Rock piles with tails

I am going to keep talking about this topic, since it came up in my explorations as described here and here. After writing those posts I had feedback from reader Keith that he has seen piles with tails (south of the Mass. Pike??) and from Norman Muller who first documented piles with tails in his description of the Stockbridge VT Cairn site [click here, then go to the third page and scroll down]. I'll quote from Norman's article:

"Similarly, more than 200 miles to the south, at the Oley Hills site, is Platform B (Fig. 15), a large stone platform with a terrace-like extension at the north end that ended at some large boulders, from above looking like the curved tail of a scorpion (Fig. 16). The similar morphology among these three examples is more than a coincidence, I believe, and reflects a widespread cultural and architectural response to the landscape. " (Take a look at Figures 4, 12, 14, and 15 from his report.)

So that is the background; I came to the same conclusion about a particular culture. Let's collect together some of the pictures. Here is Norman's Fig.14 (from VT)
And his Fig 15 (from PA, showing the tail with the main pile to the left of the picture)
And two examples I saw the other weekend (from Carlisle)
And I must add also the picture of the main pile at Apron Hill, Boylston MA
Now, for better or worse, I took Apron Hill as the defining "archtypical" example of the Wachusett Tradition. So I am obliged to see these other sites with the same peculiar rock pile type as other examples of that Tradition and re-use the name. [It is just a word but it is in my head now; serving to organize other thoughts - a point of reference.]

A couple of questions:

• what is the tail for?
• are all tails alike (some have more of a knob on the end)?
• what is the distribution of piles with tails?
• why do the tails curl clockwise only [so far anyway]?
• what is the cause or purpose of the hollow so often seen at the opposite end of the pile from the tail?
  

Along the lines of the question about where these piles are found, I am currently associating them to Wachusett and the inland regions. But I find these piles mostly low down near the water (so they are not necessarily at a high "outlook", as I first thought). So my hypothesis is: look for these piles along the south and eastern side of bodies of water, in the inland regions about Mt Wachusett. To test this I went out last weekend, driving 50 miles to get somewhere that seemed likely - parked, stepped out, and saw a pile with a tail. I'll post about that soon.

Speaking of a Turtle Vision

by theseventhgeneration
When you see something like this from a distance, all you can think is "this has got to be good"...The hole is a half meter high.There is an old quarry nearby, so I'm not sure what to say about that hole, other than the obvious nuchal notch, of course.

From a different angle, the rock in the foreground has a strange look to it.No wedge that I could see, although I didn't remove all that debris. There is a wedged rock a bit further down the hill, but I'll post about that later.That boulder hole is causing me to think hard about this site, but I still don't know what to make about both of these sites. There is definitely a mix of activity at both.

A Turtle Vision

These days one of the things I look for on a stone is a nutchal notch. Sometimes there's a stone that represents a head, sometimes legs. My imagination sometimes adds the other stones when they're missing...

10th Annual Algonquian Peoples Seminar - at the NY State Museum Cultural Center

Tim MacSweeney sent this, noting the title of Ed Lenick's talk:

New York State Museum
Cultural Education Center
Madison Avenue
Albany, New York


9:00 - 9:30 Registration -Clark Auditorium -Please take the escalator or the elevator# 8 to the left of the security desk (behind the front desk) in the main lobby to the lower or Concourse level.

9:30 - 10:00 Welcome & Board Introduction: Mariann Mantzouris

Presentation of Colors by the Mohican Veterans

Morning speaker introductions: Lisa Little Wolf

10:00 - 10:20 President Kimberly M. Vele: “Family Circles”
Keynote speaker, President Vele’s presentation is “Family Circles”. She will be speak on reflecting on the past and what it means for the present in the context of families. Ms. Vele was elected to serve as President of the Tribal Council in the fall of 2009. Ms. Vele also served as an Associate Judge for the Tribal Court from 1996-2007 at which time she began serving as a Council member for the Tribal Council. She served as General Legal for the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe in Bowler, Wisconsin for several years before starting a private practice which involved representing numerous Tribes throughout the country.
President Kim Vele is a member of the Federal Bar Association; State Bar of Wisconsin; Wisconsin Indian League of Lawyers and was a former member of the Wisconsin Tribal Court Judges Association; former Treasurer for the National Tribal Court Judges Association; and past Chairperson of the Management and Oversight Committee for the National Tribal Justice Resource Center. She is a faculty member at the National Judicial College and has given presentations at numerous Bar Association and Judicial Conferences.

