The Wachusett Tradition

I have given it some thought and have looked at quite a large number of rock pile sites and it has crystallized into an idea that one kind of rock pile site is related specifically to Mount Wachusett. Several years ago I heard Curtis Hoffman say something like that all ceremonialism in eastern Massachusetts was directed towards that mountain. At the time this seemed an oversimplification and, now, I think it only covers a part of the variety of rock pile phenomena.

But I saw a site last weekend that really exemplified one common combination of things:

• a view of Mt Wachusett
  
• a rectangular pile 10-20 feet long by more than 8 feet wide
  
• built up, occasionally more than four feet high
• singly or doubly chambered (with a hollow)
• mostly in westernmost suburbs of Boston
  

I'll show pictures in a moment.

But seeing these features together, as I say, crystallized the idea that this combination represents a particular ceremony or ceremonies from a particular culture which I want to call the Wachusett Tradition. I don't know what ceremony but it looks like burial. I don't know what culture but sense that these piles are pre-colonial. I see them in Berlin, I see them in Framingham, in Harvard, and as far east as Lincoln. I see them mostly in the western suburbs.

But I have to fudge with the ideas. For example, the pile in Lincoln [first pile here] is low, and has no view of anything; it is simply a pile that fits the physical description. Or the piles in Berlin [here] have a good view and fit the physical description but the view does not actually face Wachusett. Or the piles in Harvard [here] with a view not towards Wachusett and oval rather than rectangular. So let me take the site from last weekend as the classic example, this is on Apron Hill in Boylston MA, on conservation land. I approached the site along a nice looking stone wall:Approaching from the south, I stayed to the left following the wall as I got near the hilltop, wanting to see if there were any large piles with a view towards Wachusett. Here is a first glimpse. There is a large stone mound right of center and something smaller to the left over by the wall: Here is a closeup of the pile:It is rectangular but has a small pile appended to it.

Here is a closeup of what I am calling a hollow in the pile [with suburbia's intrepid encroachment in the background.]
Here is the Wachusett view, masked by trees, but you can make it out:And here is a smaller pile over closer to the wall, sized a bit like the appendage to the first pile.
Another view:
And here is the view back towards the first pile.Further back, in the direction away from Wachusett there was at least one more squarish pile, pretty damaged and unclear under the snow.

I was thinking about exactly this kind of site when I went looking at Apron Hill. Those small hills in northern Boylston looked perfect for viewing the mountain, so I was hoping to find more of the big piles I seem to keep coming across this winter. I was getting close to the idea a few weeks ago when I wrote about Rock Piles at Overlooks [here].

Having finally noticed these identifiable features of a particular kind of rock pile site, having made this identification as something somehow related to Wachusett, the question becomes whether any particular new or old site should be considered as part of this "Wachusett Tradition" or not. So for example, the site in Holliston on Miller Hill [here] might be part of the same tradition or not. I think those big sites in Leominster [eg here] are probably part of this tradition, or at least include this; and the same goes for those sites in Westminster around Muddy Pond [here]. So this is a unifying idea that I believe relates to one culture. It is far enough west of Boston that it seems to be "Central Massachusetts" the ancestral home of the Nipmuck.

A small Wachusett facing rock pile site

I have written about what I call "marker piles" and, in particular about marker pile sites which face Wachusett [for example here] [especially here] [or more generally here]. The idea that Wachusett is a central location in the Native American spirituality of eastern Massachusetts first was told to me by Curtis Hoffman. At the time I did not think there was that much basis for the idea and, in the end, I do not think Wachusett was by any means the only such important location, or that viewing distant prominent hills is the only reason for building a rock pile site. Up north of here, in places like in Westford, Tyngsboro, and Townsend, there are very similar rock pile sites that face towards the west and northwest - certainly not facing Wachusett. (Perhaps they might be facing Monadnock.) Anyway these sites appear near a hilltop on a slope facing a prominence and the piles are similar in size and tend to be evenly spaced and in lines. Occasionally there will be a single (?) pile with a piece of quartz. That one pile will look a lot like a grave but this is a very particular context of a pile with quartz and I do not think these sites are graveyards.Last week I noticed a small hill east of Wachusett and, liking to explore out that way (I think it was East Princeton), I headed out on Saturday. I saw some nice woods and eventually got up to the hilltop. There were houses there and I was prepared to be disappointed but I skirted the development hoping there would, at least, be woods to the southwest in the direction facing Wachusett. There was and I was walking along, saw one rock pile hidden in the pine needles and then realized there were numerous low piles - almost completely buried in the duff. At first seeing a white quartz piece in one pile, I thought: "hmmm....graves?". But then I saw the three piles in a row, evenly spaced. This swung my opinion over more towards it being a marker pile site. Here is another occasional feature of a marker pile site: a single rock-on-rock with a curious suggestive shape near at the upper side of the site: (For reference, here is one of the nicest of all marker pile sites I know (in Stow MA). Note the single pile with quartz and the single example of a rock-on-rock. [Click here]) You can see this rock-on-rock at the end of line of three items, two rock piles and this rock-on-rock. Although you probably cannot make it out through the glare, here is a view of Wachusett, to the southwest. The white tower at the top of Wachusett was visible when I took the picture. These piles are more substantial than you would think at first glance. They are very broken down and well covered: Finally, here is a bit of a panorama to help give the mood of the place: Taking this picture, Wachusett is off behind my left shoulder.

