Shaker Lands in Harvard, MA

North of Rt 2 the hills and swamps, near the center of the Shaker historic area in Harvard MA, are full of rock piles. I stopped there on the way home from Groton where I made the mistake of planning a walk - it was a dud and I knew I'd find something, just driving around in that part of Harvard. 

Probably the most interesting thing during the weekend happened when I pulled to the side of the road and another car stopped in front of me and parked at the same time. I got out, looking inquisitive, and an elderly guy got out of the other car and asked me "is you car alright?", then "you aren't stealing rocks from the stone walls?", then I answered "of course not, I am taking pictures of them". After hearing that, the man goes: "oh. good, good....I didn't know about it but now I am in the know....". He seemed to be speaking about rock piles but I did not bother mentioning that I knew about them too. Just took pictures. It is certainly gratifying that a random old guy from Harvard knows about "hush hush....it is special". That would be near the lowest blue outline:

 Typically:

After that I walked around the edges of  a swamp and saw some other minor features at the upper blue outline.

 Witch Hazel is blooming:

I did find something unusual at the spot indicated with a red "?": an enclosure at the end of a wall.

This is shaped on the interior, very much like the chamber incorporated into a wall on Hubbard's Hill in Concord. But there is no evidence of corbelled roofing here.

And, also like similar enclosure from Lincoln [can no longer find the article], there was a bit of a niche or cupboard inside:

 from above

Having now seen two or three of these structures, I think there is a pattern here. These are not underground chambers, but not too different.

Photos from Boxborough

Reader David, sends photos and text:

The following photos were taken in Boxborough in the general vicinity of Patch Hill.   There are at least 3 more piles in this area that I did not photograph.       
Fortunately, I had some time to clean the area.

This is the second pile that I cleared but found it far more interesting.  This particular rock has been split into multiple pieces, some more obvious than others.  Located in the center of the photo, is one of the splits and notice how it is filled with rocks of a consistent size.  To the left of this split, there is another collection of rocks, this time they are much smaller in diameter and would fit easily in the palm of your hand.  These rocks are not visible in these photos.  I did not inspect all of the smaller rocks, but I was able to find a nice piece of white quartz.

Behind the tree on the right, there is a line of small rocks that look like they step down the hill for about 3-4 feet.  Pile # 3 is about 10 feet downhill from the left side of this pile.    

Pile #1.  After I cleared this pile, I decided it was a good idea to take before and after photos.  This particular pile was completely covered with leaves and scrap pieces of chopped wood. It continues beyond the frame for another 5 feet.  

Pile #2 is in the foreground and Pile #1 is behind it to the right.  They are about 20 feet apart from each other. 


Pile #3.  This particular pile is downhill from pile #2.   

Pile #4: This pile is located on the edge (ledge?) of a little ridge and this is the view looking uphill.  Notice the white rock in the foreground. 


Pile #4: Here is the view from above pile #4.  It looks like there is a hollow in the middle of the pile.  

Save the Stones (Italy (NY)

From: Logging and related activities in the state's wildlife management plan have stewards of land and water asking questions

By Julie Sherwoodjsherwood@messengerpostmedia.com

   “Work has begun. On Sunday, Rushville resident David Schewe and a group of friends took a look. Walking an area of High Tor in the town of Italy (NY), Yates County, not far from Conklin Gully, it was clear where loggers had been.

  Concerns range from runoff polluting the lake to the use of pesticides, and the disturbance of what some believe are historic and culturally significant rock formations...

   Schewe, a technology teacher at Marcus Whitman, said he is not against responsible logging. But he wants the DEC to recognize — and place off-limits to loggers — areas where he and others believe are stone structures of historical and cultural significance.

   A number of years ago, Schewe began researching and documenting these stone piles. He has pinpointed some 300 in the region. There is no proof, but he believes plenty of evidence suggests these structurally impressive rock formations, which fit patterns in size and shape, were manmade during a prehistoric period...

 Local expert weighs in on stone piles:

Kurt A. Jordan is director, Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies (CIAMS); and associate professor, Anthropology, American Indian and Indigenous Studies at Cornell University. He writes: "There is no question that there are large numbers of human-constructed rock piles in various areas across the Northeast; it’s quite obvious that these are cultural features rather than 'random piles of rock.' In most cases, the jury is still out on who constructed them. While there is widespread local fervor for attributing them to Native Americans, we must remember that very close to the entirety of the Northeast was farmed at one point (there is significantly more wooded area today in the Finger Lakes region than there was in 1880, or even 1920). Most of the rock piles are quite distant from known Native sites. In terms of knowing that there were people out on these landscapes, then, it is more likely that they were placed by Euro-Americans for purposes of getting the rocks out of fields, whimsy, or other reasons. But we shouldn’t be too quick to eliminate the possibility of Native construction, however.

"The vast majority of rock piles are not obvious “sites” as there is little cultural material associated with them. The origin and timing issues are difficult to resolve because archaeologists would need to find artifacts directly associated with the rock piles, and/or associated charcoal that could be radiocarbon-dated. This happens very, very rarely, which means there is no good way to determine when, or by whom, the piles were erected. Investigating rock piles is therefore extremely low on most archaeologists’ priority lists because the research process is extremely likely to be frustrating and inconclusive. There are simply many, many, many more avenues of research that are more likely to generate interesting results than rock piles.