10:25 - 10:45 Shirley Dunn: "River Indians: Mohicans Making History”

In her book, The River Indians: Mohicans Making History. Ms. Dunn stresses the often- overlooked importance of the Mohicans to New York history and pre-history. The new book presents a rare look at historic events in which the Mohicans (called “River Indians”) should get credit. Leaders among the native nations on the Hudson River, Mohicans welcomed explorer Henry Hudson, who visited them for 13 days, longer than he stayed with any other Indian nation. She will explain how Mohicans initiated the upriver fur trade and continued in it for a century. Mohicans were close friends with the Dutch leader Arent Van Curler, and helped save the farms of Rensselaerswyck. There is a surprise here. Did he have a Mohican daughter? There is new information about the Mohican leader Etowokoaum, who went to England in 1710. We know that Mohicans fought beside English soldiers in wars against Canada from 1690 to 1765, protected Albany from attack from Canada on more than one occasion, and enlisted in the Revolution on the American side at George Washington's request. (After the Revolution, they were refused soldiers' grants of their own land.) The land where the State Museum is located was once in Mohican territory.
Further, the information is valuable to archaeologists because it identifies Mohican areas taken over by the Mohawks after 1629. So, whose artifacts are being found? These overlapping locations will be explained, as well as the connections of Arent Van Curler's grandson with the Mohicans. He ran a fur trade in Washington County in the 1700s, and lived to be 106 years old! An explanation of Mohican place names will conclude the talk.
Shirley Wiltse Dunn, a holder of Masters' degrees in English and History, has worked as a teacher, museum interpreter, and historic preservation consultant.. A scholar of the Mohicans and early Dutch, she is the author of The Mohicans and Their Land, 1609-1730 (1994), The Mohican World, 1680-1750 (2000) and co-author of Dutch Architecture Near Albany: The Polgreen Photographs (1996), and The Mohicans (2008), a booklet for young readers. (All have been published by Purple Mountain Press.) She also has edited a book of family stories, Pioneer Days in the Catskill High Peaks (Black Dome Press, 1991) and three bulletins, each containing Native American Institute seminar papers, for the New York State Museum. She became interested in the Mohicans two decades ago while studying Indian deeds for early properties in the Albany, New York, area.


10:45 - 11:00 Break


11:00 - 11:20 JoAnn Schedler “Mohican/Stockbridge Military History”

Ms. Schedler will review Mohican/Stockbridge military history and present information on individuals as it relates to their military service in various wars and conflicts from our homelands to Wisconsin. She will share the projects the Mohican Veterans are working on to preserve this history and honor our ancestor’s military service.

Ms. Schedler, BSN, MSM, RN, is a life member Reserve Officers Association, Mohican Veteran Officer founding member, 1996-present, American Legion post # 0117, 2004-present, Tribal Historic Preservation committee for Stockbridge-Munsee Community, 2004-present, Constitution committee for the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, 2005-present, Peacemaker, Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Court 2005- present Nursing Instructor for Associate Degree Program at College of the Menominee Nation 2008/ 2009, Officer in the US Army Nurse Corps Reserves 1984, served over twenty years with the 452 Combat Support Hospital (CSH), retired as a Major from the Army Reserve in July 2004, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nurses since 1992, National Alaska Native American Indian Nurses Association # 10179.


11:25 - 11:45 Ted Filli: “The Importance of Exploring Waterways Flowing To and From the Hudson River in Relation to Locating Contact Period Mohican Sites”
This presentation will cover from the early 1600's - mid 1700's newly discovered Contact Period Mohican sites that have not been documented before in Columbia county. Physical evidence will be shown demonstrating trade and interaction with the early European settlers in the Claverack / Greenport areas of Columbia County. The objective of this presentation is to encourage more research in this area and to demonstrate a larger need to study these waterways.
Ted Filli has lived his entire life in the town of Claverack, NY and as a young man was mentored by the well known advocational archaeologist, Ken Mynter, who excavated the with Claverack rock-shelter the results being included in the Recent Contributions of the Hudson Valley Prehistory by Robert Funk. Ted is a former town historian and is still active in Native archaeological research.

