Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Somewhere near Rt 140 and Rt 290

The money shot, the appetizer

Rocking Stone with FFC

Don't try this at home, it can move the upper rock - which you don't want to do.

More rock piles from Middle TN near the AL line

Reader Norden writes:

This one seems to be focal point, at top. However, there is at least one beyond it though the terrain dips a little.We will photograph the designation number with the pile- just by laying a sheet of paper/index card saying pile A, b1, etc. That way we can correctly match photos and designation.

More leaves so some we didn’t catalogue- couldn’t tell if natural or man-made. Also in the mid-70s so still poisonous snakes still out (one killed one of the goats this summer).

From the North series- looking up, I saw nothing of particular interest. The lowest N pile is not far from mnt edge looking down at run-off or a currently dry creek—but that was so obvious, I doubt anyone marked that…
Age of old road unknown, now cleared for horseback riding
[Added by PWAX: Look how the piles are rectangular with a square hole]Going back down hill, there is a crop of boulders—similar to one on next mnt. Just natural occurrence as far as we know. Have no clue if this is in any way related:RP terrain dip after the pinnacle one:

Secret of the Stones - video

Thanks to Tim MacSweeney for the link: [Click here]

Monday, November 15, 2010

Need some color

These fall colors were over too quickly:Here is the "best" pile at the NEARA field trip to Leominster:
(from uphill):(from the side)It is big.

Shadows of History

We get a link from here.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Stone Fort/ Hunter's Blind/ etc?

Around Fieldstone Lane, Stow, MA:That is kind of a curious "reflector".

Thursday, November 11, 2010

USET Resolution 2003:022

Here is the earlier, hard to locate USET resolution. Thanks to Rob Buchanan for pointing out the search feature at the USET website.

[Hard to read, here is the text, magnified a bit]:

Edges of Wolf Swamp - Boxborough

I walk in from the road, dutifully looking. There are at least three other sites on this map so it was worth looking along that edge with the blue outline. I did eventually come to a rock pile at the edge of the higher ground:On closer inspection, it is a bit of a "U"-shaped structure.It looked off to the side of the swamp, a view including this about 10 yards away:

USET Resolution 2007:037

It is hard to find the text of this online (Larry has a pdf) so, at the risk of a copywrite violation, here is the resolution.
By the way, does anyone remember the other earlier USET Resolutions? I cannot remember their numbers to look them up with.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Rock Piles from Middle TN near the AL line

Reader Nolen writes:

This is a friends farm, and there are tons of these piles. The hillside is not farmable now, may have been a zillion years ago. There are springs nearby or former springs, some have gone dry.
[Note the hollow - PWAX]
This is Middle TN near the AL line.
The Old Stone Fort at Manchester, TN is not very far away:

http://www.tn.gov/environment/parks/brochures/pdf/oldstonefort.pdf

Some of them are near a former farm road, but no idea how old the road is. There was a famer who sold timber up there but these piles seem to pre-date that. They are not piled up like typical rock piles along-side fields- about 20-30' from each other in all directions. Many are most seem to be on the western side of the hill/mountain. Terrain is very rocky- limestone, heavily wooded. Most piles are considerably larger than what I would expect to cover an old grave, and they are not ined up in anyway like I would expect if they were Civil War-related. Today, Laura reports finding a 10m stone circle that she came upon horseback riding. I hope to get pix of that soon.

Large Rock Pile - Mason NH

Reader and neighbor Carol M writes:

This is a large rock pile in the back of George XXXs home. It roughly is about 20 x25 feet. One end is well built, and contiguous with a wall.There is also a wall traveling from the pile towards a swamp where is ends. There appears to be two hollows in the rock piles, and several areas where there is white quartz embedded.In the area are many walls, with Indian like features, for example the long slab with several smaller rocks lined up on it, and rock slabs at 45 degree angles with lacy holes throughout the walls. I'm sure George would be happy to show it to you if you are interested!

Stone Chamber - Concord MA

Reader and neighbor Carol M writes about a chamber that was first described by Mark Strohmeyer (see also here):

I came across this chamber to the north of the spring that runs through yellow birch swamp (aptly named). It was on a hill east of the spring, towards Black Birch Hill (aka Hubbard's Hill - also aptly named. If you lie down inside the chamber, it quite nicely accomodates a body, and there are two pieces of quartz embedded in the walls on each side of your shoulders. Two sides of the chamber are well built and even. There is a wall running on either side of the chamber, however, it did not appear to my amateur eye that the rocks were used for the chamber. Very interesting piece of work!

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Some low ground piles from Montville CT

Ted Hendrickson writes:

In regards to you "Graveyard" post, last fall I bumped into a large group of nondescript piles grouped together in Montville, CT. I did not count them at the time, very difficult to see under heavy leaf litter and I did not want to disturb anything. There had to be more than 30. Perhaps it would be interesting to check for light colored rocks? I know in the same general area I have seen piles on boulders with pieces of quartz displayed on them. Here are a few photos:

Double Chambered Mound

Very similar to a rock pile with a tail, here are three views of one from the NEARA fieldtrip. I call this is an early example of the "Wachusett Tradition". These piles, for me, are usually the most broken down. It is true at this site (which had a mixture of styles) and in general.

Just downhill from the end of Fieldstone Ln - Stow MA: The meaning of split wedged rocks

You could see a split-wedged rock from the road and there was a conservation land parking where I hid my car so I could sneak back across to the other side of the road, so I could go down into the wet "break out" and check it out. First I saw a rock pile:
Then got a look at the split-wedged rock I had seen from the road:[It is worth clicking on the picture.] I think this helps settle a question about the meaning of split-wedged rocks. This is not an offering or a donation because it is so obvious that the wedges are shims that hold the upper rock in a specific position. Perhaps the main rock was deliberately split? It implies a meaning to these things that is different from the idea of propitiating a spirit that lives in the rock. A split wedged rock like this is something else.

Right nearby, another split-wedged rock:Again the rock seems deliberately split but this time with a suggestive quartz vein.

I notice that the first split wedged rock above also has a thin quartz vein parallel to the split. So maybe this all is more like: unleashing the power of the quartz?