Mysteries in the scattered rocks

Balancing Rock - Mendon

Keith writes:

Balancing rock in Mendon. The top rock is the size of a minivan. Amazing site to see!

Did the Cherokee build mounds?

I found this interesting. According to the author (Richard Thornton of the "People of One Fire") the Cherokee were not mound builders - contrary to some authorities.

Powwow at UMass this Saturday

Eastern PA Rock Pile and Wall

A reader writes:
...Here is a few attached photos of just a small bit of what I found on my farm..i was wondering if you could help me out about these features...thank you..oh by the way these were on a farm in eastern Pennsylvania, approx. 6 miles from the hills of oley ,pa... 

Another stone tool from the Dassaulte Planters

Another old tool, to me this is a gorgeous stone:

Going on Vacation

Several sites to report but no energy for it. Maybe in the next week.

Above Minot Pratt's Spring

Walking east on the slope above Minot Pratt's Spring, and came to a small gully with a feeder brook coming in from left to right, and looked there for rock piles. There at the brow of the hill. And there were two small mounds. Here is one:

Note the pair of rocks in the foreground.

It is always nice and a bit embarrassing to find new piles in my own town. But this area is more complicated than meets the eye, over here between Punkatasett and the end of the paved part of Estabrook Rd. Here is a second mound, also in relation to a white rock:

Not much to see under the ferns. But it is a good sized pile.

And I saw nothing else right there. But walking around there was a house foundation someone marked with a modern rock pile next to the trail and, in a flat area uphill from the water, something I have seen before and made good note of this time:

Second rock to the right of the tree:

This is obviously a structure since it is an area with no rocks otherwise.

Near the headwaters of Fall Brook, Leominster/Shirley

Just uphill from Wachusett Str, a fine rockpile seen at a distance, then closer up:

This pile is isolated but a hundred yards downhill and across Wachusett Street there are several more like it.

Nolumbeka Project News

Greenfield Ordinance Committee Meets Tomorrow, 6:30 p.m.

Tomorrow, Monday, April 14, at 6:30 p.m., the Greenfield Ordinance Committee will meet at 114 Main St. in the Planning Department office. They will be voting on a number of new ordinances that have come before their review. However, e have no guarantee that they will be voting once more on Howard Clark's Burial Ordinance proposal which was introduced almost a year ago. They already voted it once and passed it, but somehow it got lost or taken off the vote. It has to be voted on to move on to the Town Council vote. This is the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Civil Right Bill that which should have given equal rights to all ethnic groups, including the basic right of sanctity of human burials. There is no accounting for the attitudes of racism that still exist in so many subtle ways in society today. The Nolumbeka Project wants to challenge the Ordinance Committee to move on a vote.If you can come and support us that would be very powerful.

David Tall Pine White to speak on April 26, 1-3 p.m., Cummington Community House

Our friend Jennifer Lee asked us to share information about this
upcoming event. Hope to see you there!

Learn about the cultural survival of today's Nipmuck Nation --History from a Native Perspective. A sharing and Q & A with David TallPine White of the Nipmuck Tribe, is Vice Chairman and Spokesperson of Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuck Tribal Council, Nipmuck Language Instructor,
Cultural educator, and community event organizer. He lives in Brimfield, MA and also works as a Massachusetts licensed electrician.
Cummington Community House, Saturday, April 26, 1:00-3:00 PM. Jennifer said there are no house numbers Just look for the big brick building on Main Street.

Anonymous from Worcester NY

     I received an email from yet another person named Anonymous (before I started blogging I had no idea just how many people were named "Anonymous") who sent me, so far, a single photo so far of a stone cairn. More photos may be on the way.

(A crop of the same photo above)

      Anonymous writes that "We have several cairns and rock piles as well as specific piles with cap stone(s). Each cairn has a white stone in them. (Key) stone is what it is referred to by the indigenous people."

Retired URI professor charged with faking degree

This is too bad for all involved. It completely muddies the waters of the North Smithfield - Nipsachuk story.

Southwest side of South Manoosnoc - Leominster

A couple weekends ago I thought the walking would be easy again out in Leominster, but I managed to find the only un-melted snow left and ended up slogging anyway. But it was a short mostly level walk through open woods, not too hard in any case:

I parked on Elm Str just above the entrance to Parmenter, and headed northwest into the woods following a wall. I think the dashed line on the map at A matches the wall, and so also the turn towards B. Only a few steps into the woods and there was a reward:

On the way to B, I saw a wall bulge and a few things in a breakout zone:

A bit  north of B I turned uphill northeast and crossed the summit to the point of seeing into the next little gully, turned back north and a bit west and followed the contour of the hill counter clockwise around. Facing north, this looked like a well placed boulder:

A bit further downhill was a saddle and flat place at C, where I saw a good sized rock pile under the snow:

I took several pictures but it was hard to see - a low white mound against a white background. Perhaps a little curved:

Nearby was what I took to be a house foundation:

Later on, I decided maybe not. From a different direction you can see an unexplained mounding to one side:

There were other structures there, underneath the snow, 

and I am going to have to go take another look.
I went over to the edge of the flat area and there was a boulder with a structure built against it. 

 It looked like a seat in the "corner".

 A wall came up from below headed for the boulder but stopping short by thirty feet.

From there, I headed back south, passing a couple other rock piles at the edge of this flat place:

An interesting spot.
The Manoosnocs are already known for their several mound sites. I was glad to add one more small and integrated site to the collection but I'd like to have another look without the snow.

Wall bulge - west side of South Manoosnoc

Researcher Suggests Famous Ancient Inca Monumental Complex Exhibits Astronomical Values

[Not rock pile but alignment related] This from Popular Archeology.

Layers and Layers of Stones

     For quite a while, I've been meaning to take this collection of photos and ramble on a little bit about what I believe I see along a road I often travel on, a story told in the layers on layers of stones, such as the newest above and the oldest below. The new "rock pile" above and the overcast cloud conditions caused me to pause and finally capture some images:
http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2014/04/stone-layers-along-quassapaug-trailroad.html

   

It includes a spring time image of a "zigzag in the snow" I posted back in January 2014:

http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2014/01/zigzag-in-snow.html

Stacked Stone or Rock Piles in WV

All photos used here are by the kind permission of Yolanda "Yoly" Molina, Hamlin WV who took these photos on the hill above her farm. She has some other very interesting photos Exploration of Eastern Native American Stone Art which is a Face Book Group, including more stone piles:

Stone Walls:

And an amazing Split Balanced Boulder:

(That you may have seen before:)

The Stone Wall Dilemma (2014)

Ask a Three-Year Old Child, "Do you see the Bear?" and see what happens.

     The idea that Indians built stone walls here in what we now call New England is a tough sell. Often when I’m explaining to someone just why and how, I’m pretty certain that the person I’m talking to is trying to diagnose which Mental Illness they should label me with. I’m pretty certain the last person I was talking to decided that the delusions, plus the admission that I’ve got thousands of photos of repeated patterns of artwork in the stonework, all added up to Schizophrenia...

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-stonewall-dilemma-2014.html

West of Swan Rd Tygsborough

A Conservation Land, spotted while scanning the map, led to a short walk through scrappy woods in this area. Still there were frequent signs of ceremonialism scattered through the woods.

Frequent examples of "three in a row" mixing rocks and rock piles:

Numerous examples of "fresh" rock piles, made in the last few years. You see ceremonialism persists in these woods.

Felt like I have been here before. Sequences of piles coming down a steep slope, seems quite familiar.