11:50 - 12:10 Matthew T. Bradley: “Reconstructing the 17th century path across the Berkshires”

This presentation presents the first rigorous reconstruction of the course of the 17th century path connecting Springfield and Albany which was documented at least as early as the foray into the Berkshires lead by Major John Talcott in August of 1676. Evidence for the reconstruction will include textual accounts (including those related to the Talcott foray and the Knox Expedition of 1775–76), early cartographic records, archaeological site distribution, and topographic features.

The reconstruction will add to already existing work on regional transportation networks such as the Mohawk Trail and as such will aid scholars concerned with the broader historical geography of New England and the Mid-Atlantic. It will also be of interest to descendent communities of the indigenous peoples of New England and the Mid-Atlantic as well as to all current residents of the Berkshires and the Capital Region.

Matthew Bradley is a graduate student affiliated with the Indiana University Anthropology Department and currently residing in the Berkshires. His interests include the culture history of the Iroquoian peoples, north/south interaction within the Eastern Woodlands culture area, and the history of the discipline of anthropology as it relates to the study of American Indians.


12:15 -1:15 Seminar Luncheon: Buffalo Loaf (“Thunder Rumble”) , Maple Roasted Turkey, Wild Rice with Nuts and Berries, Succotash, Maple Squash, Corn Bread and Strawberry Desert- Fresh Brewed Coffee, Decaf, Hot Tea and Water




Afternoon speaker introductions: Larry Thetford

1:15 - 1:35 James C. Davis: “A Brief Look at the Links Between the Prophecies of the Algonquin People and the Ongoing Elimination of Ancient Sacred Ceremonial Sites in the Hudson Valley Region”
This presentation will include original footage from the "Cry of the Earth: The prophecies of the First Nations at the United Nations" in November 1993 as well as, a reading of a portion of Grandfather William Commanda's statement on The Seven Fires Prophecy Belt. He will also speak about the damage currently being done to the sites that may have been used for millennia, including the Ulster Ridge sites and the lack of any Native American review of such sites. This work is an outgrowth of Grandfather Commanda's statement of 2008, "Respecting the Sacred in the Land:”
Inherent in the prayer of the Indigenous Nations of Turtle Island is the deep knowledge that we are all connected –my people in the east say GINAWAYDAGANUC. The prayer is a celebration of the profound knowledge that we are connected with the each other, as well as with the chief elements–Mother Earth, Water, Air and Fire–the animate and inanimate, the plants and animals and the larger universe, connected energetically.
Spirit embraces and unifies us all~
Inherent in the prayer is a deep respect for both Mother Earth, the penultimate provider and nurturer, and all her children. The prayer is a constant reminder to honor this connectedness, and walk gently in the places of our differences, for those are the places of co-creation."
James C. Davis is Environmental Director of the Wittenberg Center for Alternative Resources in Woodstock, NY. and a co-founder of the Earth Reunion Project which works with traditional wisdom keepers of Earth traditions from around the world. For the past 30 years Jim has pursued mastery of the wisdom of the Earth and of the earth-based traditions. His primary focus has been the Hudson Valley and the Catskill watershed bio-regions, yet he has travelled extensively to explore the shamanic teachings of many traditions and was adopted as an Elder by the Yuin Nation of Australia. He has written a lexography of the Annishinabe places of the region

1:40 - 2:00 Ward Stone: The Destruction and Contamination of Mohican Ancestral Lands by the Cement Plant Operation in Ravena, Albany County, New York
Ward B. Stone, Elyse Griffin, Elyse Kunz, Amanda Allen, Michael M. Reynolds, and Aaron W. Behrens New York State Wildlife Pathologist, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Delmar New York, Community Advocates for Safe Emissions, Ravena, New York, State University of New York of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill, NY

Since 1962 in Ravena, Albany County, New York cement plant operations have impacted thousands of acres of land with plant operations, quarrying of limestone, and pollution. This extensive environmental damage is within several miles of the site where the Mohican council fire was located on Schodack Island in the Hudson River. Much of this Albany County area has received little study by professional archeologist. Valuable artifacts and Mohican cultural material may still be able to be saved.
It appears that historic preservation studies have been, at least very limited, on this former Mohican land. The requirements were not in place in 1962 on the cement plant and permits have largely been “grandfathered in”. We will present a case for the need of a thorough historic preservation study.
Ward B. Stone, B.A., M.S., Sc. D. (Hon.),Wildlife Pathologist NYS Dept. Environmental Conservation, Wildlife Pathology Unit, Delmar, NY; Adjunct Professor, SUNY Cobleskill; Adjunct Professor, College of Saint Rose.

