This is just up Rt 9 from Old Lyme, a bit east of Killingworth in Connecticut.
Nevertheless:
So we bailed on the hill. The result was that, later, we got to our destination early and had an extra hike at the end of the day.
On this first hike, as we walk back to the car, around 'B', I saw something worth photo'ing:
We had several interesting walks in this area. From one:
The other day I wrote about how there are rock piles everywhere, seen out the car window as we drove through 5 states. But the sixth one, New Jersey, had zero rock piles, in the part that we cut through briefly. Here is what you get instead:
As to the ubiquity of rock piles east of the Hudson River, American archaeologists are not going to want to find out about it. For one thing, they are going to have an immense amount of work to do. For another, they are not going to be able to document things anywhere near thoroughly. There is just too much data, when new sites appear behind every bush (so to speak). What!? Are they supposed to examine every back yard in New England? Try driving around Woodbridge CT, or even Cahoonzie NY. Yep, the rock piles are so numerous they spill out of the woods onto people's lawns:
By "unique structure" I mean a one-of-kind structure that you have never seen before, cannot put in context, and have no clue about. Sometimes you can guess the function but the point I want to make is that these can be easily interpreted as a "prayers in stone", meaning an individual and specific thought gave rise to the building of this structure.
For example an effigy:
Wilderness Hill, Littleton
Or the use of a peculiar landscape feature:
I think we can do a better than calling everything a "prayer". Let me tell you about two small things I saw, while walking back from the King's Chamber in Fahnestock. I did not photo either one but found myself thinking about their details later that night, while hoping to go back to sleep.
So, we were trudging back up the trail, around 'F' on the map, and I saw a small pile next to the trail made of four rocks on a support boulder: a wedge -shaped 'head' rock about eight inches long and three smaller rocks lying around it. I took a few steps off the path to look more closely. The head rock was shaped like a fox head. The ears were well-formed little points sticking out from back corners of the wedge. They looked artificially enhanced. The snout was squared off. There were little cracks and curves shaping an eye, in the correct place [I only looked at one side]. Of the three smaller rocks, one was a palm-sized little manitou stone; one was a small, black, cube of rock; and one was a small, beige, rock I didn't examine. The whole collection seemed too messy to be an effigy and I decided it was "uninteresting" and didn't need a photo. Seeing something new for the first time, my mind was not even processing it.
The other example, was around 'B'. on the map. We were tired at the end of the walk and I did not have the energy to go down and have a close look. But what I could see from about 30 yards away was a boulder with four black, round, shiny component rocks sitting on top of it. Like four fat plums, laid out in a square on a table top. Again, no photo.
I was thinking about both of these piles later, especially the "uninteresting" fox head with black cube and mini manitou. Speaking of "prayers in stone" this pile does seem very individual and specific. But it makes me think of that "wing of bat... chicken bone... blood of virgin"-sort of combination of elements, which I associate to a spell not to a prayer. Or what about the four black "plums" on the table?
Actually these structures seem to be more like incantations than prayers. Are spells and prayers the same thing? To me, the idea of a 'spell' has me looking at the details in a way that the idea of a 'prayer' does not.
Mountain top serpent
"I have been exploring this area for roughly a year. There is a large complex of stonework in this area. In this video, I walk a few different stone rows starting at a mountain top overlooking a gully and ending at a mountain notch pass." - J.S.
[Writing after little sleep, the first of a several thoughts to be posted]
Folks: I just love finding rock piles, looking at them, and thinking about them. Retired, living within my financial means, I am just having fun with this subject. It is time to do some "overview"-kind of thinking.
Driving through 5 states and looking out the window, I saw rock piles every time I looked, from New London to Port Jervis, NY. The only exception was a boring flat swampy area just west of the Hudson River, on Rt 84, where we began encountering Dutch place names with the word "kill" (which means brook). And we stopped in each place, at Cockaponsett in CT, at Woodbridge in CT, at Fahnenstock in Fishkill, NY, and on to Port Jervis NY - where I am hoping to see some of those barrel "cairns" that we see photos of. There were obvious rock piles in every rocky woods I could see into. For example, as you drive west on Rt 84 up the slope from the valley of Danbury CT, there was a prominent mound south of the road in the woods.
And you see mostly the same sorts of things over and over: stone walls, mounds, and rock-on-rock. Each place has the same sorts of things but often there are stylistic differences that are special and local. I might say that what I see along the Naugatuck watershed has much less diversity than along the Concord watershed. In the same way, what is in Fitchburg is more consistent, lacks the Concord diversity, but is quite different from what is there in Naugatuck.
