Prehistoric Fields - Las Cruces NM

 Prehistoric Fields - East Mesa of Las Cruces, NM

"...where every rock looks like a face..."

A late paleo arrowhead

I had a bit of luck yesterday. You might say a small bit of luck:

I think this is a transitional style like a "Dalton-Hardaway" but perhaps a little later.

Update: The fields are in awful shape. The tractors have beaten the surface and the corn stalks are lying, shredded, on the ground. Where they have re-conditioned the fields with harrowing, there has been no rain and all the surface is dusty, the same color as the dirt. I spent all day with my son, looking at the ground in MA and RI and we found almost nothing. So let's wait for a good rain before spending more time examining dust.

Celtic Ogham writing in the Southwestern US

Perhaps you have seen the Ogham (or Oggam) alphabet? Supposedly it was designed for messages written on a notched stick. Like this from Ancient Origins:

So, as far as I can tell, this writing system is common in the Southwest, because I keep seeing examples of it in videos. Like this one from "Trek Planner", who goes out in the desert near the 4-corners area and makes Go-Pro videos as he hikes and explores. Here is an example:

Now, I don't know how to read this, nor pretend that this form of the writing is identical to any I can find in Google image searches. But for my money, this is Ogham in Utah. I guess this makes me a UFO-ologist or a SASQUATCH-ologist. 

When things are said to have originated in Europe and only arisen in the US because of pre-historic voyaging, I routinely wonder if the flow might have been in the other direction: from the US to Europe. In this case, you wonder if anyone studies the history of Ogham, its variations and evolutions. Such a person might be asked to look at the above.

For reference, here is one version of the alphabet:

The "Fresh Water Fishing Place" (Woodbury CT)

 With a great deal of sadness, I have to report that the Diagonal Stone Fish Weir by the site of the Nonnewaug Wigwams is now very much gone.

 Almost all of the remnants of the weir were destroyed by a 2024 flood on the 69th anniversary of the Great Flood of August 18-19 in 1955: https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-one-in-thousand-flood-nonnewaugct.html

See also: 

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2024/10/last-of-stone-fish-weir-at-nonnewaug.html

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2024/10/more-of-final-days-of-nonnewaug-fish.html

The Friends of Pine 2024 Fall Program is well underway with more to come.

The Friends of Pine 2024 Fall Program is well underway with more to come.

But first, a reminder that tonight, Friday, October 18, the Littleton Lyceum is presenting :

Littleton’s Hidden Sacred-Shamanic Landscape: Sacred Stones, Vision Quest, and the Nashobah Praying Indians with Sagamore of the Nashobah Praying Indians, Strong Bear Medicine, and Littleton historian Daniel V. Boudillion at 7:30 PM.

 

Upcoming Pine Hawk Programs

Full descriptions of these programs are on our website https://www.pinehawk.org/2024-fall-programs/.

All Pine Hawk events are free but require registration at tinyurl.com/pinehawk-2024.

Burying the Trowel: A History of Controversy and Innovation in New England’s Cultural Stone Features Debate 

Tuesday, October 22, 7-8:30 PM in person at the Acton Memorial Library and via Zoom

Cultural anthropologist Kitty O’Riordan will make sense of contributions, clashes, and collaborations between avocational researchers and professional archaeologists in pursuit of understanding the unusual stone features that dot the woodlands and hillsides of New England.

 

Changes in the Land Book Discussion 

Tuesday, October 29, 7-8:30 PM in person at the Acton Memorial Library

All are invited to this in-person group discussion of William Cronon’s landmark environmental history of pre- and post-contact New England.

 

Community Service Day

Sunday, November 10, 1-3 PM in person

Assist with trail and site maintenance on the Nashoba Brook Conservation Land’s Trail Through Time, a multicultural heritage trail in North Acton. There will be an optional brunch beforehand at 11:30 am. Limited to 25, ages 13 and up. Details will be emailed to registrants a few days in advance.

 

Adult Archaeology Walk

Saturday, November 9, 10AM–noon, in person only. (Note new date)

Ian Bergmann, Land Stewardship Coordinator for the Town of Acton, will lead this hike along the Nashoba Brook Trail, with stops at the stone chamber and Native American ceremonial sites. Trail conditions can be rocky, uneven, and often wet, and thus participation is limited. Registrants will receive a detailed email several days before the walk. Limited to 20, ages 17 and up. (Previously scheduled for Oct. 19.)