"There is some possibility that eventually people may be able to tell who made the rock piles on the basis of their characteristics — some, for example, have asserted that construction of parallel lines represents Native construction. This type of research is not very far along and I don’t think anything definitive has come from it as of yet.

"One other possibility that hasn’t been adequately explored is that the rock piles are intercultural creations, resulting from a combination of Native and settler elements unfolding over time. This avoids the 'either/or' thinking most commonly applied when discussing rock piles. Hypothetically, I suspect this is the case for many formations."

http://www.mpnnow.com/news/20161114/concerns-run-deep-over-high-tor-plan

Dave's photos:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1315512925188905/

http://hi-torstone.blogspot.com/

A small pile at Codman Hill

 There is a white rock in the middle.

 How can anyone doubt that this is quite deliberate?

Note there are larger piles in the background. This sort of the grouping is common on the hill.

Something new at Codman Hill - Harvard, MA

I mean the hill east of Murray Lane in Harvard and it is covered with rock piles. Bruce MacAlleer found it. Last weekend, I took a short hike with my wife to follow the southernmost contour of this hill. In one ravine, I found something new:

a little closer

and more

From above, it looks totally collapsed:

In light of its situation: at a first level above a tributary to Beaver Brook, it fits well within the broader pattern of such rectangular piles in these watersheds. 

The pile is in two pieces and reminds me a bit of the "J" at Blood Hill (on a less grand scale). A more pertinent comparison, is with a pile less than a mile away at a different place in Harvard [click here.].

How lucky am I to live in an area where these things are all over the place? And nobody even sees them!

A tour of the back swamp between the Mannosnocs - Leominster

I have written very little about the Manoosnocs and Mt Elam Rd. I call this area the "capital of the inland empire" because it is the largest collection of inter related sites I know, containing mounds in the Fitchburg tradition  - which I used to call the "Wachusett Tradition" until realized that Wachusett was not the only central concept for these cultures. Anyway, this is my favorite place out there, called "NoTown" because it was where the low life's were pushed during the post colonial era.  The Notown reservoir is pretty much surrounded by sites if you are willing to push through mountain laurel to get to them. 
Anyway, I found an excuse to go back there: I had not explored the north slope of South Manoosnoc, nor the verge of the swamp at its base. I guess I made a mistake because I traversed that slope too far uphill and saw almost nothing till I got back to the lowlands.

We'll have a look at some pictures. Let me mention that I avoided the main sites (except at F) and deliberately went places that seemed less promising - because I hadn't been to them. 
I got off Mt Elam Rd and went walked parallel with it, but following closer to the power lines. Here was earthen mound at A:

An earthen mound is an unusual find. Especially here, in an area full or stone mounds. I knew it was dirt, cuz it was soft when I poked a toe into it. Then back on the Rd: here is where we cross beneath the power lines:

We glimpse some larger mounds but have other goals for the moment.

Tim MacSweeney will know why I could not resist going off in an inviting direction here:

But there were only scraps back there and I continued up and across and down over towards B. The hillside:

Make no mistake about "Notown". It was a serious, ceremonial, place. 
So I was exploring along the verge of the swamp back there. I am a bit confused by the map because I think there is another road in there that goes south towards South Manoosnoc - the way to its summit. I was on that road and cut back towards the swamps at an elbow in the road. Poking along, I see this:

I have had good luck, so I went through the opening with optimism. At B. And immediately there was the rock pile: covering the entire top of the little knoll. Hard to photo, this video captures as much as there is to see:

I was in luck along there and found a least one other bump covered with stones, so messy you would be tempted to think it was from field clearing - except there are no fields here, and the pile is part of a continuum of styles (these being much the oldest in my opinion) that are illustrated throughout this area. No field clearing, burials! Photos of same:

 

Iconic Leominster:

There was another mess atop this bump but the wall was quite eye catching (mound to the right):

What is this?

In the Manoosnocs you are never far from moose. 
Here was an isolated pile next to an old trail leading up from the swamp:

Then we start a long slow traverse of the lower north slope of South Manoosnoc. Nothing much in there. An occasional rock on rock, and occasional small pile. At the power lines, this impressive wall caught my eye:

Look closely and notice a couple of "hollows" in the wall - a couple places where there were no rocks. Traversing...(C).

Then I headed back down towards the edges of the wetland. I came across a curiously steep little bump in the woods (D), that almost seemed artificial. I climbed it dutifully, and only noticed one thing on the way down: a crater dug into the sandy side, with a stone lined entrance:

It doesn't look like much but it was a real feature. Just across a little valley was this pile, facing the crater:

It looked familiar and I soon realized it was the edge of one of the more interesting "sites" I have found here in the past. Certainly the most obscure - since it is not easy to get to D.
Then I was crossing a swamp, with difficult going through the laurel, and stumbled on a small group of piles with quartz at E. These seemed like old marker piles.

 

Pretty substantial. I was struck by how the landscape must be totally different not from when these piles were functional.

Then it was back to the edges of the main site, at F:

 (detail of just in front of the the log )

A bit like a quartz manitou Mavor writes about in Falmouth. A thoroughly pleasant walk, with something for everybody - from mounds to standing stones.

One of four stone cairns (ND)

BISMARCK—The company building a controversial oil pipeline north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation failed to immediately notify state regulators after finding four stone cairns and other artifacts during construction in Morton County as tensions grew among pipeline opponents, documents show...

http://www.inforum.com/news/government/4149878-company-showed-lack-transparency-reporting-artifacts-discovery-days-leading