Some nice scenes at Rocky Pond

The last post (I promise) about Rock Pond [mentioned here]. I have many nice pictures and can't leave the subject without at least showing some of them:
Some sort of alignment:
Structures all over the place, sometimes subtle:Sometimes dramatic.

Here is a generic picture:
And my favorite:Up close:
It was at this place where I was convinced there were older broken down rock piles underfoot. Lots of damaged and mostly vanished structure. I felt this must be a place that had been used for ceremony over a long period of time. What a neat place!

And did I show these panoramas?The first picture at the top is a detail from the right-hand side of that boulder.

PHEW! Now I can get on to blogging Berlin, Littleton, Westford.

Split-wedged rocks from Rocky Pond - Boylston, MA

A few nice examples of split-wedged rocks. It seemed that the place (outlined here) was full of split-wedged rocks. I have already mentioned a couple of these but it is fun seeing the examples together.This next one was quite something, split along a quartz vein, this was northeast of the pond:
Here is the view back towards Rocky Pond.
Note the large boulder to the far left. Evidently this flat split-wedged rock came off of the large boulder originally.

Here is one more, shaped like a manitou stone:
And a view down into the split:
As I mentioned, split-wedged rocks were numerous to the east of Rock Pond; there were numerous small rock piles and split rocks next to rock piles. These seem to be specific to this location east of a lake.

Horned Creature Effigy

Having trouble keeping up with the new sites

I have been quite lucky for several weekends in a row and have been finding sites at a rate of about 4 per weekend. I still wanted to post some more about Rock Pond. But then there are new sites in Berlin, Sudbury, Littleton, and Westford. I am about 8 sites behind.

Preview

Peacock-Turkey Hybrid?

In Littleton, MA at the Hartwell Reserve Conservation Land I saw a young tom turkey and, when it moved off, I scared up its companion - some kind of peacock. At first I thought it might be a hen peacock but this aquamarine neck feathering is on the males. It had that little crown of bare feather shafts topped with tufts.The back, wing and tail feathers were more turkey-like than peacock-like: dark brown and barred. I am perhaps mis-remembering that a peacock has rust brown wing feathers - which this did not. Maybe it was just a juvenile male peacock hanging with a turkey. Or maybe it was a hybrid.
Sorry I could not get a better picture. There were several moments when both birds were in plain view but my camera was busy "processing" the previous picture.

Turtles sunning

This is what I have been waiting to see.I think it is now safe to hope the snow is past.

Sweat Lodges

Click here
Includes some discussion of the rock piles involved in a sweat lodge.

A nice little bit of writing

This is not rock pile related, except it is: Click here.

Gap and Pile - Examples from Rocky Pond

by PWAX
This is abut rock piles next to a split rocks. I wrote about "Gap and Pile" recently (here) and I saw a number of examples to the east of Rocky Pond (overview here). This may be akin to the split and filled boulders we have looked at in recent posts.
This one has the split filled in. Is this a single structure? How about this one?
Here's a beauty!
Come on - that's deliberate. And it reminds me of "Pile Gap Pile" (see here). What about the two piles upper-most in this cluster?I would venture that some of these examples are genuine structures with the obvious use: invoking something that lies within the split of the rock (as JimP is talking about in his discussion of Split Boulders here.) In a watery place like this, east of small natural lake, in the tumble of boulders, there was something particularly auspicious for using these structures. They are looking out to the water, they are looking out to the west. What are they seeking?

A good weekend

I have to catch up on blogging. The lack of posts is not for lack of material. Last weekend I saw three new rock pile sites and a fourth one that I had seen before. Sunday on my way out to a walk I arranged to drive past a particular cornfield in Concord and explore briefly. I found this after 10 minutes:This is a 1.25 inch long spearhead made of black rhyolite (called "felsite" around here). It is a standard design Stark Point from the mid to early Archaic (~3K BC) but I am not familiar with using this kind of black felsite for a Stark Point. That is coming from someone who has spent eight years finding stone tools and flaking debris around here. I attibute this new material use (for me) to the fact that most of my collecting has been in eastern Concord and this was across the river in the southwest of the town.

Anyway, with the four rock pile sites (not to be confused with arrowhead hunting sites) to show from last weekend, I need to finish up about Rocky Pond.

Jim P's new blog

As Jim mentioned he is now posting to his own blog "Massachuset" [Click here]
I am adding a link in the blogroll to the right. Head on over and check it out.

Article On Split Boulders

by JimP

I posted an article on my blog about split boulders. I'd be interested in your thoughts.

http://massachuset.blogspot.com/

Another split boulder from a high hill in Berlin

This is not split-filled but the pile acknowledges the adjacent split boulder.

Archeology Videos

Norman Muller writes in:

...check www.archaeologychannel.org. Some excellent videos, the most recent one being a 40 minute interview with the archaeologist who excavated the Oregon cave in which corpolites 14,300 years old were found.

Whitaker Swamp, Deposit, NY

by theseventhgeneration

Here are a few more photos of the boulder on the mountain that, I think, looks similar to the one in Berlin, MA.

The split in the boulder.



Above the split, one of the rocks used for fill was half in/half out, which proves to be a good support for a semi-standing stone on top.