2:05 - 2:25 Ed Lenik: Mythic Creatures: Serpents, Dragons and Sea Monsters in Northeastern Rock Art
Serpentine images carved into non-portable rock surfaces and on portable artifacts were invested with ideological and cultural significance by American Indian people in the Northeast. These images occur on bedrock outcrops located along the shores of lakes, the banks of river, seaside bays, low hills and mountains. Serpentine images have also been engraved into utilitarian and non-utilitarian artifacts such as tools, ornaments, pebbles, and on small, flat stones. They appear on wood and bark, and as facial tattoos on an 18th century Mohican Indian and on a portrait of a Delaware Indian. These various images are described and an interpretation of their origin, age and meaning is presented.

Ed Lenik has thirty-seven years of fieldwork and research experience in northeastern archaeology and anthropology, specializing in rock art research, documentation and preservation.
M.A. in Anthropology, New York University; Registered Professional Archaeologist.
Proprietor and Principal Investigator of Sheffield Archaeological Consultants, Wayne, NJ
Author of these books: Making Pictures in Stone: American Indian Rock Art of the Northeast (University of Alabama Press, 2009) and Picture Rocks, American Indian Rock Art in the Northeast Woodlands. (University Press of New England, 2002) [The first comprehensive study of rock art in the northeast].

2:25 - 2:40 Break

2:40 - 3:00 Paul Nevin: The Safe Harbor Petroglyphs - Research in the New Century
The Safe Harbor Petroglyphs, Lancaster County, PA, are one of three major rock art sites on the lower Susquehanna River and the only one that remains accessible in its original location. Information on the general nature of the site with and emphasis on research conducted there in the past ten years will be presented.

Paul Nevin: Safe Harbor Petroglyph documentation and research, 1982-present; Board Member, Eastern States Rock Art Research Association (ESRARA); President, Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, Inc., 2007-2008; Contributing Author, The Rock Art of Eastern North America (University of Alabama Press, 2004); Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Award, 2003, Safe Harbor Petroglyph Recording Project.

3:05 - 4:15 Panel Discussion:

John Bonafide, Historic Preservation Services Coordinator, New York State Historic Preservation Office

Nancy Herter, Scientist, Historic Preservation Archaeology Analyst, New York State Historic Preservation Office

Charles E. Vandrei, Agency Historic Preservation Officer, New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Bureau of State Land Management, Historic Preservation Unit

Jeff Gregg, Indian Nations Affairs Coordinator, New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Office of Environmental Justice

The Army Corps of Engineers will have two representatives

Representatives from the New York State Historic Preservation Office, the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Army Corps of Engineers will discuss the process of reviewing potential projects within the State of New York. The focus will be on determining whether it is a federal, state, or SEQR project and how the agencies consult with the Native American Tribes.

***Please note! This panel is here to describe their agency’s criteria for determining sites. Questions will not be entertained on specific sites.

4:15 - 4:30 Closing Remarks and Retreat of the Colors” by Mohican Veterans


The distribution of any events, sales or promotional literature at an NAI event must be-approved in advance by the NAI Board.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Menu: Buffalo Loaf (“Thunder Rumble”), Maple Roasted Turkey, Wild Rice with Nuts and Berries, Succotash, Maple Squash, Corn Bread and Strawberry Desert; Fresh Brewed Coffee, Decaf, Hot Tea and Water

Please visit our crafts people, authors, and venders. They are here to share their crafts, knowledge, and experiences with you.
Authors Shirley Dunn and Ed Lenik will be happy to sign their books for you~
Our thanks go to each of you for making this event a success!!
Mariann Mantzouris~ Seminar Chairwoman, Sherry White, Kevin & Mary Fuerst, Larry Thetford, Warren Broderick, Lisa Little Wolf, Ted Filli, Chris Mason, Chris Layman
2010 Algonquians Peoples Seminar Registration Form
New York State Museum April 17, 2010