 

A Day in the Life of a Local Archaeologist

Wednesday, November 20, 7 PM, in person at the Acton Memorial Library and via Zoom

Westford archaeologist David Gutbrod will share experiences and discoveries encountered in his professional life, from remote sensing projects in the South to an extensive report on a significant site in North Acton.

 

Native Americans and the Revolution: The Times are Exceedingly Altered

Thursday, December 5, 7 pm, at Acton Town Hall and via Zoom

Historian Daniel Mandell, author of Tribe, Race, History: Native Americans in Southern New England, 1780-1880, will present how the thousands of Native people in southern New England were involved in and impacted by the Revolution, and how they sought to secure their rights in different ways. Cosponsored with Acton 250.

 

For full descriptions of these free programs and to register, visit the Pine Hawk website at https://www.pinehawk.org/

The Friends of Pine Hawk 2024 Programs are presented with support from Acton Memorial Library and Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area.  

Jennison Rd - Shutesbury

[Reader Nicholas writes:]

I travel all over New England for work, and try to make it a point to have my rest-stops be in the area of some known stone site, chamber, local legend.

I made a stop last time in Shutesbury to visit the splendid Monk’s Chamber. Always happy to spend some time in there!

I left the chamber and began my ride on Jennison road, heading into Wendell. I was taking it slow and was able to spot a curious arrangement of stone about 30 ft off of the dirt road. A large farm was down the road a bit, but otherwise a sleepy and forgotten pasture was the only neighbor.

There were quite a few arrangements in fact, some bearing striking resemblance to other sites I have been to. It being so close to the Monk and Ames chambers, I figured it worth documenting a bit!

Happy Wanderings!
-Nicholas

Goat Hill - Uxbridge, MA

Reader Stacey writes:

I came across your blog when trying to find info about the stone structures that I’ve seen on Goat Hill in Uxbridge. I go hiking in this area often and nearly every time I see something I hadn’t noticed before. Here is a link with just some of the photos I’ve taken recently:  

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-1OMeuR7xAZqTVEu5mxr8Bysdv8eIAAP

Some info about the area: the hill overlooks the Blackstone River with Wolf Hill and Lookout Rock to the northeast on the other side of the river. Lookout Rock is said to have been used by Native Americans to oversee the valley. Goat Hill is deposited with huge glacial erratics and a ton of quartz. The eastern slope of the hill was utilized for the Blackstone Canal and towpath, but I don’t think the features on the upper terraces and the western/southern slopes are as modern as the canal. All throughout the area are old stonewalls (that look to vary in age and construction), cairns, rock piles, split boulders, rock shelters, manitou stones, and effigies. Many of these features seem to be “connected”, either in close proximity to one another or physically connected by stone walls.

The photos are really just a tiny portion of what’s there and I’m surprised I can’t find much online about it. If you haven’t explored this area, I think you would find it really interesting and would love to hear what you think. I think the photos have the location info attached, but I also have a map in CalTopo that I’ve marked the locations of some of the features. 

Pine Hawk: "New England Archaeological Discoveries" & more

Wed. Oct 9    "Archaeological Discoveries in New England"

Tues. Oct 15  "Ancient Winters at the Flagg Swamp Rockshelter"

Sat.  Oct 18    Adult Archaeology Walk  

Presented with support from Acton Memorial Library and Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area, events are free but require registration at tinyurl.com/pinehawk-2024

 

Sacred Stones, Vision Quest, and the Nashobah Praying Indians

 [From Dan Boudillion]

Sacred Stones, Vision Quest, and the Nashobah Praying Indians

 

 

Dear Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians!

 

Strong Bear Medicine and the Prayers in Stone Project Ceremonial Stone Landscape team will be presenting at the Littleton Lyceum on Friday, October 18, 2024 at 7:30 pm.  The venue is the Littleton High School Auditorium located at 56 King Street, Littleton, MA.

 

You will need to buy tickets for this event and can do so online:

https://www.littletonlyceum.org/  

 

Here is the full description of the presentation:

 

Littleton’s Hidden Sacred-Shamanic Landscape:

Sacred Stones, Vision Quest, and the Nashobah Praying Indians

 

Presented by the Prayers in Stone Project founders and Littleton residents: Sagamore Strong Bear Medicine & Historian Daniel V. Boudillion. 