A typical beautiful eastern Massachusetts Hilltop - Little Wachusett

There is a small hill south of Mount Wachusett called Little Wachusett, which I climbed last weekend with my son Joe. We parked on the road south of it and walked straight up hill. There were occasional rock-on-rock on the slope but since this might have been quarried I do not know if they are significant. I guess they look typically ceremonial.As we got near the top of the hill we saw a couple of hikers pass along a trail there and then, when we got to the top, it was a typical Massachusetts hilltop. Blueberry bushes, scrub oak, bare places, and little arrangements of rocks that looked modern or at least recently moved around:
Some looked like the might be trail marking cairns, even off the trail:
Some looked more deliberate and not so trail-related. Note the quartz in the foreground:
Whenever I look west from a high hill around here in Middlesex, I see Wachusett with Little Wachusett riding like a child or smaller companion to the south. It has always intrigued me. But when I am closer to Wachusett and find a rock pile site it is, more often than not, on a slope facing the main mountain. I hope I am not being misleading. There are other kinds of sites that do not face the mountain. In any case, I had my highest expectation of seeing something interesting on the northern side of this hill where the view was back northward towards Mt Wachusett.

Here is what I found: three slightly more substantial but small rock stacks in a row and a large white quartzite cobble next to the middle one.
Here is Joe looking towards Mt. Wachusett,
Here is the northward view itself:
Also at this spot a 5" diameter tree had been sawn off to create a clear view of Mt Wachusett from the bear spot next to the quartzite cobble. So really this was the kind of vestiges of structures facing north is what I should have been expecting.

[That blurr in the middle of the pictures turned out to be worse than dirt: a scratch on the lense made by the automatic lense cover which had been failing to open and close properly. But I called HP and 20 minutes later was giving them my mailing address so they could mail me a new camera. Good service!]

There was also one stone wall crossing the hilltop from roughly east to west.
I do not understand why walls sometimes do this: becoming higher as they rises up over a bump - as if to smooth out the actual topography.

All in all a nice hilltop. We spiralled down counter-clockwise to descend the outcrops and cliffs on the western side of the hill, got back to the road and walked back to the car.

The Wachusett Tradition and Marker Piles

Since I coined the two phrases of "Marker Piles" and the "Wachusett Tradition", some discussion is needed about whether they are inter-related and, if so, what is that relation. I think there is some relation but the ideas are not identical. Let me explain.

A few weeks ago at the Hopkinton State Forest I noticed and described how the piles had a vertical face as well as a slanted or horizontal face that blended in to the hillside.
I have always described this vertical face as a basic characteristic of what I called "marker piles". [It was Linda McElroy of Acton who first pointed out the vertical face on a pile at the "Acton Grid" but I stole the idea and gave it a name.] This type of pile has been discussed a lot on this blog [click here for some of the discussions]. So I won't spend time now talking about even spacing of rock piles or rock piles in a line.

But then, at Hopkinton State Forest, I noticed this other pile characteristic of blending in with the slope of the hillside. So a week after that, at Millers Hill in Holliston, seeing something like that I called it a "ski jump" profile [click here and scroll down]. This is frequently a characteristic of marker piles but not always. However Millers Hill and Hopkinton State Forest are slightly different - Millers Hill has a big platform and Hopkinton State Forest has smaller more numerous piles.Both have ski jump shaped piles. So these sites are similar but neither exactly fits the definition of "Wachusett Tradition": both sites have nice views - "outlooks"- but the chambered rectangular cairns are absent. Also neither of these sites is a typical marker pile site in the sense of numerous lined up piles.

Now, with a site I found last weekend in Upton at the Warren Brook Watershed Conservation Land, some kind of connection was seen: ski jump piles in intimate connection with a chambered rectangular cairn at a place with a good view. I will report that site separately but here are "ski jumps" from there:
And here is a chambered (vandalized) and rectangular cairn from there:
[Sorry the snow makes it hard to see but there is a rectangular hole at the center of the pile].