The first 180 paid reservations will receive a Mohican Nation tote bag!
PLEASE PRINT, cut and mail:
Name________________________________________________________________________

Address______________________________________________________________________

Phone ( )__________- ____________EMail______________________________________
Seminar & Buffet Seminar & Buffet $40.00 Number Attending____
NAIHRV Members Seminar & Buffet $30.00 Number Attending____
Student with School ID Seminar Only $20.00 Number Attending____
Student with School ID Seminar & Buffet $30.00 Number Attending____
Please make payment out to NAIHRV Mail completed form and payment to:
NAIHRV Mariann Mantzouris PO Box 327 Sand Lake, NY 12153
For questions email Mariann Mantzouris, Seminar Chairwoman at marimantz@aol.com or call 518-369-8116
The New York State Museum is housed in the Cultural Education Center in Albany, New York. The Cultural Education Center (CEC) is at the south end of the Empire State Plaza, across Madison Avenue (Route 20) from the Plaza (at the opposite end from the Capitol). (518) 474-5877. Directions to the NYS Museum (Cultural Education Center):
From the East: Take I-90 West to I-787 South to exit 3B to US 20 West. Continue on US 20 West (Madison Avenue) to the CEC. From the South: Take Thruway Exit 23 to I-787 North to Exit 4 to US 20 West. Continue on US 20 West (Madison Avenue) to the CEC. From the West: Take Thruway Exit24 to I-90East to I-787 South to exit 3B to US 20 West. Continue on US 20 West (Madison Avenue) to the CEC. From the North: Take the Northway (I-87) or Route 9 to I-90 East to I-787 South to exit 3B to US 20 West. Continue on US 20 West (Madison Avenue) to the CEC.
Alternate Approach from I-787:
Follow Empire State Plaza signs, proceed straight under the Plaza, then bear left to loop back under the Plaza. Use one of the underground parking lots or take the P1 exit and go through the arch to Madison Avenue. Parking is available, free on weekends, in the two lots adjacent to the Museum, on Madison Avenue.

The Fitchburg "Rollstone Boulder"

This was on top of the main hill in Fitchburg. Not completely clear why, they cut it into pieces and moved it down to the center of town. Some sentimentality attached to it.Looks kind of strange:

Rectangular Chambered Cairn - from a lakeshore rock pile site in Carlisle MA

The site where I saw this rock pile was described in detail earlier (click here). The structure deserves a closer look - a rectangular rock pile with a "tail" and one or more internal hollows.

For comparison, here is the first large rock pile I saw at the site, of a similar design:

A lake shore rock pile site - Carlisle MA

FFC and I saw a genuinely unusual site last weekend (before all the rain) along the edges of a swamp in Carlisle, where we had never been. According to FFC: Tim Fohl, later, said he knew of the place. Unfortunately he never mentioned it.

The above sketch gives some sense of the site layout: a smear of rocks along the edge of an old lake shore - now the edge of a wetland or marsh. The trail follows the edge of the marsh between these piles and a more conventional stone wall that marks the edge of the modern housing (you would never guess there was a site in this narrow strip of land). On the left, at "A" are two dug out hollows in the earth. Then a series of long thin rock piles, one with an inner chamber at "B". These seemed to stretch and break into separate piles for several yards. Then at "C" another curious shaped pile with several internal hollows suggesting internal chambers. At "D" was a smaller chambered cairn built into the stone all and looking at a multiply-split and broken boulder. Behind these, at "E", a more conventional rock pile site with piles on boulders and other broken down heaps with little character. The site is about 100 yards or so long.

Entering the site at "A", there were what looked like some gravel quarries with a rock pile near one - suggesting to the skeptical that the rocks in the pile were just the part of gravel the quarry-ers did not want. But then, more and more rock piles showed up, convincing me this was an old run down rock pile site. So that means the initial dismissing of the gravel pits at "A" might have been wrong. Here is a view I took later:You see two hollows open away from the viewer, towards the water. A rock pile is visible through the twigs to the right rear. A bit further along we saw other rock piles, still looking like pushed up discarded rock:and a bit closer, starting to see come curious breaks between the piles.But when I took a closer look at the larger pile (at "B") I noticed it had one piece of quartz:
and it had a fallen in hollow at one end:It was sort of shaped like a tadpole; with a wider end including a fallen in hollow, tapering off to a long thin "tail". This may seem idiosyncratic but there were at least two other "tadpoles" at this site.).

