A couple of "Dry" weekends and a small site

Went back to Shirley a couple times and back to Jones Hill north of Blood Hill in Ashby. Almost to no avail - in terms of finding rock pile sites. I was pretty happy to spot an Indigo Bunting. Although I am told painted buntings are rarer, it was only recently I saw a blue one. Can you see it?

The first blooming pink mountain laurel:

A couple of nice features in a stone wall, a few feet apart. Mavor and Dix call these "orthostats":

 

That was Shirley. Then for Jones Hill in Ashby, I recall seeing a few odds and ends on the way up the hill but no significant clusters of rock piles. Starting from Harris Rd, I walked north along the brook till I hit houses. Saw pretty woods:

 

When I got to the top of Jones Hill and headed down the steep southern side, cutting diagonally across the hill, I came across a single stack of rocks next to a spring:

See how this is right next to where water comes out of the ground?
Then a small cluster of piles just below a stone wall:

 

 

I assume there were other sites on that slope that I did not see, since I spotted a couple even though there was heavy undergrowth and I only followed a single diagonal line down a big hillside. Those were the best rock piles I saw in a couple weeks of hunting. But it is OK; another weekend is almost here and I've got my eye on a couple spots in southern Sudbury.

"Cobbles on Boulder" in a Watertown CT Park

and a boulder row too:

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2013/06/veterans-memorial-park.html

Trap Rock (and Rock Piles) Vandalized?

Goofing around on a rainy morning, I came across a story about the U.S. Forest Service "Vandalizing a Native American Town Site," which turned out to be Trap Rock Gap, which turned out to be a condensed version of a September 2012 Examiner story by Richard Thornton. It's old news, but something I thought might be relevant here, in more ways than one.

In part, the story says;

 "In July, a group of hikers in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest were shocked to discover that the USFS had cut down over 100 live trees to block a trail. The trail led to a dormant volcanic vent and large complex of stone ruins in Track Rock Gap, a 1,100 year-old Mayan site in Georgia's mountains. No alternative route was provided." 

The Native Village Story provided the photo above here:

http://www.nativevillage.org/Archives/2012/Sept%202012%20News/US%20Forest%20Service%20Employees%20Vandalize%20Native%20town%20site.htm (and a link to the Examiner Story.)

And this photo above as well, although when I clicked on the photo (thinking, "That's one of Norman's! They should have credited him!"), I was brought back to  http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2010/06/archaeological-and-ethnohistorical.html which I suppose could technically be considered "credit."

 I had just happened on some other photos, also from Rock Piles, supposedly from Georgia and discovered by Carey Waldrip, on a now defunct website, but they turned out to be Peter's photos taken on Rocky Hill in MA!

So really there are a couple stories here: Is this a Ceremonial Site, a Town Site or a Maya Site? Was the Forest Service intent to discourage people from messing around with the stones because of all the publicity? Should everyone but me (since no one ever steals my photos) put a watermark or something on their photos so no one can claim them as "rock solid" proof of (enter your favorite fringe group theory here) as the party responsible for building the construction - especially if the photos are from a thousand miles away from where they claim they were found?

I may be easily confused but now I'm starting to think everything I see on the World Wide Internet might not be true...

Curious rocks from Colorodo

Reader Chris Schram writes:

I ran across your website and decided to show you a few bird and other animals I found.

These were found in Colorado and made of petrified wood.
#5586 is a side body profile of a bison with crystal perfect in middle of body.

A bird:

Isolated "altar"

From northeast of Watatic Pond. An isolated find:

One Rock Pile Mystery Solved

Image lifted from: http://4cornershikesarch.blogspot.com/2011/09/fisher-towers-trail.html

East of Watatic Pond in Ashby

I took a walk last weekend that was deeply satisfying because of the success of my plan and exercise of skills. But it was hot and I exhausted myself.

I was looking over maps Friday afternoon and noticed this place north of Blood Hill. We are up against the border of New Hampshire here, more than 1/2 way to Mt Monadnock, and an hour's drive from home. But the area looks ideal for rock pile hunting: lots of small hills and swamps and an old road going through there (the dashed line above B). I planned to park at A, head in towards the old road, and explore along there. 
When I parked, I stepped into the woods on a hillside, and walked along with feet and muscles complaining. And my feet tried to pull me uphill but my mind told me to stay to the left and head for the wetlands. 
I got off the hill, stepped across a brook at the head of the marsh, and stopped to consider. Which way to the old road? I thought it would be north and to my right. But it was ideal site topography to my left with rocky land coming down to the opening of the marsh. So I changed plans and took no more than a few steps when I saw a big bump of vegetation. Could that be a rock pile? I already said it:

As  I  looked around, I saw there were three others (later I saw one more) around a small vernal pool-now dry and brown,with a layout a bit like this:

The pictures do not show well because of the bright sunlight and because the piles are very thoroughly covered with vegetation. I see this as a sign of greater age than usual.

 

Here is a second one. It is more than 5 feet tall, and maybe 12-15 feet wide. That's a pretty big pile.

