Following intuition - seeking out standard topographic settings when exploring (part 1)

It is getting late in the week and I still have three sites to describe from last weekend: two near Gibbs Mountain ( middle and right-hand outlines on the map here) and a third from a ravine to the south of Gates Pond in Berlin (MA) . Perhaps I can describe them together. In the case of all of these sites, I found them opportunistically because I happened to pass certain topographic settings that I knew are often worth examining. These are:
- shoulders of hills, especially westward facing
- gullies where new water comes out
- the flanks of ravines near their entrance
(Another topographic setting worth exploring is a saddle between hills or above a watershed. I did not see an example of this last weekend)

Shoulder of Hills
On my way up the hill to the north of Gibbs Mountain, where the pipelines cross, I saw a shoulder facing northwest with some rock piles:
You can see this is a level spot before the hill resumes its rise to a summit.Hard to escape the idea that this next one is a triangular pile. It has some interesting components:
Here is a nice one:
As I get to the highest part of this "level" spot the piles get slightly larger
The view:How about this back wall at the site?On hill shoulders like this, I expect to find marker pile sites. Not sure but I think that is what we have here.
I guess I'll tell about the other two sites in later posts.

An interesting site near Gibbs Mountain

The leftmost blue outline is on one of three rock pile sites I found on Saturday while exploring in the vicinity of Gibbs Mountain in Marlborough, MA. I posted a short video earlier (here) and want to do my best to describe this place in pictures.
The site is the northwest-facing slope of a level knoll, with stone walls coming to a corner at the back of the knoll. The slope is flat (but not level). Here is a sketch. I tried to make it a faithful rendering of the what can be seen in the panorama photos that follow:I am struck by a herring-bone pattern that is new to me. Do you see what I mean?

Here is a view back down:Sure looks as if the soil is pushed down between the piles. Let's take a closer look at that:
Again:The meaning hovers beyond reach. But there is something a little familiar about this place. With a sense of some alignment and some even spacing it is like a marker pile site. Perhaps we are catching the phenomenon at a certain point in its evolution. Or perhaps this is something else entirely. Certainly the herring-bone is unique in my experience.
Here is a view from within the site of where the walls meet behind.

Turtle in a wall

Reader David A. found this while exploring at Patch Hill in Boxborough:

Cleansing the palate...

...from the previous post:(more about this pic later).

Word Verification Gone Wild!

[Not rock pile related.]
Increasingly I am unable to read the words I am supposed to transcribe in order to "prove you are not a robot". Can you make out the 2nd letter of the 2nd word? Anyone else having this problem? I almost gave up on trying to post a comment over at "Waking up...".
Update: It occurs to me, maybe I am a robot - that must be the problem.

Driving through the woods isn't what it used to be

February find

In the last two winters I spent a lot of time staring at snow-covered landscapes dreaming about what it would be like if there was no snow cover in the cold months. Late fall and early spring are great times for me to look for arrowheads and I would have imagined that if only there was no snow I could be finding handfuls of Indian artifacts all winter long. This year has been very different, I can't remember the last time we had a winter with so little snowfall. And unfortunately I have learned that finding arrowheads in the winter is not as easy as I would have guessed. With the strangely warm weather, grass and weeds do not seem to have gone dormant, and dense vegetation blankets the ground in many places where I would like to search. In other places, I find that the winter rains do not expose new stuff the way frost and the snowmelt of the spring thaw do, I revisit places and find nothing but my own footprints and the chips and flakes I picked up and discarded on previous visits. Before this year I have never been able to search for arrowheads in February. I wanted to make a find for this month and have been spending hours looking, covering lots of ground in a lot of new places in different settings, and I have identified some likely spots that I will return to in the spring and summer, but did not find anything at all, until today.

With only a limited amount of time today, I drove to a place where I got permission to look some time ago, but that I had not searched before. It is a high place near water, a likely spot. This place is not very big but there was still no way I could thoroughly search the whole thing today so my plan was just to take a look and see if I could spot any chips or flakes to indicate that it would be worthwhile to spend more time here in the future. I walked out to a random spot and looked at the lay of the land, there was a flat high spot that seemd like a good place to start so I started making my way in that direction, my eyes scouring the ground at my feet. I quickly picked up a couple of jagged broken quartz chunks. I am not sure exactly what the meaning of these artifacts is, but when I find them, I know I am looking in the right place. After less than 5 minutes I saw this and my heart skipped a beat:

Close-up, as I found it:

It is very unusual how totally exposed this arrowhead is on the surface. It has been lying exposed here for months and the winter storms and rains have washed it completely clean. Something like this is easy to spot from many steps away. It is a treat to find them like this.

This point is bigger than most of the triangular quartz points I find. It is also in better than average shape, a nick out of one corner and perhaps one on the edge. This point is thousands of years old. Can you tell I am really pleased with this find? A lucky day for me. I searched for a while longer and didn't find any other points, I did pick up a waste flake of a beautiful yellow quartzite material. I will return to this place and spend more time, search systematically. I hope there is more there for me to find.

Western Edge of Callahan St. Forest, Marlborough, MA

FFC examines a mound with hollow

This is in the Boxborough swamp across from the northern parking area of Wolf Swamp on Burroughs Road.

