Nooherooka Monument

     “The Nooherooka Monument has been designed collaboratively between the Tuscarora Nation, Greene County Museum and ECU sculptors Hanna Jubran and Jodi Hollnagel-Jubran. After pulling together many design elements featured in themes from Tuscarora history and heritage, Jubran designed and supervised the construction of the monument…

      The Neyuheruke Wampum:

Was created in 2013 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the tragic battle at Fort Neyuheruke on 21-23 March 1713

Was also made to commemorate the return in 2013 of the Tuscarora Nation to North Carolina for the first time in 300 years

The wampum tells a story in carefully crafted and arranged beads of the two historic homes of the Tuscarora Nation–the current location of the Tuscarora Reservation in western New York State and the North Carolina homeland where the Tuscarora People lived for a thousand years–between the two rectangles located at the two ends of the wampum is a zigzag line representing the travels of the Tuscarora people between the two homelands …”

     

More: http://blog.ecu.edu/sites/nooherooka/

NEARA FALL 2014 CONFERENCE

50th Anniversary Gala Celebration

Looking Back, Looking Ahead:  

Where We've Been, Where We're Going

When

  Friday October 31, 2014 at 12:00 PM EDT

-to-
Sunday November 2, 2014 at 3:00 PM EST

Where

Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites, Nashua, NH
9 Northeastern Boulevard
Nashua, NH 03062
Nashua, NH

Click  here for info

Futility

     It has been more than two months since I have posted any arrowhead finds here. I haven't found anything to post.
     August was really dry. Cool, but very little rain, and no heavy rain at all. Weeds grew and covered the earth. No storms came to expose rocks on the ground. I spent long hours wandering in dusty places poring over the dry earth. I hit it hard, I put in the time. At the beginning of the month I found one tiny fragment of an arrowhead, not worth showing. I could never have guessed that I would not find another artifact of any kind at all for nearly two months despite countless hours of careful searching.
     For a long time- years- if I had enough free time in a weekend, I could more or less feel certain that I could find some sort of artifact. For weeks now, that has not been the case for me. I have despaired. I look at frames of arrowheads in my room and it seems inconceivable to me that I once found objects like that on the ground. This has been my worst year yet for arrowheads. It's the weather- no rain. Plus I have lost some sites to development, in one place where I once found nice tools there are brand-new homes. In other places, weeds have grown so dense and tall, there is no chance anymore. New places I searched did not bear fruit.
     September was the same story. Hours of looking, no rain, no luck. Here is the sum total of everything I found in September. Tips of two quartz arrowheads. I found these at the very end of the month after 2 months of zero.

     I'm hoping October will be better. I went out yesterday for a couple of hours in the sun. I encountered this little guy on the way in.

      In an area dense with chips and flakes I found this crude arrowhead. The tip and one edge are nice, the base is very crude. I don't know if it was never finished or was used this way. It's fairly thick, perhaps used as a knife.

     These fragments of quartz arrowheads were easy to spot. The corner of a very nice large triangle, and the base of another triangle. That corner is really nicely flaked and it would have been a great point.

     Not much, nothing to get excited about- but better than nothing at all, certainly.

No exploration last weekend

Had family matters one day and rain the other. Have a good plan for next weekend but I am afraid I have nothing to post this week.

Proctor Hill - shimmed boulder next to old road

This is on Proctor Hill, across from the entrance to the Beaver Pond Brook ("Rocky Pond Brook") land in Hollis, NH.

Rocky Pond Brook - Hollis NH

I have been up to Hollis NH before, with lots of finds around Dunklee Pond but disappointing results at Rocky Pond Brook.  
This is essentially the same woods as before and I probably should not have gone back. But I followed a different trajectory - starting at A going north and circling around the back side of the brook and back along a old road to B.Through most I my walk there was little except an occasional stone wall and I was happy to see signs of the "hand of man" and followed them. I didn't see much. 

Just before stepping out of the woods I did a bit of hunting that I am proud of. There is a historic period homestead right at the road and, approaching from the north, there were numerous stone walls along the road. Thinking "don't stop looking just cuz this is the end of the walk" and I was craning my neck to see into the woods. Then there was a slightly different, wider, stone wall going left (east) down into a brush covered area. Thinking "I wouldn't have passed up that invitation earlier, especially heading down into a wet spot". 

So I went and looked closer, getting down into the bushes to a seasonal stream bed. Here a fallen tree reveals a well that presumably belonged to the homestead.

I continued through to the other  side where the bushes thinned and there was a ridge in front of me. Thinking "wait, go look in the bushes along this side of the brook" and I found this mound, tucked in there:

According to some people, the presence of a nearby historic period homestead and walls make it unlikely this is a Native American mound. By contrast, I think it simply adds to the possibility the homestead was occupied by an Indian family. Let's take a closer look:

A piece of white glassware here.

A saucepan there. 
Thinking "what does this mean?". Since these (colonial?) artifacts are superficial, they could have been added later, not necessarily built in the original pile. But I also think it's significant that someone felt connected enough to this mound that they had a ceremony here. Original builders or not, the suggestion of a connection between historic times and mound building cultures is important. Real or not, I believe the connection existed in the mind of the person leaving the glass and saucepan.
Some other views:

 

Looking back from a few steps away one sees there is more to the pile. I did not chase it any further into the bushes. After that, I walked over to the ridge and saw a familiar structure, which I have photo'd before somewhere:

More hints of recent ceremony. The connection to the mound, at least in in someones mind, is most interesting. A last look:

NOLUMBEKA PROJECT'S DAVID BRULE TO SPEAK

From the Nolumbeka Project:
NOLUMBEKA PROJECT'S DAVID BRULE TO SPEAK
Saturday, October 4, 10:00 a.m. to Noon

David Brule presents some basic information about the Native American presence at the Great Falls, then describes the events of May 19, 1676..., including the awarding of a National Park Service American Battlefield grant to study the event. Historian Ed Gregory will then present his archival photos about the villages of Montague from 1900 to the present.