 

Littleton is sacred ground.  We walk and live amongst a Native-made Spirit-dwelling landscape, a shamanic-world hidden just out of sight, set aside in 1654 by the Nashobah Praying Indians to preserve this sacred place.  Journey with us as we explore a world of ceremonial stone constructions, from antiquity to modern times, hidden all around us: prayers to Creator built of stone, spirit summoning enclosures, vision seats, spirit portals, manitou stones, solstice sunrise welcoming sites, sacred turtle effigies, serpent rows, and earthen dance-rings to name a few.  Tread softly here, this landscape lives, and is a place of communion between the Great Spirit and the human spirit. 

Strong Bear Medicine is the Sagamore of the Nashobah Praying Indians and spiritual custodian of these ancient sacred sites.  Daniel V. Boudillion is a Littleton historian, author, and sacred sites visionary. 

 

Link to Littleton Lyceum ticket sales:

https://www.littletonlyceum.org/  

 

 

Looking forward to seeing you all, presenting new information about our Native sacred landscape, and introducing the Prayers in Stone Project team!

Nolumbeka Project announcement

Marge Bruchac and Dan Shears in Turners Falls September 14. Click Here for Details 

Shadows on the Stone (Woodbridge CT)

 At Just the Right Moment

Are those marks made with the "stone/bone/horn/wooden Indigenous tools" from pre contact times, or were they made with post contact European steel stone masonry tools?

 I can answer that question very quickly: "I don't know."

Special thanks to Yehuda Jay Wolkoff for capturing the image and allowing me to use it here!

More here: https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2024/09/waking-up-on-turtle-island-again.html

Mike Luoma's Video Series

Mike gave me shout-out in this video. 

Ancient Stone Mysteries of New England - Feature Focus: Nashoba Brook Stone Prayers in Acton, MA (youtube.com)

Much appreciated. Nashoba Brook is where we all cut out teeth on the subject.

Natick Powwow - Sept 28

[More from Dan Boudillion]

Dear Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians,

We are happy to announce that the Praying Indians will be holding their annual Powwow in Natick on September 28 of this month. 

 Please see flyer, attached. We look forward to seeing you there!

Best wishes,

Dan Boudillion

Secretary

Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians 

Event: Strong Bear Medicine talk in Acton 9-17-2024

 [From Dan Boudillion:] 

Dear Friends of the Nashobah Praying Indians,

 

Please support Strong Bear Medicine who will be speaking in Acton on 9-17 at an event sponsored by the Sudbury Valley Trustees.

 

We are looking forward to partnering the SVT on this important talk.  It is the first time Strong Bear has presented in Acton. 

See flyer, attached. 

 

Registration required, see flyer, or here: https://www.svtweb.org/outdoor-voices-speaker-series  

An article about Canonchet and Rock Piles in General

I was impressed with this very thoroughly written article by Karen Ellsworth. It is about events in 2017.

A Mystery at Canonchet: Who Built the Stone Piles in...

But to me, reading it, there is an elephant in the room: Most of the people commenting on rock piles and the social impact of one or another interpretation, have seen maybe 1/20th of the data available in a short, couple-hour's drive. And they pay the price, I'll explain.

The writer is discussing how to "identify" a rock pile as Native American. And I come off as a bit of a scoundrel because I'm quoted saying that the Indians did not really know about these things a few years ago. But that doesn't mean the Indians aren't right. It also doesn't mean that "Indian-vs-European" is a valid dichotomy in discussing piles that are often from that post-colonial, historic period. 

The point I want to make is that if commenters on rock piles knew these things, and had seen 20x what they had already seen, they would know: You recognize an old friend when you see them. It's not complicated. It helps if you have a clue as to a place's function. I'm sorry, but making the ethnic authorship issue the highest priority, just shows your amateurishness. What is important is site design. I think it is the direction to look for answers.

I try to be supportive of alternate views, but the characters quoted in the article are mostly the worst proponents of a complex subject - they are front and center, making a lot of noise, making money doing it, and speaking as experts when they are not. 