My efforts to show that the "mounds with hollows" are rectangular shaped is usually pretty pointless - the rectangularity does not come through in these photo. Here, my friend from Carlisle ("FFC") is looking at one of these mounds near where we live, over the line in Boxborough.FFC has his "STUPID SHEET" for examining alignments, and is trying to line up his compass and paper with the edges of the central hollow. Closeup, it is a little easier to see rectangular elements.
If you like, click in to magnify the picture and take a closer look: parallel with the closer edge of the paper and in line with his foot, there is one line of cobbles edging the hollow. In front of his foot is a white rock - part of another line of cobbles perpendicular to the direction of his foot. What FFC points out, with his eye to detail, is that this perpendicular line of cobbles begins with an upright flat rock, and comes outward through a white rock, a pointed rock, and another white rock. Here is a view back towards his foot:

Shasta Stone Pile

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2012/02/shasta-stone-pile.html

Modern Art Rock Piles

I got a kick out of this from here, found while backtracking a visitor.

Unrelated, but I would be negligent if I did not also mention finding a link to megaliths and sheep.

Another CT Stone Snake/Serpent Petroform

Would you like to see the whole thing?

Click:

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2012/02/another-stone-snakeserpent-petroform.html

CT State Archaeologist begins to recognize rock pile sites

James Gage writes:
The Republican-American (newspaper) ran this article on 2/12/2012. Bob Defosses forward a copy of the article to me. [ The version at the newspaper website is pay-per-view.] Of particular interest is the remarks by the Connecticut State Archaeologist Nick Bellantoni who declares that cairns are “culturally significant.” According the article, “Bellantoni, meanwhile, said his office is looking to learn about any cairns that are discovered. "We're trying to keep a record of where these are," he said.”

Some rockpile researchers from CT might want to test this new policy by submitting / registering some cairn sites.

A tractor seat in a rock pile - at the edge of the site across from Wolf Swamp Boxborough

Detail of the lower right:

Little Sabattus Mountain Area Parts 1 and 2

Reader Rob Sirois writes:
PART 1
Hello Everyone:
Sunday I had gone to Little Sabattus Mountain in Greene to see what I could find. Sabattus was the name of the Abenaki chief who lived in this area. I had intended for some time to check the area out and had time on Sunday to do so. I parked at a boat launch off the Hooper Pond Road in Greene. Little Sabattus Mountain was on the other side of Hooper Pond (also called Little Sabattus Pond). Some large rocks on the side of the hill across the road from the boat ramp had caught my attention, so I climbed that hill first. The rocks were an assemblage of erratics which seemed quite natural, yet also nifty. I explored the hill a bit more and came upon a cairn not far from the path. Not far from the cairn were two stone walls that were at right angles to each other and a 30 foot gap between them. There also appeared to be some smaller rock piles nearby, but the snow was just deep enough not to get a clear picture of them. Further down the trail I found one more cairn that was backed against a boulder. It wasn’t far from someone’s backyard. A bit more exploring on the hill produced nothing else, but I was in a hurry to get across the pond to see what was on Little Sabattus Mountain.

PART 2
Sunday was chilly, but I didn’t feel it until I crossed that pond, the wind seemed to cut right through me. On the far side of the pond were some boulders and next to them was trail up the mountain. When the trail leveled off I spotted a rock in the woods with a nice tidy pile on top of it. A bit further in the woods beyond that was perched boulder that looked as if it would be quite at home in a Japanese Zen garden. It’s eight to nine feet tall and seems to be supported underneath by a few small rocks. Some animal had dug a hole under it and judging by the scat, it’s probably a porcupine. There may be some small rock piles nearby, but it’s hard to say for sure with the snow on the ground. I searched the top of the mountain and found little else but the remains of long lost farmsteads. I noted that an old road had once traversed the top. I circled back to the propped boulder and found some low stone mounds. The snow wasn’t deep, but it still coated everything evenly and was quite crusty. It would a good idea to revisit the area in the spring to check it out better. The good thing about this time of year is the ability to walk on water. Swamps are no longer an impediment. The other thing is that snowmobile clubs open up trails that would otherwise be posted to trespass.
This site is not posted, but you'll need a boat to get to it after March unless you find someone who doesn't mind you crossing their property to get to it. A canoe would add a little adventure to getting to the site.

Looks like an effigy

From a site in Boxborough:It also has elements of white, red, yellow, and black (easier to see if you click on the photo to magnify).

Stone Rows are also Available for Sale

"Old rock walls throughout."

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/16966086/0117-MIDDLE-ROAD-CHAPLIN-HILL-LANE-Naples-ME/

Swamp Piles in Lincoln, MA

Like any sane mammal I want to stay near home on a cold day, and it takes this kind of circumstance to get me to want to explore in Lincoln - very near home - but Sunday it was 17 F with a bit of wind, so I went to a place called the Roger's Land which is between Brooks Rd and Sunnyside Ln in Lincoln. Stepped into the woods and there was a rock pile.
These are the ones that appear one-at-a-time or in small clusters where water comes out of the ground.Another view with a 2nd pile in the background:Closeup of that pile:
And nearby, a split-filled rock:Another scene. A spring with several structures:Some "gap"-type structures:Another split-filled rock:These were all in a small portion of the overall conservation land, just as you enter from the east from Brooks Rd.

FFC with a rocking stone, Boxborough MA

I cannot hear it. Probably need headphones.

A typical Dalton point

Oh my god! it's from Ireland [click here]

Works of Art

"They are works of art that can be considered works of art but don't have to be in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum."-Michael Heizer ~ http://doublenegative.tarasen.net/effigy_tumuli.html

Interesting post at Secret Landscapes

you go read