Great Falls Discovery Center, 2 Ave. A, Turners Falls, MA.

Admission Free.

http://nolumbekaproject.org/

Preview: Beaver Brook - Hollis NH

The Hill of Naked Men

Went to climb Little Blue Hill and I was wondering if I could see a view of downtown Boston from the top. As I got to the  summit, I was surprised to find it covered with naked men - not the view I wanted. Although I had a brief photo-blogger impulse to photo the exotic sights, I left the summit quickly. 
Before that, on the southwest foot of the hill:

I think it is a prayer seat because fireplaces are not usually built on a slope. 
Before I got to the summit, a shoulder:

Along the Nonnewaug Trail

A circular little segment of a linear row of stones along a road that was originally an Indian Trail...

Standing Stone - Patch Hill, Boxboro

From reader Russ M:
These pictures were two or three years in the making trying to find the right combination of time and weather.  Using the Stupid Sheet and a compass it was my belief that this marker in the woods was oriented with the equinox sunrise.  It is up hill from the cairn field below.  I also got some very interest snaps of the sun on the front of the stone.  At times it gave the illusion it was glowing with the sun pulsing through the trees.  Happy Autumn!

Wetherbee Ave in Acton

I went back to this familiar place and -sink me- if I didn't step into the woods a bit early and stumble onto new rock piles. Here is a little horseshoe of rocks opening into a seasonal brook:

And a couple of adjacent piles, larger, rounded. I suppose quite old. My wife Barbara is in the background.

At Wetherbee Ave, at the top of the field, there is a bit of a waterway dropping off from there and draining towards Rt 2. In fact the field clearing piles are near the top of this and the "real" piles are downhill along the watercourse.

Surprise Lecture

Just found out I am supposed to talk at an AMC meeting at the Northborough Historical Society (52 Main Str Northborough, MA) tonight at ~7:45. 

Oops! Lucky I a have too much to talk about and too many pictures to show.

I don't suppose any of you can get there. They forgot to confirm and I just found out it is on!

High on a hill in Westminster

Designed for foot traffic. (Across the road and uphill from Redemption Rock.) Also, I thought this was kind of nice:

I am giving a talk at the Acton Library

On October 20th, 7PM. I will show a lot of pictures.

A few more features on North Manoosnoc

On the walk diagonally up from the foot of Mt Elam Rd to the northwest summit, I saw several interesting features. Two short stretches of wall and some propped slabs. 
Here is one short stretch. The upper end is just out of sight:

The upper end:

Later, higher on the hill, an older one:

You see little bits and pieces of stone lying around. Like it was a quarry. How did the place get this grass?

In the background:

I was going to dismiss this as a fireplace:

But then I realized the effort of lifting that slab of rock would be quite out of proportion with the needs for a temporary fireplace on the side of a hill.
Back near the bottom of the hill, a rare pile with white rocks, an "albino" pile:

It is too bad the mountain laurel is thick around the foot of the hill but it is a darn nice walk up to the summit and back.

Polypody ferns and ceremony

On the northeast slope of North Manoosnoc in Leominster I stopped to take a picture of one of my favorite ferns: the polypody which Thoreau called "cheerful little communities". They often grow out from between the rocks like this:

So I was admiring the outcrops, seeing a few things here and there that looked arranged, and sat down to enjoy the place. I was sitting right on top of one arrangement:

See how the entire crack has been stuffed with smaller fragments? 
Looking a little further down the rock, I noticed something else behind the next group of ferns.

A closeup:

[See Manitou p 275,300 for discussion of buckets and historic period ceremonialism.]
I have long thought this part of Leominster - called "Notown" - must have been where the Indians of Fitchburg were displaced to, when the Europeans arrived. Since the area is full of large stone mounds I believe it must have been an important center, even before the historic period. And now I see Notown is likely to have been all one and the same place - from the past into the historic. It was abandoned only recently and polypody grow there now.

"Ceremonial Stoneworks of the NorthEast"

A new blog from Matthew Howes [click here]. I added a permanent link on the right.

A broken point

You can sorta make out that this is a stemmed arrowhead with a damaged base and missing side.

Does anyone know the type? Here is a photo, the above was scanned:

Lewis Hollow land is ‘forever wild’

by VIOLET SNOW on Sep 8, 2014

Mt. Laurel School kids on a hike to the rock formations on Overlook Mountain.

    “A local private family foundation has purchased a 37-acre property on Overlook Mountain in Woodstock in order to preserve the land and its stacked rock formations, alleged to be of ancient origin. A Lewis Hollow neighbor has bought a nearby 45-acre parcel and placed a “forever wild” deed restriction on the land, protecting it from development. Glenn Kreisberg, who spearheaded formation of the Overlook Mountain Center (OMC) as a vehicle for protecting both properties, is also seeking to save a 30-acre area in lower Lewis Hollow.

    Kreisberg has studied and written about Overlook’s mysterious rock mounds and serpentine walls that he believes are Native American and ceremonial in origin. He hopes that purchase of the remaining 30-acre parcel will enable OMC to create an educational center at the former hunting lodge located on the property, as well as an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) limited-mobility wildernesses access area…”

http://www.woodstockx.com/2014/09/08/lewis-hollow-land-is-forever-wild/

 (I suppose "forever wild" all depends upon your definition of "wild," especially while walking around an "alleged ancient" Indigenous Ceremonial Stone Landscape...)