Just walking through the woods looking for rock piles. You see one like this and think: OK here's the good stuff.
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This is about rock piles and stone mound sites in New England. A balance is needed between keeping them secret and making them public. Also arrowheads, stone tools and other surface archaeology.
A Book about Rock Piles
Contact
rockpilesmail@gmail.com
Contributors
Blogs and Other Links
- Waking Up on Turtle Island
- Secret Landscapes
- Larry Harrop
- Two Headwaters
- Laurel Hill Walks
- Historical Writings on US Antiquities
- Traces In the Woods
- Ceremonial Stoneworks of the NorthEast
- Rock Piles of Northeast CT
- Pre-historic stone works in the Town of Catskill
- A New England Woodland
- Stone Wings
- The People of One Fire
- INSIDE NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR ARCHAEOLOGY
- Tispaquin's Revenge
- Menotomy Maps
- My Red Schoolhouse
- Bay States - the Bay Circuit Trail
- Rhode Island Footprints
- Derek Gunn's Amazing Massachusetts
- Relics of the Ancients
- Indian Stones/Cairns/Intentions
- Fort Devens Stone Wall MAP [PDF]
- STUPID SHEET
- Stone Ruins, Cellar Walls
- Hi Tor Stone Monuments
- Concord Lithics
- Indian Rockpiles by Peter Waksman
- Lithic Roxborough
- Chenango Archaeologists
- New England Megaliths
- Heritage Daily
- New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA)
- Stone Cairns of West -Central Texas
- Mojave Desert Blog
- Native American Research and Preservation, Inc
Blog Archive
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2007
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June
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- More nice piles
- More divided rocks with rockpiles
- More about West Virginia Rock Piles
- Two views of a split rock
- Millstone Hill Westford
- Problems with Internet
- More rock piles from reader Joshua E
- A reader writes in
- World Rockpiles--Scotland
- A brown and white pair
- More scenes from out west of here
- A small U structure
- Rock piles in Redding CT
- A very large rock pile - more from "out west of here"
- Juniper, Rock Pile, and flowering Mountain Laurel
- Interesting pics over at Rock Piles-Stone Walls
- More from out west of here - a big rock with radia...
- VIDEO: Native American Ritual Stone Structures of ...
- A big mound of a rock pile, undamaged. From west o...
- A rock pile with Mountain Laurel - from west of here
- More From Larry Harrop - Tefft Hill (RI)
- New From Larry Harrop - Wildcat Spring (RI)
- Rhode Island--Any News
- From a reader
- One more little example
- Spruce Hill site in Ohio Saved
- Split wedged rocks from out west of here
- Paquimé, Mexico: Fire-Signaling Features
- More pics from out west of here
- A place out west of here with "monumental" piles
- Kaaterskill, Part 2
- A manitou stone support
- Video clip of damaged pile - Leominster
- So happy to be home
- Kaaterskill, Green County, New York
- Connecticut town passes law to protect stone walls
- More AZ rock piles - broken down plant boxes
- A rock pile sign-post - a second AZ rock pile
- A first rock pile in AZ
- In Search of the Indian Doctress - by Margaret Bru...
- More pics from North Smithfield - Nipsachuck
- NEARA Field Trip to Boxborough, MA, Sunday June 24...
- Wall anomaly - from Richard Potts
- Delaware Water Gap
- From Norman Muller -- Photos From Russia And Web Page
- Some AZ rockpiles
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June
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6 comments :
I'm jealous of your surroundings.
:>
Piles of rocks are thick on the ground in your neck of the woods.
I'm curious what your theories are about the origins and age of these rock piles. Do you think they are deeply ancient (yes, I mean pre-Clovis!), or pioneer/civil war vintage?
In my admittedly limited exposure to native indian lore, I do not recall seeing any native group laying claim to rock construction that wasn't already attributed to them by academic ethnologists/archaeologists.
As far as I observe the vast majority of rock piles (at least the ones now visible) are recent. [I can see how quickly piles are destroyed by random phenomena and so when I see a whole collection of well formed piles I am confident they never were subjected to extended tree falling damage.]
Personally, I believe a lot if not most rock piles were created during the historic contact period. Maybe it is something like the "Ghost Dance" which was begun as a reaction to the European takeover. I don't know how else to explain this phenomenon of careful rock pile building in out of the way places - following similar building principles and situation principles - all up and down the Eastern seaboard.
I should also add that you should not be "jealous of your surroundings". I spend every weekend hunting rock piles and I have gotten good at it. Without knowing any more about it, I assume there are just as many to be found where you are. You just have not spent as long going out to look, or getting used to knowing where to look. Follow some brooks up stream into the woods, try doing it systematically, keep a close lookout at the ground to either side of the stream (back 30 yards or so) and if you still do not find anything it would be a surprise.
Thanks for the encouragement.
I'll try just that.
I have seen quite a number of cairns and walls in northwest Georgia that have been dated to around 1000 B.P., and they were in relatively good condition, similar in appearance to what we find in the Northeast. And the Oley Hills site in PA was tentatively dated to around 1100 B.P. Again, the stonework is in good condition. I mention this only to point out that it is very difficult to judge the age of cairns of any type.
Norman
Dating and the chronology of events is the main question of the subject. The answer is surely not simple.
It is possible that near here in Middlesex County MA there has been a datable sequence of forestations. Don't you think a large tree blowdown would take out a pile at Oley Hills? I just don't see how somewhat delicate piles could survive a direct hit from a large tree falling on them. How long since there were really big trees at Oley Hills?
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