| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Bookworm |
Posted - May 17 2009 : 8:55:22 PM
Readers of Tony Hillerman's Navajo Tribal Police novels -- and there are quite a few of us here -- will recall his many descriptions of the amazingly rugged landscape of Dinetah, the homeland of the Dine, or Navajo. Archeologists have identified more than 200 high defensive sites throughout that landscape that would have provided refuges inaccessible to Spanish explorers and unfriendly tribes once the ladders that provided access were pulled up. Now some archaeologists are conducting experiments with special flares to see whether smoke signals could have been sent from those sites to warn neighboring communities that invaders were coming:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NM_SMOKE_SIGNALS_NMOL-?SITE=NMSAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
It's not absolutely certain that smoke signals were used as an early warning system, but it sure would have seemed logical to do so. Just ask any fan of "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"! And the Scots used a similar system to warn of the English coming over the border. It's fascinating to read of how more can be learned, even now, of the way life was lived 300 years ago.
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| 1 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Monadnock Guide |
Posted - May 18 2009 : 07:56:25 AM
As long as it wasn't too windy, I suppose smoke would work ok for some sort of communication. Awhile back I read a book written by a sea captain who had put in along the west coasts of both north and south America in the early 1700's. They hunted and took on water whenever possible. Some of the descriptions of those areas and the peoples inhabiting them were a good places to avoid if possible. They did run into some "friendly" (for awhile) folks, but often that wasn't the case. Many were malnourished even by seamans standards of the day, naked and warlike. |
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