Speaking of boulders and wedges, I went out to Arctic China state forest this weekend, to an area that is less than half a mile away from this rock pile site.
This piece of state land was on my radar to visit, but I was unpleasantly surprised to see that they were logging it (heavily) this past spring, so I missed my chance.
Walking up into the clear cut, I was surprised to find something worth taking a picture.
There are two boulders here. The hole is in the boulder to the left in this photo. That hole appears to be entirely natural, but I would guess it did not go unnoticed.
The only good thing about the clear cut is that it gives a good sense of how nice this spot is for sky watching. My camera lens cover was acting up, but I managed to get that fixed for the last few photos.Into the woods, just a few yards away from these boulders, is this structure. If you click on the photo to get a close up of the small rock in the middle, you can see it is red.
From this angle, there is another boulder visible right next to this rock pile.
The small, red colored wedge in the middle of this structure is reminiscent of the wedge in this photo below, which I've posted on Rock Piles before.
But this split wedge (above) is near water, so I would associate it with water, not a high peak or a boulder.However, this structure...
is on a high peak, also has a middle, or wedge rock that is red, and is also near a boulder, this time with a split...
which was clearly noticed, proof of which is the single rock on top, covering the split.
5 comments :
Since the spirits associated with these features were considered Underworld creatures, it would make sense to find them near water, rivers, brooks, springs, and swamps.
The records indicate the relationship the historic Indians had with split stone, and not at all a complete picture of the function of each individual feature we might find in the woods.
I have trouble with the concept of all split-wedged rocks being made to propitiate a spirit in the split. It certainly seems to be true for some split rocks packed with smaller rocks, sitting along a path. But details like the special use of red wedges are not [I suppose] discussed in the literature and I am not prepared to abandon the question of their meaning.
Anyway, that is a weird hole in the rock. Is that limestone?
Peter, I'm not saying these are all donation piles. I'm using the historical evidence to indicate the general relationship between the historic Indians and split stone.
If I was to make historical connections between the quartz or colored stones we find in fills and piles, then I would talk about what we know of how the historic Indians viewed stones with unique qualities.
Personally, I believe many stone structure sites in Rhode Island are burying places. I believe only certain persons were buried in stone, with piles of stones as markers -- likely Sachems and their families.
I also believe other stone structure sites I've seen are connected to historic and prehistoric Pniese training -- tests of strength and endurance for a group of teenaged boys done under the guidance of elders deep in the woods in secret -- like splitting a stone to release and propitiate a spirit, propping or pedestaling a boulder to prove their manhood, or rolling a boulder up a hill.
It is a really weird hole. It looks natural because inside the hole the rock is worn in a way that looks like a softer rock (maybe limestone) was washed away. It's smooth, but not in a way that looks like grinding.
This is the typical surface rock around here (sorry, I don't know what type of rock it is) and I've never seen that kind of a hole in that type of rock before. I have seen limestone deposits in outcrops here, but they are in layers.
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