Triangular piles - Falulah Brook, Fitchburg MA

Saw equidistant bumps on a near horizon:Looked for rock piles there. For example, like this:
See how it is triangular? It is not just an impression. Here are two other piles from the same place:All roughly triangular. Also two small colored rocks at the center of this last example.
Without the moss, one would be reddish, the other whitish. (We saw something quite similar in Foxborough a week or two ago, here. I think the large numbers of examples like this make the case that these are characteristics, and not coincidences.)

The stone wall was torn up and disturbed adjacent to this last pile:This always makes me unsure of a site. Nearby in the stone wall was a "corner pile", a well built retaining wall across a corner of stone wall, filled with smaller rocks. It is interesting that such corner piles are so often found near more obviously ceremonial rock piles.(Dancing sunlight makes good panoramas impossible.)

The woods around where West Ashby Rd crosses Falulah Brook are full of interesting things.

Split wedged rocks from the Catskills

Norman Muller writes:

My wife and I went to the site of Catskill Mountain House yesterday, and on our way back to the car, we traversed the shore of South and North Ponds and found some curious stone features.

The first one I found amusing. The small stones undoubtedly were placed to look like teeth of a whale, and seemed new.

The second construction took me by surprise, but as I looked at it carefully, I determined that the support stones were the remnants of a weathered slab of stone (all the stone looks the same throughout). This reminded me of a similar pedestaled boulder in New Jersey (Image 088) that a friend and I saw four or so years ago. Others say the latter is a manmade dolmen, but we determined that the support stones were identical, and at the same level, as a nearby band of the same stone in a ledge outcrop.

Relics of the Ancients

Added Ron Smith's website as a new link on the right. It is not New England but clearly a lot of what he is finding in California is very similar to what we puzzle over in the Eastern woods.

Propped Rocks from California

Norman Muller asked about if Ron Smith had any propped boulder photos from CA. Ron responds:

Quite a few propped rocks out here. When time permits I will create a page on my site with photos. The photo attached is from the Shasta Wildlife Area and the andesite rock is at least a ton.

In a potato patch in Concord

...I see a coyote tracks...I see left over potatoes...I see an arrowheadCloserI am a lucky guy.
That is an eared Brewerton point, made of brown quartzite. You can still make out the vestige of a flute on the back side:

Groan, and then look at:

How long before I spotted turtle at Rock Lines?

Forgotten fires

Native Americans and the transient wilderness

"A common stereotype about American Indians is that for centuries they lived in static harmony with nature, in a pristine wilderness that remained unchanged until European colonization. Omer C. Stewart was one of the first anthropologists to recognize that Native Americans made significant impact across a wide range of environments. Most important, they regularly used fire to manage plant communities and associated animal species through varied and localized habitat burning..."
More about forgotten fires

Split wedged rock from California

Another photo from Ron Smith, taken in the Sutter Buttes (click to enlarge, so you can see into the crack).

California Rock Lines and other aerial photos

Ron Smith writes:

I have been poking around your site and the California rock line page referenced on your site is a page from my site which surprises me that anyone has looked at it. You seemed interested in the aerial view, next weekend I plan to begin photographing the Shasta Valley from a small plane and if the photos turn out ok they will be posted on the site. As of now my photo library contains over 30,000 photos of rock lines and associated structures and they are available for free to anyone doing research on rock lines and connected structures. I have no idea how to show what is in the library other than posting photos to my site. Over the last month many photos have been posted to my site and more will be posted in the future. It is hoped to have the Rock Line section of the site finished in six months. Feel free to download the larger images if you have use for them, that is what they are there for and photo credits are not needed. If you are looking for anything in particular let me know and we will see what's in the library.

This is my favorite photo of the recent uploads. Panoramas are so much fun and great for displaying the rock formations / lines.
[CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL]

On your site you have a section on propped rocks, there are some interesting propped rocks out here and eventually there should be a section on my site covering them.

On a recent trip through Nevada I stumbled across a very interesting area that has some megalithic looking steps and what looks to be at least one large rock line about 1/4 mile long, oriented north - south and containing rocks up to several tons. There is much more at the Hickison site and some photos are on my site, more trips back there are planned.

What is not up on my site yet is far more interesting than what is.

On occasion it would be nice to be able to compare notes with other people who actually go out and look at similar rock structures. For the formations out here only the physical evidence counts and the only evidence left are the rocks themselves. If you chose to reply please let me know a little about yourself and your group.

Info like this:

Ron Smith
Woodland CA
phone number on request

65 year old curmudgeon.

Work background is land title research and mapping.

Looking at the rock structures and rock lines is a 3 year old hobby that has become an obsession.

[PWAX - here is Ron's website, great photos!]

Some rock piles from Acton

A neighbor from Acton sent these photos:

Reclaiming the Ancestors, by Fred Wiseman

Norman Muller writes:

I was reading parts of Fred Wiseman's book Reclaiming the Ancestors (Hanover and London 2005), and there is a section in it that I find very important (pages 122-135), in which he discusses the "Stone Structures Mystery" in New England, focusing on chambers and other stone structures. His approach to this subject is methodical and scientific. For example, he believes the Putney Chamber is ancient (he accepts the radiocarbon date for this, which Whittall describes), as well as the stone row around the Morrill Point Mound. Before teaching at Johnson State University in Vermont, he was Principal Research Scientist at MIT's Center for Materials Research. He is an archaeologist and paleoethnobotanist by training and holds a PhD in these disciplines. Fred's previous book is probably also important, but I don't have it.

