Announcement from Mike Luoma

Mike Luoma shares his findings from the Spring at Indian Brook Reservoir Park, Essex, Vermont, including new stone rows, a Boulder Headed Serpent Effigy, and other artifacts, and invites you to engage with his work through his Facebook Group and YouTube Channel.

Note

Review the stonework features documented by Mike Luoma in the published video and consider contributing to his Ancient Stone Mysteries of New England Facebook Group or YouTube Channel. here

Mt Elam - more from reader James O.

Today I went out to Mt Elam, and though I was done in by the sea of mountain laurel (grade C according to your scale in “Shadow under the rock”) I did manage to find some interesting sites well away from the brook that you discuss.

Of greatest interest was a large pile with one obvious hollow and a second less defined depression. A beautiful diamond shaped quartz rock was along the rim of the main hollow. Next to this was a row of mostly buried rock stacks, each with one large flat rock atop a couple layers of smaller ones. I dug down to reveal the stack beneath, and I have included a diagram. 

Nearby were two other piles with hollows, each with a single quartz stone somewhere on top.

Here are the photos of the mound, hollow, quartz stone (loosely Manitou shaped) and one of the (slightly) excavated piles from the row. 

Swedes are excited to find one arrowhead

 Crystalline arrowhead among new discoveries at Hedkammen

This find would be a bad day in RI. Which highlights how there are so many more arrowheads in the US compared to Europe.

Hubbard Hill Structure and Turtle (Concord, MA)

[From reader James O:]

After walking along them for my whole life, I began studying rock walls in earnest a few years ago. ...

Today I decided to poke around Estabrook to prepare for a trip with some students (I teach at Concord-Carlisle) and thought I would take some time to look for rocks as well. I think I approached the topic with an appropriate skepticism, but after today my interest has been piqued. 

I walked up Hubbard's Hill and was immediately struck by the resemblance of this large rock to a snapping turtle head. To my amazement, the tip of the "nose" was pointed directly north. 

I later found the stone chamber. After noticing that the top of the hill seemed south-ish from the chamber, I took out my compass and walked as straight a line as I could due south. As it turned out, the turtle was pointing directly at the chamber. 

I didn't see any mention of this on the rockpiles blog, and was curious if you had ever noticed it and what your thoughts are. Any information you have on the chamber would also be greatly appreciated. I grew up in Harvard and once entered the chamber there when I was a kid. I'll have to revisit that site one of these days. 

I have also attached photos of a parent/chick barred owl from Hubbard Hill, and a fawn I found at the spring west of the Yellow Birch Swamp. 

How white guys reconstruct rock piles.

Around 1:58 in this video it shows a "burial mound" rock pile, that was excavated and then "reconstructed". 

Fort Ancient: A Glimpse of Ancient America

I never saw a rock pile built like that. Or, look at this one (from guideofgreece.com):

With some authority I claim Indians usually stacked stones on top of each other. In particular, you never see a paved dome. It reminds me of another (from M. Gage):

So, it seems likely this is the appearance of a fake rock pile.

Proud of my Desktop

That is "Soutrean" blades on the top row, as well as broken bi-points and a rounded base in the second row. All from the Las Vegas area. The material is Jasper, with Carnelian on the upper right. The bottom row includes the arrowhead I just found in southern MA, made from Argillite, and three Quartz blades from coastal RI. Black and white.

I am excited about finding one arrowhead

But unlike the Germans (of previous post) it is because I have not found one in a month. Here it is. After examination, I decided it is an asymmetric shouldered point. Kind of a "Merrimack". Or a "Narragansett" in my vocabulary. It is like the smaller quartz points and is broader and flatter. But I think it is still that kind of shape.

Video here:

Germans are excited by finding one arrowhead

I continue to be puzzled by the observation that Europe has almost no arrowheads. Here, a single one is considered an outstanding discovery:

Rare 4,500-year-old Stone Age artifact found in Germany | Miami Herald