A Stone Chamber in Mason NH

[Reader Nicholas writes:]

My good friend who lives in Mason, NH has caught intrigue from my infatuation with stone sites. He sent me these photos from a site 5 minutes from his house.

Haven’t been able to go get a good look at it, but 6’ high, about 20’ long and it seems to taper off. It’s a beaut of a chamber whatever period it’s from!

Just wanted to share, best wishes

-Nicholas Phelan

Dynamic Forests (Land Use) in Southern New England

Dynamic forests and flexible subsistence in pre-colonial southern New England: comment on Turner and Reid  

(Some interesting maps, mid-article).

A Few Interesting Photos by Harry Holstein

https://www.facebook.com/harry.holstein

Those "hobbit" fossils from Flores

 [Not rock pile related]

Discovery of "hobbit" fossils suggests tiny humans roamed Indonesian islands 700,000 years ago - CBS News

This article shows that the small hominid fossils from the Isle of Flores in the Pacific, were not examples of "island dwarfism", as they have now found more fossils, even older than the original find, and the older fossils are of a smaller species.

Let's take a moment to consider the implications. The first is that this is a branch of the human tree the split off the main "trunk" before Homo Erectus. That means earlier species were able to make the voyage. That means world-wide distribution much earlier than believed.

Prayers in Stone Project

 

Prayers In Stone Project

Native Sites Stewardship Program

Founded 2024 Sagamore Strong Bear Medicine & D.V.Boudillion

How do you know?

26 July 2024 Daniel V. Boudillion 

Several years ago I was at a Friends of Pine Hawk lecture on Native stone structures by two recognized experts in the field.  At one point while they were interpreting a type of stone structure, an audience member asked “But how do you know that?”  Much to the dismay of all there that night, they were unable to answer this question.  

This awkward situation left an impression on me.  It’s a question I often ask myself as I walk the woods and assess stonework as Native: “Yes, but how I know?”

 

This essay is not to answer this question, but to provide an illustration of people creating structures in the woods that resemble Native type structures, but are not.  It’s a cautious call to caution.  

On the recent Prayers in Stone survey of the local forestry property, I noticed some trees had been cut next to the forestry barn, and the wood left stacked there.  

I was intrigued because the wood was piled in a way – that were it stone and not wood – would likely have elicited a Native ceremonial origin assessment from me.  

 It illustrates that people pile things, often in the woods, in a manner that closely resembles the structures that we typically assess as Native-origin, ceremonial in nature.  If modern people can pile wood in a way that exactly resembles – were it in stone – constructions we would call Native, they can also pile stone as well in ways that look Native but are not.  

 

Which beings me back to the question: How do we know?

 

Please see below pictures of the “ceremonial” wood stacking.  

                          Log pile 1                           Log pile 2  

                                            Stick pile                              All three piles in view  

At the forestry barn large cut logs are stacked in a deliberately constructed pile on a boulder, much like these large rocks stacked on a boulder at Trails Through Time.  

These smaller “donation” sticks have been placed in a split rock at forestry barn.  This is much like the picture to the right of small donation stones placed in a large split rock.  

Here we have two large log lengths perched on a boulder in classic “rock-on-rock” style, as exemplified by the picture to the right.   

The picture to the left is of all three log pile constructions.  It has everything we look for: a variety of recognized styles, they are in a cluster, and the cluster is within an enclosure of stone rows.  Were this stone on stone, not wood on stone, we would assess it as Native.  

But its not Native.  This is the point, its not Native.  People pile things on boulders for a variety of reasons.  This is a perfect example.  Keep this in mind the next time you are working on assessments.  

                        Be cautious.  

Like the fellow said: “How do you know?”   