Fall colors

from a few years back:

The Mysterious Stone Chambers of New England

A somewhat sympathetic review, slanted a bit towards diffusion theories.

Story and photos by Brad Olsen in Persceptive Travel here

More European Propped Boulders

Norman Muller writes:
I have to agree with your statement that the laws of probability dictate that not all of the propped boulders in Foxboro State Forest can be explained by glacial activity.

Attached are some examples of propped and pedestaled boulders from Europe: several from Sweden

and an example from Russia, along Gulf of Finland. To me, none of these can be explained as a result of the glacier. Obviously the one from Russia is a human construct.

[PWAX - These examples are more dramatic than the ones I found in Foxborough but the one in North Salem NY is pretty equivalent to the European ones (here is a nice photo of it). And here is a nice one from Dogtown in Gloucester by Dan Boudillion.]

The Urban Baboon

Here is a blog with occasional articles about stone structures in the woods (of Georgia). The author writes:

Two of my posts that might interest you: the Rock Wall at Fort Mountain link and a place in Northeast Georgia called Rocktown link.

Foxborough State Forest: Propped boulders here and abroad - postage stamps etc

Walking in from Thurston Rd on the south edge of the park, this is a place with many propped boulders and prayer seats. I also saw a few small rock piles.

In Europe, propped boulders are considered man made, and are associated with bronze-age burials. For example Portugal has a series of stamps showing these 'table rocks' or 'dolmen'. But I could not find an example. Instead, here is one from the Bailiwick of Guernsey:and another from Korea
But in America, stalwart armchair geologist are comfortable dismissing these boulders as being a coincidental assemblage dropped by the glacier. It is interesting that no-one has made the statistical argument: that glaciers cannot create many examples of shimmed boulders in one place and none in another. From that point of view, the large concentration of propped boulders in Foxborough is a statistical impossibility. Forthwith, some examples:Oft photo'd:And:
Also saw some prayer seats. This one is formed by a short curve of wall built out from a boulder:
This is a simple 'U'.
Also a few isolated rock piles that were probably associated with the boulders and prayer seats but I am not sure:There were also some examples of very small rocks on top of boulders. Some, in out of the way places, are probably not just trailside whimsy:I wonder if there is a large rock pile site in there somewhere?

Split rock with Quarrtz - Westford MA

Frank Karkota writes:

This is a picture of a split stone taken right beside the trail on the southern side of the hill.

[PWAX adds: Note that a split rock with quartz is quite rare. This is not a straightforward example since the 'split' is a bit complicated, with the extra breaks above the quartz.]

Tah-Qua-Kik: Cleaning and Brushing the woods.

[here] Here rock piles at the edge of a known Native American community are dismissed:
Some of the other rock pile concentration areas are on the fringes of the main community clearings shown on a 1938 aerial photograph. These represent clearing activities associated with the community. At least some rock features represent the activities of workers who are said to have “cleaned and brushed the woods” at Powers Bluff.

Nature Study at Shenandoah

[Here] Mentions "rock piles" under Taking a Wildflower Walk.

EMC development in Southborough - Marker piles and stone mound with hollows

EMC has permits to develop an office park in the woods beyond Coslin Dr. in Southborough. Those woods are full of rock piles and I am not sure what is to be done to stop their being destroyed. The environmental impact statements made no mention of ceremonial Native American structures in there and it looks like this may not require any federal "blessing", so there is no leverage. If anyone has any ideas let me know. At little earlier I thought a win-win would be to buy the land since EMC really did not need extra office capacity at the time. I heard that, ironically, EMC wants to put the office buildings in the woods, so they would not spoil the view along Rt 9. What strange priorities.

So I went to see the damage last weekend. There is a report of some clear cutting going on nearby but, so far, the site is much as it was when I first reported on it a couple years ago (see here). Going back, I was surprised to find a large rectangular mound with a hollow and a "tail" which, in this example, presents as a mound with two collapsed inner chambers:
At first glance:That puts this site into the continuum of "Wachusett Tradition" sites which are scattered from here and Hopkinton, west and north into Leominster, Fitchburg, and (less frequently) in places like Framingham, Carlisle, and Lincoln.

Across from the mound with hollows is a knoll, future site of an office building, with a large boulder overlooking a number of vertical-sided piles and piles evenly spaced in lines. For example:Most of the piles are not in such good shape anymore:Although the piles are not in good shape, this is a nicely organized site that appears to be designed for viewing from the large central boulder. This type of radial organization is very common in the area. Wildcat Hill in Ashland is only a mile or so to the east (for example here). This site is a good example of rock piles with hollows in proximity to marker piles - feeding speculation about the relation between these two characteristics. In any case, it is a nice little site. Further back in the woods, and around the wetland back there, there are other clusters of rock piles. I guess Sudbury Valley Trustees are getting an option on one part of it which, I hope, includes another of the nice sites back in there - but not this one.