This boulder is high up, near the top of the mountain. At the base of the mountain is the confluence of Oquaga Creek and the West Branch of the Delaware River. From what I've been able to find on the history of Deposit, about 40 acres of flat land, now between the railroad tracks and Oquaga Creek, were farmed by Native Americans. Above the bank of the West Branch, opposite the mouth of Oquaga Creek, was the council ground. Click here for the link.

I found some rock piles, not near this boulder, to the south and southwest. But first, this area in between, which I can't tell if it is just an area of field clearing and garbage dump, or if there really is something going on here. I would dismiss it if I didn't notice that funny curve in the stone row (you may have to click on the photo to get a better look).



This rock pile picture gives a view of the field and garbage dump in the background.



Then, a short distance away was another small rock pile site. Here is one of the piles.



And a bit further beyond that was something like a short (15 ft) stone row. In this photo of it, you might be able to see the blue paint on the trees. The small rock pile site nearby also had trees marked with blue paint. Possibly, these trees are marked for cutting.

Finding a rock pile site at Rocky Pond Boylston, MA

This is public access land of the "Rocky Pond Community Forest" in Boylston, MA, a town west of Boston, and is a rock pile site that is in plain view as you walk along the yellow dot trail, accessed from the south of the pond. I am giving the location because the site is 1) public; 2) in plain view; 3) already damaged; 4) not containing burials (in my opinion) . As I came in I got off the trail to the right scanning uphill for structures and saw some piled rock that could have been part of a damaged stone wall. Then I saw this and thought: "at least there is this": This is the kind of view of the slope: Not too encouraging. But then this next thing had to be ceremonial:Then I turned back the way I came but higher on the hill, following another loose line of piled rocks, perhaps more a damaged wall. And then...Shazaam! Here is the view: Nice pile, looking down at the southern end of the Pond. At this point I was having trouble continuing to think this was not a rock pile site. In fact from then on, exploring for the next quarter mile along the eastern side of the lake, all one big breakout zone, there were rock piles in view most of the time. By a "breakout zone" I mean a place where water comes out of the ground and erodes soil away leaving a field of boulders and rocks. In this case there were hundreds of small man made piles mixed in with the tumble of rocks and boulders. Like this: There were many examples of split-wedged rocks and several split boulders with a rock pile next to them. I was seeing a pattern in Stirling of rock pile sites located on the eastern sides of lakes. Here in Boylston, a waterway or so to the southeast and perhaps 15 miles away, it might or might not be something similar. I'll show more pictures later.

A boundary indicator rock pile

This is an isolated pile. The middle rock, the one that is slightly pointed, has recent red paint on it. So it is probably just what it looks like, a boundary marker. It is from northeast of Rocky Pond in Boylston, MA.

Gap and Pile

I don't know if this is a real example but is it a coincidence that in an area with very few rock structures this one would show up in the context of a divided boulder? This is from northeast of Rock Pond in Bolyston, MA.

Other topo map sites

I tried www.MyTopo.com and thought it was pretty good, except that the map display is limited to a portion of the viewing window.

Then I found a list of all the blog posts of people who, like me, are bemoaning the loss of topozone.com. There I found a number of other suggested sites. This one http://mapper.acme.com/ is much more window-filling and looks to become my default replacement for topozone.

On a mountain, above Cokeose (Deposit) and the West Branch of the Delaware River, NY

Notice any similarities to the photo from Berlin, MA?

View west to Wachusett Reservoir from a high hill in Berlin, MA

A beautiful little rock pile

If you drive around the north end of Rocky Pond in Boylston, MA you might see a small rock pile site at a high point of the topography. I got a couple of pictures from there, including this charming little pile. See what is in the middle? Here is a closeup: What a pretty little pile. Here is one more view:I might as well show a few other pictures from this site. Here is the view from the road:Some details: Goodbye, we'll not see these piles again.

RIP Topozone

For several years I have been using Topozone as a research tool, motoring around through their topographic maps, looking at features, scoping out the countryside. Also I would get the map fragments I use for blog posts from Topozone. So now they were purchased by Trails.com and are under a subscription only basis. Imagine my chagrin to see it costs $14 per month to use it. Drat!

OK, I am not willing to give up so easily. It is harder to navigate but historic topo maps are also online like this one:
Update: When I said it was harder to navigate, that was an understatement. But I got something that can help. The state of Massachusetts puts out a map viewer. Phew! I was getting nervous my access to topos was going to get be blocked.
http://maps.massgis.state.ma.us/MassGISTopos/viewer.htm

Update 2: Thank you http://www.mytopo.com/mapslatlon.cfm
This is a close match to the topozone experience.

Update 3: My all-time favorite http://mapper.acme.com/

NEARA Conference April 25-27, Northampton MA

[Click here for details]
From my perspective most of the fun is on Saturday, with Norman Muller talking at 2:15 about "Glastonbury Mountain Cairns" and with Fred Meli in the after dinner time-slot talking about Nipsachuck.

Rock Piles in a Breakout Zone East of Rocky Pond

Algonquian Culture

This might be of interest
http://www.algonquinculture.org/

A little birdie told me...

by PWAX...there is a pretty big ceremonial site (in plain view, damaged, and not burial related) east of Rocky Pond in Boylston, MA. I'll tell you about it.