A bit further along, more loose scatters of rock/rock pile/wall.I have never seen anything like this before.

At first I could not tell if the piles were part of a stone wall or just a pushed up pile of rubble dumped along the edge of the swamp. Only when I saw internal structure - remnants of inner chambers on some of the piles, did I start thinking this was a site. In fact chambered cairns are sort of a familiar thing at this point and so there is some connection to what I have been seeing elsewhere. But this lake shore context and the particulars of these piles are quite different and remind me, instead, of just a few places where the rock piles are like this along the eastern edge of a lake. One such place is a 1/4 mile away in Carlisle, another is in Acton at Grassy Pond (also facing northwest across the water); another place is in Westminster along the shores of Muddy Pond. So this is a kind of interesting context for me - something a bit like the "chambered cairns" of the Wachusett tradition but different and, rather than being on high and looking outward over a view, here the piles are down low and looking out over the opening above a body of water. A lake shore version of things that has different characteristics.

Further along was a really impressive rock pile, another "tadpole" but oriented towards the water rather than along its edge:In the near ground, what looks like a bit of stone wall starts abruptly, then curves to join one side of a rectangular pile. FFC is pointing to a hollow in the pile:That is a rectangular hole, what I have been calling an"inner chamber" and something which, in my view, could not possibly be related to random dumping of rocks. No, these are actually carefully built structures, beaten down by time. Anyone ever see anything like that "tadpole" shape? I have a video clip of this pile, I'll show later.

A bit further along, at "D", was something more like a stone wall.
FFC was intrigued by the opening in the wall, how it was diagonal, how it led to an interesting split rock. I was intrigued by what is just left of the opening - another longish pile with a hollow and a "tail" formed by the wall. Maybe calling this a pile with a hollow is too much of a stretch. Anyway, here is a closeup of that 'structure' with the split boulder behind:
And, finally, at "E", a more conventional looking site, coming down to the corner of this, more conventional, stone wall.And a few feet yards after that, the road and the modern housing development.

This site was quite a find for a rainy Saturday morning, in Carlisle where FFC lives and next town over from me. Kind of in our own backyards. So we were well pleased. Then FFC was talking to Tim Fohl about the place, who said he had been there and mentioned the ditches in the marsh. I took a look:This is probably not a good time to start a discussion of the ditches in the swamps around here. Tim Fohl has gotten curious about them and, for some time, I have wondered if they are all really just more "hard working Yankee farmer" products. Could they be pre-historic? If you look at aerial photos of the area, you'll see plenty of places where the ditches are regularly layed out in directions that are not the usual north/south/east/west. Tim Fohl says some run towards the solstices.

Anyway, so we are looking at this peculiar site, in the strip of land between the houses and the wetland with the ditches. Thinking about other sites where the rock piles are built along the water, thinking about the latest finds in South America where pre-historic Indians farmed the wetlands, and wondering about this place. If we believe some of these rock piles are pre-historic, their variety suggests several different cultures and I want to propose that one of those cultures lived along the lakes and left traces like these rock piles. If so, Carlisle was a central location both because of the number but also because of the large variety of rock piles found there.

Correction:After more thought and going back to look at pictures of the main pile on Apron Hill that was the definition of the term "Wachusett Tradition", I have to conclude that this lake shore site is in that tradition. Piles with tails are too specific a similarity to ignore. Later, Norman Muller told me he has seen piles with tails and some others are reported from the Sturbridge area. More on this later.

A couple of old coots

PWAX and FFC, heading out.

