Saturday, January 02, 2021

Year in Review - 2020

January

Invisible mounds in Woods Hole. Here is one. Can you see it? 

More Mounds at Sippewisett (Biggest mounds found (with the help of Johannes Raatz) yet on Cape Cod:

February
Tributaries of the Three Mile River, Taunton. Little piles in the woods.
Ash Brook Swamp, North Cumberland RI. Little piles in the snow:
[Somewhere around here a PANDEMIC STARTED!]
March
No new sites
April
Revisiting the Kibbe (Kibby) Cellar Hole. Plenty of mystery.
Revisiting Manitou's "Boulder Ridge":
May
No new sites but continuing the argument for publicizing sites rather than keeping them secret.
[No one talks about the downside of keeping sites a secret. It means you are being anti social and are not pursuing science. Vandals are kept out but those holding the secret become the vandals - to all practical purposes.]
June
No new sites
July
I was told about a site in Mendon Town Forest. Hollows of different ages. (Note the quartz "window")
August
No new sites
September
Seems the only news was the casting down of Holliston's George Washington Stone
October
No new sites
November
A few minor sites and the ongoing discussion of turtle shaped rocks and piles.
December
Tommy Hudson reports on the Mountain View II site.

I found a little site in Canton, driving down Rt 24
So that was the year. Things are winding down and the pandemic didn't help - although it can't be blamed for my not getting out in the woods more. 

It is sort of sad how, with or without a pandemic, the excitement of discovery and a world in which new sites are actively pursued may already be passing on. The subject cannot be new forever.

Happy NEW year.

2 comments :

Chris Pittman said...

You and this blog have greatly advanced our awareness of these features, and interest in them. Progress has been made, thanks to you, in our collective understanding.

Are we at the point, now, where archaeology is needed to reach a new level of understanding? To go beyond speculation, and produce data?

And if archaeologists aren't interested in digging at these places? Or if the digs don't provide answers, because there is nothing there to find besides the stones, anymore?

Even if no additional answers are forthcoming: the site documentation shared here is a body of work that represents an invaluable resource.

Posting about these places on a social media site like Facebook might attract new voices to the conversation, but I imagine that people who are interested in this sort of thing will find this blog in any case.

pwax said...

Thanks Chris. I still hope you will spend more time at rock pile sites. They are not as precious as arrowheads but it is fun and more of a challenge.