Oley Hills: The Cone-Shaped Cairns

By Norman Muller:

Much of what I have written about the Oley Hills site has focused on the stone features on the summit ridge, particularly the flat-topped cairns, Row-Platform, Platform ‘B’, the Terrace (labeled “Parapet” in the map below) and the Boulder (called erroneously “Erratic” in the map – it is in fact a tor), But there is also much of interest at the very bottom of the ridge, at the edge of a farmer’s field, particularly four large and well constructed cairns. There are three cone shaped cairns in a bramble patch on the north side of a field (see map below – but only one is indicated on it; the others are off the map to the right), and one magnificent cairn on the west side of the field. One of these four cairns was featured in the first article I wrote about the site in 1998, titled “Early Stone Cairns and Rows in Eastern Pennsylvania” and posted at www.neara.org/MULLER/intro.htm.

Map of Oley Hills Site:

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Cairn ‘C’Labeled Cairn ‘C’ on the map, this measures 2.0m (6.5’) high by 2.5m (8.2’) wide at the base, and is constructed on a boulder .7m (2’) high. If viewed on end, the cairn has a slightly pinched look, which is due to the oval shape of the boulder. In the view below, Fred Werkheiser, who first showed me the site on a cold November day in 1996, is standing to the left of the cairn.
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Cone Cairn ‘C’ end view
All three cairns were constructed on flat boulders of gneiss. There were at least one or two additional cairns in this area, but all that remains of them are a few scattered rocks on top of the support boulders. The rocks comprising the cairns were presumably used to construct the nearby walls.

By far, the most impressive cairn in this area is Cairn ‘D’, a magnificently constructed cairn at the west end of a field (see below).
Cone Cairn ‘D’As with the other cairns in the area, Cairn ‘D’ was constructed on a flat surfaced boulder 1m (39”) high. The cairn itself measures 2.5m high (8.2’) and is 2m (6.5’) wide at the base. It is also very well constructed, with all the facing stones being carefully chosen and also in plane, so that the exterior surface appears very even, unlike the other cone-shaped cairns in the vicinity (see Cairn ‘C’ for instance); only in back is there some damage to it, perhaps caused by a tree falling on it in the past. The precise workmanship found here is reflected in the other monumental cairns on the ridge crest (compare this cairn with others illustrated in www.neara.org/MULLER/intro.htm). Furthermore, this cairn is interestingly aligned with the Terrace on the ridge, so that if one stands in the very center of Platform ‘A’ and looked toward the eastern end of the Terrace, Cairn ‘D’ serves as a foresight (see the map above). Whether there is another explanation for this magnificent cairn is unknown at the present time. Based on size, shape and workmanship, it stands out from the other cairns, and must have served an important function. Obviously considerable time and effort went into its construction.

Cone Cairn ‘D’ Between the cairns at the base of the ridge, and those on top, there are dozens of small cairns that dot the steep slope, most of which are indicated by small crosses on the map. I interpret these as small commemorative cairns erected by supplicants who were drawn to the site because of the huge boulder on the summit, which perhaps once rocked, a phenomenal characteristic that made it especially powerful and sacred. These cairns remind me of the small cairns that William Noble found near a vision quest site in Ontario (“’Vision Pits’, Cairns and Petroglyphs at Rock Lake, Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario,” Ontario Archaeology 11 (1968) 47-64) and those described by Richard Jefferies and Paul Fish in Georgia (“Investigation of Two Stone Mound Localities Monroe County, Georgia,” University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology Series Report Number 17, Athens 1978); the dozens of smaller mounds that Jeffries and Fish described were arranged in a grid-like pattern below the larger mounds on the ridge top, and were thought to date to the same time period as the larger mound, which contained cremation material (p.54). The large boulder at the Oley Hills site undoubtedly served a similar purpose as the vision quest pits in Ontario, and the two large stone mounds that Jeffries and Fish described, in that it constituted the heart of the site and was the focus of attention to those who visited the site for ritualistic purposes, and all the other stone features were constructed in response to it. When the trees are free of leaves, one can stand at the bottom of the ridge on the east side and see the boulder looming above the crest, an impressive sight even from some distance away. A brief discussion of the boulder and its importance can be found in the Introduction to the web article “Stockbridge, VT, Cairn Site” at: www.rock-piles.com/stockbridge.