Stonington CT (part two)

Ted Hendrickson continues (see here for part 1):

Visit to Perry Preserve, Stonington, CT, Visit dates 3/7 and 3/10, Part Two

Our surprise at seeing the large mound in part one of this report made us miss some covered rocks just off the path we were following. Noticed this one when returning to the path.
This was near some walls as well. I wonder when I see this if these are just left over stones from the wall building, placed to keep them accessible instead of settling into the soft earth. We continued our walk up past the colonial cemetery towards the top of the hill. Another "wall pile" came into view, this one sort of burying a single continuing wall. here seen from downslope side.
Here a downslope view. You can see the wall on either side.
The approach to the hilltop revealed the other mound previously posted. Here seen from the northeast approaching path.
It had an elongated shape with a well finished face on the south west side.
In the earlier posting of this image, Norman noticed the leaning stone to the right and asked about it. I returned to photograph it up close. Possible manitou stone? It looked kind of thick compared to other photos I've seen, but had the right general shape.
Here are a couple of other views patched together from each side, Here from the west. Tumbled down section in center continues up and over to other side. The well finished face is on the right edge in this shot.
And from the east. The leaning stone is seen to the left.
The path continues out through a walled and wooded landscape, a few more rock piles near walls. Building piles? I don't know. This is an intriguing site of possible mixed and altered features. I will have to return and think about it some more.

Stonington CT (part one)

Photographer Ted Hendrickson wrote a two part report:

Visit to Perry Preserve, Stonington, CT, Visit dates 3/7 and 3/10, Part One

This week we found an interesting site right in our own home town. Not that we have been traveling far, but I just had a feeling that with the amount of stone and local traditions around here, there had to be something close by. I was excited to find a updated map of a local land preserve that had "rock pile" markings dotted along the paths. Hmm.. someone is paying attention. The site is strung with walls, to me, they look like pens, lanes and field borders. Trying to be logical and open minded about features and not jump to any conclusions. Not far along, a large pile appeared along a wall intersection.
Trees like to prostrate themselves over these mounds, as you will see. The mound was supported in several sections by larger stones stacked into short walls.
Further along, more wall piles appeared, often at intersections of two or three walls, as in this example where they come from each side and perpendicular straight back.A small colonial foundation and two wells were marked on the map and were located. These, along with a cemetery with two headstones c.1810 and some small, simpler markers we associate with Quaker burials (numerous in this area) proved the colonial association with many of the features we were seeing. Descending into a slight hollow we found the large mound that was posted earlier. Here is another view from the north.Here are two more views, this one from the northwest:This didn't seem colonial as it was unconnected to walls and looked like features we had read about as Native American. It certainly would have done the job to clear the field of stones, however. Today I noticed that the wall sections don't quite meet, almost like a spiral shape, created that way? or collapsed?

And a view from the southeast:
Here the wall almost seems to do the same thing on the left of the photo, harder to see in this shot. Made me wonder a bit. The retaining wall visible in this shot seems straighter along the high section than the other sides.

Exploring along the adjacent rise to the north turned up some small piles and cairns, including this intriguing propped stone on top of a pile:

Closer:
This seemed significant. We continued our walk to find the other mound posted earlier. I will send a "Part Two" (click here) about that half of the trip.

Gap Piles and a little "chamber" at College Rock - Hopkinton, MA

Bruce McAleer showed me this site and gave me permission to publish it. There are lots of different types of rock piles here, but the large number of gap piles stands out. Here are some examples:
FFC was particularly taken by this little structure. At first you see a jumble of broken down rock piles against a stone wall: A closer look, shows this little enclosure is part of the jumble: [That is our favorite piece of walking quartz, there - Rosie. We only have her for a little longer]

"When Scholarship and Tribal Heritage Face Off Against Commerce"

Norman Muller send this link about the Oxford Mound from the New York Times.

Gap Pile

Cannon River Valley

Stone Cairns- Archaeologists have yet to unravel many mysteries, one of them is one that surrounds a series of stone heaps or cairns found on some bluffs overlooking the Cannon and Mississippi Rivers. Similar stone mounds are common in places like Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana but they are extremely rare in the upper Mississippi country. There has been no professional archaeologist able to investigate theses stone Cairns and today they have been vandalized or destroyed by modern activities. 

https://cannonvalleytrail.com/cultural/

Driving around Echo Lake Milford, MA

There is no legal place to park but you can spot rock piles in the woods and other things. This was pretty eye-catching, next to someone's driveway:I think there was pretty good quality granite in this area and a lot of quarrying. But the local Indians cleaned up afterwards. Maybe they even did the quarrying.