I think this is a significant overlap between one form of marker pile (the "ski jump") and the Wachusett Tradition of chambered cairns.

Let's return to the thought that these are not typical marker pile sites. The latter have, in the past, been places with many small piles, lined up and evenly spaced. But with these recent sites (Millers Hill, Hopkinton State Forest, and Warren Brook) the lines and the even spacing are not so evident, all that is left is the vertical face and the characteristic of blending in to the uphill slope. To be accurate, the Hopkinton State Forest site is almost halfway between a standard marker pile site and a Wachusett Tradition site - the piles are somewhat smaller and somewhat evenly spaced. Is it reasonable to think that Hopkinton State Forest is some kind of transitional site from a culture and thought process somewhere between the (older) Wachusett Tradition and the (newer) Marker Pile site? I say "older and newer" because the Wachusett Tradition sites are much more beaten down than some of the very fresh looking marker pile sites I have seen.

Is it reasonable to go even further and imagine a crude chronology that extends from Wachusett Tradition to Marker Piles with Hopkinton State Forest as somewhere between the two? It is too late for me to ask if this is truly reasonable because I have gone over into thinking this way. I don't know where Miller's Hill fits in and do not know if the absence of chambered cairns is more significant or the presence of ski jump shaped large piles there.

So, for better of worse, I have adopted a sense of chronology, a sense of a spectrum of types of site with older, larger, and especially chambered, rock piles more in the Wachusett Tradition and younger, smaller, more numerous, more lined up rock piles more in the Marker Pile style of site. Vertical faced piles remain present throughout. This spectrum is a result of my observation - classifications that arise from a long term examination of many sites rather than the immature "Rock Pile Types" I was seeing and describing a few years ago (see here) based on superficial characteristics of the piles. That is not to say I repudiate that earlier classification but rather that it is evolving and becoming more real and more observable place to place.

So, since I am provincial and locked into a Middlesex County MA study area, it begs the question: what is going on in other places outside of this small world? Most of the piles I see photos of, from further south in New England, seem like marker piles to me. Do chambered cairns at an outlook show up somewhere else? What about huge platforms like at Millers Hill? Where do they fit in and how common are they elswhere? Please let me know.

Last rock piles of the season?

I still have later today and tomorrow to explore in 2011 but, if it doesn't snow, I also have Sunday and Monday before my long "vacation" ends. I found employment. The recent obsession with rectangular mounds in Acton continues with finds in Fitchburg along Falulah Brook and, more surprising, a find at Newtown Hill in Littleton, MA.

Definition: A Wachusett Tradition Mound is a rectangular rock pile, more than 10 feet across, with one or more hollow depressions in the upper surface. (The hollow may be represented by an external "tail"). We'll say that a rock pile is Wachusett-like if it shares the basic dimension, or if it has a hollow, or if it is not rectangular but has hollows. From the point of view of these definitions the find in Fitchburg is a typical Wachusett Tradition site and the site in Littleton is more Wachusett-like. Forthwith:
I was not out driving all the way to Fitchburg in order to explore hilltops (smaller blue outline to the left, blogged about here) but to circle a wetland that seemed increasingly hard going. So I cut my losses and went downhill to the northeast back to Falulah brook. I should probably leave it all here with this video.

NIPMUC COUNTRY

That being said, as I got down to within a few feet of the brook, I came across a damaged rock pile:It is Wachusett-like since it has "rectangular" and "hollow" attributes but is far gone. A few feet away was something much better defined, a good example of a Wachusett Tradition mound:These are close to other mounds a hundred yards downstream where Ashby West Rd crosses. Finding these two rock piles, extends the boundaries of the site as I knew it.

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In Littleton, I have been to Newtown Hil before and been a little disappointed. I decided to climb over the hill and stay to the right, since I never did that before. This turned out to be a good strategy. Coming down that little wet valley on the north side of the hill, I saw a little rock pile where it first started getting wet:
Then further down, there is an L-shaped structure in the wet:I have found a number of such structures next to brooks. (Recall some from Forest Hill and Elbow Meadow.) Then...OOH! Big Game:

I find it interesting that there is a main pile (to the rear) and a smaller auxiliary pile to the left. The larger one is not rectangular but has multiple hollows. It was my impression that the piles above from Fitchburg also were in an arrangement of a larger one next to a smaller one. Another view of the larger:
The larger one was more polygonal than rectangular. This might be because of the available boulders. Here is the scene. These guys certainly have their feet in the water. What a lovely find! A view of the large mound from the other direction:

The outline is sort of diamond-shaped. A video from above:

Closeups of the smaller pile:
Then "down the valley" a rock pile I saw years ago. I guess I did not know, back then, to always explore in all directions around where you see something. Or I might have found the above Wachusett-like piles earlier. Now this whole valley is a big spot on my topo maps. There were several piles down at the bottom where the swamp begins, some I walked right past without noticing when I was here before. Others that I have photoed in the past.
See how this pile looks out over the swamp?Another, made from large blocks of rock:Is this even Wachusett-like? I say "yes" because of the overall site, where each pile acquires some of the attributes of its neighbors. So, an interesting site with some small outliers and larger mounds with hollows, and an L-shaped structure - all with their feet in the water.

