Monday, April 03, 2006

Quartz Outline near a vernal pond on a hill in Shirley

I did not find anything during my planned exploration in Shirley this Sunday so I decided to go re-visit a site where I remembered an interesting outline made of quartz blocks. My friend from Carlisle and I found this site when I did not have a digital camera.

We found little else of interest at the time except this one point where there was a little spring fed puddle with a few features around it. Here are the small indicators that this spot was a sacred site. A rock-on-rock:A split-wedged rock, with its feet in the water:
Note the drill holes used to split the rock and note that no rock was removed. The split appears to have been intended to create a split rock, and not for another reason. The round glacial cobble that was shoved down in the split is not part of this rock.

Here was another rock-on-rock:

I came back to this site to get some photos of this outline made from quartz:
I addition to the main outline, there is a smaller outline behind and to the right. The plan of these outlines and their orientation, is something like this:
I did not notice before that the larger outline was only partially made of quartz and I did not notice that opposite the quartz was a noticable red stone. I believe these colors are crucial to the meaning of this artifact. Here is a detail of some of the quartz:
And here is a detail of the red stone opposite them:
The stone is a deep rich red color - a type of marbled quartzite.

Here, finally is the smaller outline. I should have cleaned off more of the leaves so it would be easier to see.
This would be barely big enough for a person to sit in. Also in this smaller outline, again not shown well by the photo, there was one noticeable piece of quartz - a sort of yellow piece at 3 oclock.

It is a small site but that quartz outline is a unique feature.

No comments :