Solving the Mystery of the Safe Harbor Petroglyphs

Amid the rapids of the Susquehanna River near Safe Harbor in Lancaster County are many large rocks, partially submerged, with curious inscriptions. These petroglyphs-- carved in an assortment of animal shapes and mysterious symbols-- have boggled archaeologists and amateur historians ever since their discovery more than a century ago, and have led to some interesting theories.

One of the more intriguing theories is that the rocks were carved not by indigenous peoples, but by pirates who, after dropping anchor in the nearby Chesapeake Bay, paddled up the Susquehanna by canoe in order to hide their loot among the river's many islands, carving the rocks as cryptic signposts so they could retrieve their hidden treasure at a later date. This may seem like a far-fetched theory, at least until you encounter one of the more elaborate designs and wonder how such a carving could have been made by ancient natives without the aid of metal tools.

Nonetheless, the consensus among experts is that the symbols were carved by the Shenks Ferry Indians-- an Algonquin-speaking tribe which inhabited the area between 1300 and 1550 A.D., centuries before the Susquehannocks. The Shenks Ferry peoples were an agrarian society whose survival depended upon the "Three Sisters"-- maize, beans and squash. During this historical period, known to archaeologists as the Woodland Era, the Shenks Ferry people lived in circular, bark-covered huts and hunted and planted crops with stone implements.

The Lenape and Susquehannock inhabited the area during the era of European exploration, displacing the Shenks Ferry Indians. By 1550 the Susquehannocks became the primary inhabitants along the river, and continued to thrive until the 18th century, when smallpox and other diseases introduced by European settlers drove them to extinction.

Safe harbor petroglyph

Because the Susquehanna Valley has been inhabited by numerous tribes since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago, even experts cannot agree on  the exact date when the Safe Harbor petroglyphs were created. And there's even less agreement as to why they were carved in the first place.

Paul Nevin, an amateur archaeologist from York County who has studied the petroglyphs for over 30 years believes that they are 500 to 1,000 years old. “I think they regarded this as a special place, a sacred place, and they came here to this place to celebrate it,” Nevin said in an article published on PennLive in 2010. Kurt Carr, an archaeologist and curator at the State Museum in Harrisburg, estimates that the carvings are between 2,000 and 10,000 years old. According to Carr, the petroglyphs might have been a signpost to mark territory or to serve as a navigational aid.

Although I do not consider myself an expert on archaeology, I have always been fascinated by the Safe Harbor petroglyphs, and, with all due respect to the experts, I believe they've got it wrong.

My theory is that the Safe Harbor petroglyphs-- as well as the numerous other petroglyphs that can be found in the Lower Susquehanna (the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission states there are more than 1,000 of these carvings within a 23-mile stretch of the river) are not boundary markers or navigational aids at all. They do no indicate ideal spots to catch fish, and they were not used in ancient religious or coming-of-age rituals. The petroglyphs, I believe, are hunger stones.




What are Hunger Stones?


In many rivers throughout Europe, during periods of severe drought, large rocks that are normally submerged rise out of the shallow water. To the casual observer these stones may not seem like anything special, but look closer and you will discover that many of them have been adorned with symbols, carved centuries ago by people who-- much like the Shenks Ferry Indians-- depended on agriculture for survival.

An Elbe River hunger stone

In the days before Doppler radar and modern weather forecasting, these rocks and boulders, known as hunger stones, served as early warning systems alerting the local population that famine and starvation were imminent due to drought. When the water dropped to a certain level these carvings would appear, as if to declare, "If you can see this symbol, things are about to get real bad."

Although hunger stones can be found anywhere in the world, and while it is unclear when and where the first hunger stones were carved, they are found in particular abundance throughout central Europe. The Elbe River, which flows for nearly 700 miles through the Czech Republic and Germany, contains dozens of documented hunger stones, most of which were carved between the 12th and 19th centuries. In some cases these rocks are inscribed with dates memorializing great famines; in other cases they are inscribed with complete sentences. The Decin Stone in the Czech Republic, for instance, is inscribed with the phrase that (translated into English) reads: "Girl, don't weep and moan, if it's dry, water the field". The oldest carving on this stone dates to 1417. In the Elbe near the German town of Pirna is a hunger stone inscribed with the year 1115.

Of course the Czechs and Shenks Ferry Indians lived thousands of miles apart, but if one agrarian society carved a hunger stone in the Elbe in 1115, why would it be unreasonable to believe that another agrarian society carved a hunger stone in the Susquehanna in 1550? Since starvation is a universal threat, such a coincidence is not at all remarkable. But one thing that is perhaps remarkable is the fact that (according to a 2000 study) 35.6% of Czech males have y-chromosome haplogroup R1b, which is also common among certain indigenous peoples of North America.

Of course, there are some who may argue that the Safe Harbor petroglyphs can be seen outside of times of drought, but who can say, with any degree of accuracy, what the river level was 2000 or 10,000 years ago? Besides, the fact remains that some of the known Susquehanna River petroglyphs are only able to be viewed during low water levels.

I would also have to disagree strongly with the assertion by numerous experts that the Safe Harbor petroglyphs were carved by the Shenks Ferry Indians as a "navigational aid". Just who exactly would the Shenks Ferry people need to convey this message to? European explorers? Etienne Brule didn't explore the Susquehanna until 1615. The Susquehannocks? History tells us that the Susquehannocks were living in what is now New York state during the time the petroglyphs were most likely carved. The Shenks Ferry people were the only inhabitants of the area, and remained as such for a period of over 200 years.

Surely they would have no need for a map carved on rock. Although this group had no written language, they had an oral language passed down from generation to generation. As a result, every member of the tribe knew from an early age the best places to fish and how to safely get from Point A to Point B. They surely had no need for a map or a signpost carved on a rock in the middle of the river.

So what would be infinitely more valuable to an agrarian society than a signpost in order to ensure its survival? My guess would be a system for predicting famine.