A smidgeon of a site off the Philbin Solomon Trail in Bolton MA

I was poking around in the wet area downhill from a new development and saw rock piles at the edge of the water:These could be from field clearing except that, nearby, this one could not be:I was wondering about the rock that sticks out of the ground a few feet (to the left in the picture) from the pile. It might be lining up with another of the few rocks poking up nearby.But I did not see an alignment with the pile. Note, some of the rocks in the center of the pile are white feldspar.

I should add that the pile next to the water only has some of the characteristics of a field clearing pile - being messy and at the bottom of a slope. Other characteristics are absent: there is no sorting of sizes into adjacent piles, there is no angle of repose.

I kept trying out two alternative hypotheses, saying "this looks good to be from field clearing" or "this looks good to be a ceremonial pile". Walking through these old farm lands, the field clearing hypothesis is always near the surface of my thinking. As I went, I tried out one hypothesis or the other. Usually the ceremonial wins out - probably my bias but, on the other hand, I figure many of the farmers out here in Bolton (especially near Peach Hill) were probably Indians.