other elements from the Druidic revival.

In some instances, rocks are aligned near the entrance and fire of sweat lodge ceremonies that symbolize the Moon, the Sun and other things.

A large turtle petroform of piled up boulders was recently made in the Whiteshell Park area of Manitoba.

[citation needed] In some cases, petroforms were made by non-literate cultures who have left no written record of whatever reasons led them to construct these forms.

Higher ground allowed humans to carefully observe the horizon to mark and measure astronomical events.

Petroforms are similar in some ways to medicine wheels which are also aligned with sunrises and sunsets, equinoxes, solstices, lunar events, and star patterns.

Petroforms also mirrored the night sky, and the patterns of the stars, similar to astrological signs and symbols.

The desert kites of Syria, Jordan, and the Negev—long lines of stones—are interpreted as aids to hunting large game animals like gazelles, ibexes, wild asses.

Whiteshell Provincial Park petroforms are located on top of the granite ridges that snake through the forest and wetlands landscape.

In memory of a person or the history about a place, these markers help future generations to learn about the past.

Some large boulders in North America have long stories that relate to the area and a memory about that place.

One of the locations of petroform sites, including effigies, is in Southeastern Manitoba, in Whiteshell Provincial Park, Canada.

The natural landscape of the park, with many movable rocks and boulders left behind after the last ice age, gave humans the easy opportunity to arrange them into many human-made patterns.

A very wide variety of petroform shapes are found in the park, including snakes, turtles, geometric lines, patterns, and large circles.

The granite ridges and hills are often very flat in areas, resembling a large concrete parking lot.

across the prairies, large circular medicine wheels were made as astronomical devices, directional maps, and for ceremonial use.

Some are intact, such as in the Turtle Mountains, and other sandy, rocky, or more remote areas that had less crop farms and settlements.

that larger mounds would have served as dikes and defensive fortifications, including providing higher ground to keep watch.