"Yellowstone Indian Remains" (Stone Cultural features)

 Searching to update a dead link on an old post (as I sometimes do), I came across some interesting images of some stone cultural features at a Game Drive: 

INDIAN REMAINS ON THE UPPER YELLOWSTONE*
By Col. Wm. S. Brackett.
  "The most interesting of the Indian remains on our ranch is at Buffalo Bluff, where there is a remarkable game drive. Under the cliff, which is about 40 feet high, the ground is white with the splintered bones of large game animals that have been driven over the precipice - buffaloes, elks, and deer. Above is a level plain stretching back for several miles into the foothills. The cliff is only about a hundred yards wide at the steep part where the game was driven over. How did they manage to make wild animals run to this narrow cliff and leap over? You can see at once how this was accomplished when you climb to the plain above. There can be seen two long lines, composed of piles of stones, stretching out on the plains, each line about half a mile long and diverging from the edge of the cliff like the two arms of an open fan. The piles of stones are about 10 feet apart and each stone heap is 2 to 3 feet in height. When the Indians last used this game drive, which was about fifteen years ago, they set up wooden stakes about 5 feet long in each stone pile. From stake to stake were stretched lines of stout buckskin cord, like wires on a barbed wire fence, and from these cords were hung at short intervals feathers, strips of bright cloth, and scraps of white buckskin, fluttering in the wind. Of course this fence could be easily broken through, but the frightened animals always turned back from the fluttering rags, feathers, and other objects hanging from the long lines of cords.
A heard of buffalos or deer was carefully surrounded by the Indian hunters, and then gradually driven toward the opening of the drive, which was over half a mile wide. Once within these lines, the hunters drove the heard toward the bluff, waving their blankets as they rode forward. The terror stricken animals rushed toward the precipice, keeping away and turning back in fright from the lines of "fence," which gradually converged toward the cliff. At last, in a wild stampede, the frantic animals were driven over the edge of the precipice, where those who were not killed outright were dispatched by another party of hunters below. Only spears and arrows were used below the cliff, because the noise of firearms would frighten back the animals approaching the edge of the bluff. Among the mass of crumbling white bones beneath this Buffalo Bluff (as it is called here), where so many wild animals have been slaughtered, you can today occasionally find spear and arrow heads, beautifully formed of shining black obsidian, or volcanic glass, the material being formed in large quantities on the great plateau of the Yellowstone National Park.

*Reprinted from "The American Field," Feb. 11, 1893

http://www.livingstonmuseums.org/pcm/pchsmain.html - dead link?

So see also: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/42112/pg42112-images.html

The Old Post (about an Old Rock Piles Post): https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2009/10/old-post-from-rock-piles-indian-bars.html

Ancient Hunting Walls in the Colorado Mountains

I was struck by the feature of a "seat" at the end of a wall. Here, the "seat" is where the hunters waited in hiding. We have such walls and seats here, in New England, but tend to imagine it is for sky-watching, not game hunting.

See full video:

11th Pocumtuck Homelands Festival

 

NEARA republished my old book on Rock Piles

I am glad this is now available again. Larry Harrop had hosted it and Walter VanRoggen has managed to rescue the book from Larry's data.

IndianRocks (neara.org)

Of course NEARA removed the site location details, so some parts of the data are not displayed. (But you can still find it in my new book.)

Upcoming Nashoba Events

Nashobah History Talk (Bear & Dan)

September 17, 7:00 pm Acton, Church of the Good Shepard

Sponsored by the SVT

Sacred Stones Talk (Bear & Dan)

October 18, 7:30 pm, Littleton

Sponsored by the Littleton Lyceum

Nashobah History Talk (Bear & Dan)

November 4, 1:00 pm, Lowell

Sponsored by the University of Lowell 

Ahh to be young again

 Rock Piles: "Peter is excited"

A rock pile found in an imminently threatened site for clearcutting

 Reader Nathan P. writes:

Dear Contributors,

I am writing after having discovered with a couple of friends a rock pile that is in a site that is imminently slated for clear cutting, in Lincoln, MA.  I attach a photo and would very much like to share more with you, if it can help pause the planned clearcut, at least to make a site assessment of significance, on land that I understand includes or is directly adjacent to lands of the Agawam, Massachusett, Nipmuc and Pawtucket.

The mound is not near any stone wall and is clearly of intention. It doesn’t look like a recent fire pit, even years old, as it is a mound not a pit.

I can show and visit the site with you at your convenience or give you detailed directions on how to access the site using a public right of way.  I put the coordinates from Google maps below. The site itself is on land legally owned by the City of Cambridge with a Town of Lincoln conservation easement allowing public access to and in the site. So there is no legal trespassing involved.

Location (within ~ 50 feet): 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ntaywiGYaQnFxVjm9?g_st=ic

Many thanks, 

Nathan Phillips, PhD 

617-997-1057