A third:

seen from above:

 and a fourth:

This is a familiar shape, a square "U", or perhaps a "crescent". In the picture, the U opens to the right. 
These piles are an intermediate size in the overall spectrum; they are old and, to the extent that structure is visible, it is an early form (the U). A bit like at Brown Hill in style but much bigger. And now we are in the Souhegan watershed. Is it a new style? Not sure. In any case the piles seemed deliberately placed around the wet spot. 
So I took pictures, and continued southwest along the verge of the marsh. I crossed a wall and came to another wet place with other piles, or I should say other wet places and other clusters of piles. Because as I walked along I saw several clusters and lost count. The pictures are not clear enough for distinct memories. 
One place:

 

 Another place:

 

This is a small double chambered mound. I saw another a few hundred yards away further along the verge.

These are small rock piles with tails- again an early form like the U. You almost never find piles of this shape looking any fresher. 
Anyway...continuing:

 

Here is a really simple arrangement:

Two lady-slippers decorate it. Is that a cup holder in the foreground?
Then I crossed another wall, and got to another wet spot and saw another group of rock piles around it. But this time, small piles under the ferns.

 Note the feather:

And here, if you click in, you may be able to see another large, oblong enclosure shaped rock pile:

So yes, the piles do fit into the framework of rock piles with hollows that I have been seeing and which I looking for. It is what I am hoping to see when I go out. Now in the walk, these seem to alternate with small groups of smaller piles around a wet spot:

Then I came up to the back of houses where the mounds looked more recently manipulated, so I turned off to the side, and came up to the old road I was going to look for. Followed it uphill to the west, and then climbed up and over to "C" where I saw that strange structure built into the cliff. 
Looped around and down into another valley, without any more rock piles except one isolated "table" and I started thinking of extracting myself from the woods. By now I was pretty tired. Aching legs had given way to being out of breath and having a tired back. Heading south, I still had to climb the hill I skipped at the beginning. It was a waste of breath. When I got back to my car I was so tired (it was 93 degrees out) it took me most of the drive home and a cold coke to begin to recover.

A Lovely Brook in Harvard

Reader Sydney Blackwell writes:

Some pics from a lovely brook in Harvard. 

 

 

On the north side there is a rock pile—just a small one-- on a boulder. A large split rock makes an interesting access to the brook from the rock pile. Last picture, a view of the brook  through the split rock.

[From an earlier email:]

... my son Scott and I found a lovely, lovely little brook with a small waterfall... There is a largish rock pile on a boulder nearby and two turtle looking stones, one at the base of the fall. ...I have also found a very large, notched rock, covered with quartz on one side. I suspected and confirmed the notch sights the North Star...

 

 [Looks like a face]

Brooksby Farm Turtle

This looks “familiar” to me because it resembles the property line at my house (except the roadside stone rows are zigzag) – a Modern Stack at the corner of two rows with the “Indian Look.” This is: Rock Wall Zigzag; Just outside Brooksby Farm in Peabody, MA. From: Kevin Grocki  Taken on November 12, 2009 at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kgrocki/4098959926/in/set-72157622792006676/
And I think that might be a Turtle sitting on that stone row:

Smoky Mountain "Walls"

"As the foliage drops, evidence of settlement like this wonderful zig-zag rock wall, becomes more obvious."

More: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2013/06/smoky-mountain-walls.html

I don't remember seeing this one

 (but I remember Thornton):

"Guessing the age of ancient stone walls"  APRIL 22, 2012 BY: RICHARD THORNTON

The stone retaining walls at Sandy Creek Park near Athens, GA look the same as those at Track Rock Gap, GA, but were they built by the same ethnic group?

Photo Credits:   

Dana Mack Jones

"Looks can fool you. What may appear to some to be a 6,000 year old cairn erected by Native Americans can be just that, or a cairn erected 1,500 years ago, a 250 year old Indian grave, or just the work of an early settler clearing his field of stones."

And I meant to add this:

The newly identified Sandy Creek Terrace Complex near Athens, GA presents a major challenge for archaeologists and historic preservation architects. Fieldstone construction in eastern North America is not easily dated with currently available scientific technology.

http://www.examiner.com/article/guessing-the-age-of-ancient-stone-walls

More RT: http://www.examiner.com/native-american-history-in-national/richard-thornton
http://www.stratumunlimited.com/uploads/4/8/1/5/4815662/track_rock_article_-_maps_redacted.pdf

A collapsed structure in a cliff in Ashby

What do you make of this? 

 

 

It looks like layed up stonework to me. Especially the lower left of the first picture.

The feeling of things gone bye

 

The feeling of things almost lost to eye.

Fort Devens 1924 Stone Wall Map - online

Thanks to Vin of Menotomy Village Bycicles for hosting and to Sydney Blackwell for getting the map scanned..

HERE IS THE FULL RESOLUTION MAP, let's see if I can add a permanent link
http://menotomymaps.com/1924Devenswallmap.pdf

Wickiup (with stone pile)

Sheepeaters winter wickiup with stabilizer pole in cave or rock overhang; Larry Loendorf; No date;

(and no mention of the stone pile.) 

http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/slidefile/history/indians/page-3.htm