The springs and headwaters in Sterling frequently have small rock pile sites, so I thought it would be worth exploring a bit more out there in "Wachusett Greenway" territory. I saw rock piles in three different places but the site looking north over Hy-Crest Pond was a bit different. This is a site with rock piles on top of boulders, all around a cellar hole. Having just seen this phenomenon last weekend around the Kibbe cellar hole in Carlisle it kind of stands out as a particular type of rock pile site. In addition to a cellar hole and rock piles on surrounding boulders, there were also examples of pile-gap-piles. For lack of a better phrase let's call this a "cellar hole rock pile site". Here is a view of the hilltop looking towards the pond:
When I stepped into the woods, I saw a first pile on a boulder, with a lot of debris on it:
And then, I saw several others. They were so covered with debris I figured them to be dumped soil and dirt - not a good sign. But later I decided they were just old piles.
Here was another:
And another:
I could not shake the doubt that these had something to do (something practical and mundane) with the cellar hole at the top of the hill. But these next ones reassured me:
A possible pile-gap-pile:
Not much doubt about this one:
If you go poking around in there, walk downhill to the east towards the brook. You'll come to a stone wall with a curious tumble of rocks along the wall. I did not photo it because it looked like a rock dump. But at the time, I was wondering if it was a collapsed chamber. The rocks were mostly of the same dimension and there was something a bit odd about the tumble. I should have photo'd it.So, if I see a site around a cellar hole again, I am going to look for:
- cellar hole
- pile on boulders around the hole
- pile-gap-pile (or wedged rock with very wide split)
5 comments :
Thanks for this report because just yesterday I found one nicely built cairn that is near a cellar hole (not on the 1926 USGS map, so it must be older than that), a pile gap pile, a very unusual break-out zone, and a stone wall where the water runs completely under the wall (old mill or something ceremonial?). Really perplexing.
Hi theseventhgeneration: please post pics. I am thinking pile-gap-pile may be a way of channeling energy; like Chinese "Feng Shui" (sic?). I am more used to seeing such things near the source of water or at a waterfall.
Yes, it may take me a day to put this together, but I'll post them. I want to try to write up a brief site map first, to try to give a visual of the set up.
I should have done that with my Hy-Crest pond cellar hole site.
A comment on cameras and color fidelity. Everyone's photos are coming out a bit yellowish these days. To be sure that is the predominant color out there in May and most of my pictures have the same problem. But occasionally my faithful little HP "colorsmart" camera gets it much closer to correct (picture #1, #4 in this blog post). Too bad HP stopped making cameras. I am going to have trouble replacing my little R827.
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