Muddy Pond - Westminster MA (part 1)

A few weeks ago I took a long drive, speculating that it would be worth exploring around the edges of Muddy Pond in Westminster. This seemed a good choice, in the abstract, as it is a short distance directly north of Mt. Wachusett with good views of that mountain. I first heard archeologist Curtis Hoffman suggest that Mt. Wachusett was the primary focus of religion in Massachusetts prehistory (at least this is what I remember , sorry if I am mis-characterizing). I don't think the mountain was necessarily the sole focus of ceremonial activity, but it is true that the major rock pile sites I have found west of the Nashua River, face directly toward the mountain. I have yet to explore all the principle directions out from Wachusett but this trip to Muddy Pond recommended itself as taking me somewhere with a view towards the south of the mountain.This was one of those times when you step into the woods and immediately see rock piles. But throughout my visit I was unsure if I was looking at post colonial anglo structures in ruin or rather something older. You'll understand my confusion - rock piles mixed with stone walls (linear arrangements of stones), strategic bits of quartz, more walls, some obviously ceremonial structures, what looked like a cart path with a loading dock. My instincts, or at least my prejudices, lead me to think this is a ceremonial site: I does look out towards Wachusett, there are some obvious "graves" nearby. But I remained unsure. For example, I took FFC and my wife to have a look at the site the following weekend, and FFC said many of the stone walls run magnetic north/south. That would suggest a more anglo feeling to the place. So let's have a look.

[Update: rereading the above, the north south orientation of the stone walls here might be because they are pointing at Mt. Wachusett.]

I stepped into the woods on a dirt road, starting at a little Muddy Pond Conservation Land turnout, and there was a rock pile next to the path:This pile had its feet in the water, at the source of the water, so this is a very typical Native American rock pile placement. The pile had one, noticeable chunk of quartz:But also next to the pile was another, made with slightly smaller rocks: Auxiliary satellite piles made with smaller rocks are a typical pattern of field clearing. First they cleared the larger rocks, then they cleared the smaller ones. So this pile left me pretty confused. And a few yards further along the dirt road there was another. But this one seemed part of a stone wall, until I looked more carefully.Actually this is separate from the wall and angled differently (you see the wall off to the to the left above and to the right in the picture below). Note the pot to the left of the pile.
This pile also had a single piece of quartz in about the same relative position as on the first rock pile, but smaller, perhaps inconsequential:
Continuing, I started seeing much more typical smaller rock piles under the hemlocks:[These ones looked evenly spaced and in lines - if you know what I mean]And I started realizing a personal aesthetic ideal: the rock pile poking out of the mountain laurels. Here was another:So at this point I am getting ready to believe I am at a ceremonial site when I come up to some more walls and tumbled ruins that confuse me with their hints of the agrarian.

Here is something we discussed long ago (I think it was first mentioned by Geophile?): flat sided piles built into the side of a hill:One the one hand, this pile had a piece of white rock (feldspar in this case) at its center:But on the other hand, directly in front of the flat surface of the pile was a trench that followed along the slight concave curve of the pile. As if narrow cart could be driven up to this pile and then loaded. So what are we to think?

In one direction is a very typical ceremonial pile: an effigy perhaps.
In the other direction were some tumbled walls:Look at that internal structure though. This was not a wall, instead we are looking at some kind of ruin.I should say that the other "major" sites facing Wachusett also contain large piles and linear, tumbled down features. In my own little theory: out west of the Nashua, we have more monumental-type piles and sites having piles with different characteristics mixed together in a complex organization suggesting overall site architecture. This site at Muddy Pond fits that description. I wonder sometimes if this might be the Nipmuc whose territory included Westminster.

Pushing along further (I was walking south along the "Midstate Trail") I got to a final lookout over the pond to the southwest. Wachusett would be visible here to the left, if the trees were not in the way.This was at one end of another tumbled down linear arrangement of wall and pile. Where it is not stone wall, it becomes earthwork.Near the other end was this lovely pile on a boulder:I'll post some more about this site later.