I'll write later about some of the unique things I saw, when we took walks and looked more carefully. For now, I want to say that as we passed an occasional rock pile in Rhode Island - making a faint "chirp", moving on to the rocky, wooded, slopes of western CT, where the number of structure increases to a "low roar". By the time we got to where we parked in Fahnenstock (actually "California" State Forest) where it became a "loud roar", to the walk in to the Kings Chamber, where the sound became deafening - like the crows attacking the phone booth in Hitchcock's The Birds. In that place, where every darn rock had been messed with (and believe me there are lots of rocks) you imagine an Indian walking around thinking - Geez! Where can I find a boulder that hasn't already been used?
In that last place, the piles demand attention. All the more incredible that they remain un-noticed by the hundreds of people who visit. Still more incredible that there are still pseudo scientist trying to claim there had been lots of fields being cleared; up in the completely rocks hills of eastern NY, where there are no farms and definitely no fields.
Was looking at (older) online photos of this chamber. Compared to the ones I took. Using images from image search:
Before:
After:
One thing I am going to be ragging about is the idea that:
Indians built ceremonial structures everywhere. No place was left un-used because they ran out of places to put things.
As I drive west with my wife, I can confirm that every single place we looked had rock piles. They were also in many places we weren't searching: Outside the car in CT, at every open view of the woods, I spotted rock piles. They are ubiquitous. So come on, am I the only person who sees them?
Another thesis is the "path from the water up the hill" following a path of least resistance. The main site we visited in Woodbridge CT is at the Elderslie Preserve. What becomes obvious is the valley that leads up the hill from below. The ceremonial structure density was highest at the top of this valley.
I am taking a long drive with my wife, stopping and taking walks along the way. After two days of hiking in southwestern CT, the land of the Paugusett, let me mention some differences between here and "back home" in Middlesex MA. Come to think of it, examining differences between here and there is one of the main purposes of taking this long drive. I assume that there will be differences that reflect differences in the history of these places. So without further ado:
There are no large rectangular mounds with hollows. All I see are faintly rectangular outlines on the ground. I suspect these are one of the oldest forms of burial.
First in a series of "Fat guy lumbers around finding rock piles"
Got there early and took a little hike.
More tomorrow. I expect I'll have too many photos to post.Am planning a trip, this place caught my eye - half way between CT and Scranton PA: "Cahoonzie". Found something on YouTube:
A remarkable row of stones in a "Hidden Vermont" video:
My impression is that an undulating Stone Snake borders the path up to the mountain top. This capture shows the height of the wall on the lower side , the soil build up over time on the other -but with a well worn path, also made over a long period of time...
A segment that reminds me of a snake in Washington CT:
Not an overlay but a comparison, showing markings found on the Eastern diamondback Rattlesnake (and the Great Snake):
And Tommy Hudson shows up in the comments, making some comparisons to N. Georgia!
Qusuqaniyutôkanuk: “On the stone wall”
"That's
a snow covered Qusukqaniyutôk leading up to a bedrock outcrop, connecting to
other Qusuqaniyutôkansh or “stone walls.” If there are
"metates and manos" to be found within the enclosure, then whoever
constructed these "rows of stones" was "gathering something and
then processing something in this fire tended garden spot," a reasonable
person might conclude..."
(One
Stained White Quartz Mano (?) found káhtôquwukanuk or
“in the pile:”)
"The Significance of Rock Feature
Complexes on the Southern Columbia Plateau"
by Thomas J. Connolly and Mark A. Tveskov et al
(Received 31 October 1995, revised manuscript accepted 2
February 1996)
"On the Columbia River’s south bank near the town of Mosier,
Oregon, is a 12+ hectare (30 acre) complex of rock walls, pits, and cairns
patterned in a talus and debris field at the foot of the 30 m (100 ft) Columbia
Gorge escarpment. Commonly known as the ‘‘Mosier Mounds’’, this site is an
unusually large, well-preserved example of the rock feature sites found throughout
the Columbia Plateau and associated with vision quests, burials, and game
drives. This paper describes the construction of digital models of the site and
advantages their flexibility o ers for site recording and assessment, and
provides interpretations regarding the specific uses and larger social purposes
of the site with reference to the ethnographic and archaeological records." -
1997 Academic Press Limited
"Traditional Klamath/Modoc spirituality focuses on a
cosmology incorporating power quests initiated by the shaman to ally themselves
with cosmological entities in order to satisfy the basic needs of life. The
Klamath see their lands and territory as existing solely for them by Gmok’am’c” created to care for one another. The Modoc has similar views
and beliefs in their connection to their territories and lands.
They both believe that every rock feature, mountain, cave,
body of water, meadow, or any other distinct location in the land had its own
spirit and everything with a spirit had power. Since every single rock had
power, stacking them was building power. Bringing a rock from Shasta, which
would possess Shasta’s power, could be stacked with another rock from another
power place to construct power vortexes.
These powers and communication with these spirits was sought
after, especially beginning by youth at puberty. Males would go on power quests
lasting 5 to 7 days under fast. Young women would also quest, but through
dreams and sleep rather than the physical, mainly due to physical safety
concerns in the environment.
Often an elder would watch over from a discreet distance the
young female on a power quest to ensure that she remains safe. Both youths
would embark their journey from a power spot such as Crater Lake where they
would exhaust themselves by swimming, running, sweating (such as a sweat lodge
ceremony), and piling up rocks (rock cairns), and engage in other energy
draining tasks. They would then fall unconscious from these exertions and begin
dream questing to communicate with spirits.
The exhaustion would create an altered state of
consciousness or hallucinatory state from the exhaustion, sleep deprivation,
and/or fasting. Power was then transmitted from the spirit during the dream in
the form of a song.
Researchers Theodore Stern (1966) and Verne F. Ray (1963)
noted a boy on a vision quest might construct several stone cairns one a day
during the extent of their quest, sometimes stacking to a maximum height and
then unstack it only to restack it a few feet away. Each would be stacked only
as high as the boy could construct it. The power obtained could give the
individual some measure of control in success with procreation, battle,
hunting, accumulating wealth, arts, or gambling.
The more power they gained, the more prominent they could
become within their tribe leading to becoming shamans, leaders, or top hunters.
Mature individuals would also build cairns atop the landscape to focus their
minds during their quests. These began small, usually involving only 2 rocks.
On subsequent returns to that location the individual would add a rock or rocks
to the stack. It was also common for this individual doing this stacking to
remain in the location for weeks at a time.
Adults would also construct cairns in the puberty fashion
when additional power or communication with spirits was needed, especially in
events of life change or emotion such as the birth or death of a child, chronic
illness, death of a spouse, or gambling losses. These would be called crisis quests.
John Fagan (2000) noted that at the Ridgeline Meadow Site (35JA301) a linear
rock formation points directly to Mount Shasta as a prominent feature of the
Klamath sacred landscape, seen by some as the principal home of “Gmok’am’c”.
Bryant Mountain in southeastern Oregon possesses numerous power quest cairns along it of significance to the Modoc, specifically the Koki was band, according to Matt Goodwin (1997). Several of these cairns were arranged in a serpentine-like pattern as well as cairns arranged in circular or triangular patterns. Also atop this mountain are cairns with no discernible physical relationship to other cairns.
Other cairns were built along trails, as noted by Henry L.
Abbot in 1855 along Klamath waterway trails of stacked rocks 2-6 feet in
height, some believing these to be marks to show the trail when it was covered
by snow or more plausibly due to the quantity of cairns, that they were built
along stops along the way to offer prayers of safe passage and overall good
luck. Ideally food offerings were left with these to the spirits of power
places such as streams, springs, pools, caves, or rock features. Stones
sometimes would suffice as an offering if food was not available to give.
The Plateau and Plains peoples would often do these types of
activities as well, though incorporated in the sweat lodge ceremonies and
fasting. Crow and Hidatsa peoples would incorporate in self-mutilation and/or
self-torture to demonstrate their worthiness to receive visions.
Power quest cairns often are found with an eastern
orientation such as along the eastern slopes of hills and mountains.
Klamath/Modoc would build shelters with their entrances facing east, beginning
all prayers facing east … the direction of which the sun
would appear. Some power quest cairns however have been found on west, north,
and south facing slopes as well. This was often a case when a power seeking
individual on one mountain top would be seeking power from another mountain…”
[Not rock pile related]. This is pretty good:
NATtalk: An Evening with the Cerutti Mastodon Scientists - YouTube
Two things stand out for me. The first is that this is a 130,000 year old archeological site in San Diego.
The second is an unusual find, what they called an "anomaly", consisting of a single mastodon tusk placed vertically in the ground. There was no obvious physical force that would do that, so the presumption was that the tusk was deliberately buried in that orientation.
Can I stop for a second and imagine the meaning to such a gesture? It feels like spearing the earth with a tusk could be an expression of gratitude - an offering or a trade.
So imagine these early humans - who at 130K BP might have not even been entirely human - being spiritual and behaving ethically in relation to food and the earth.
From Cachat-Shilling's Massachusetts Ethical Archaeology Society:
The Science of Stone Prayers: Archaeology of the Ohio Valley and Early Research (ethicarch.org)
This does not fit my theory very well.
Stone mounds © Sunny cc-by-sa/2.0 :: Geograph Ireland
I recall a story of a group of 11 Indians, showing up in a canoe, in Britain. These rock piles in the pictures at this link make me wonder if Indians got to Ireland. After all, it is not easy to abandon a (my) long held theoretical belief.
Saw an interesting picture here:
I wonder if there were Algonquian tribes in that part of CA?
Reader "student" sends:
