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The Nipsachuck story grows.
And James Gage writes in:
FYI - New article from today Tuesday May 22 -
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James Gage
P.S. Lauren Cook - It is my understanding it is "Mr." Cook [My apologies for the gender confusion - pwax]
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This is about rock piles and stone mound sites in New England. A balance is needed between keeping them secret and making them public. Also arrowheads, stone tools and other surface archaeology.
statcounter
So what is going to happen if they do not find anything? That is going to discredit a lot more than should be discredited. You can see why this makes me nervous.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, Mavor and Dix excavated a rock pile ("stone mound") in Freetown and found
- Large amounts of red ochre
- Interesting internal structure to the pile, suggesting construction in two phases
- a flaked quartz effigy of an owl; found a few feet to the side of the pile.
I have seen that "owl" and it is one very impressive artifact, about 12" high. I can imagine a couple of scenarios: a metal detector fails to detect quartz, red ochre, or other interesting minerals. Excavations occur but no-one spots the quartz artifact since it does not look like an arrowhead. Hmmm.
Anyway, this is the problem: claim too little before hand and get ignored, claim too much and get discredited later.
I look forward to seeing a site map - and I hope they pay attention to differences between types of piles [the few photos of piles we have seen from there come in two types: vertical sided piles and low ground piles] and reflect this in the map. Otherwise anything found during scanning and excavation will be a welcome bonus. The expectations should not be too high for this last.
Someone on the Portal posted this, which has an interesting bit toward the end about the title for the land. I wasn't sure whether that showed up in any articles previously posted here.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chatter, I have been fielding negitive comments about the site since the online article and Providence Journal article ran.
ReplyDeleteWe intend to carry out all the assessment accoring to sound archaoelogical methodology. The area is in danger of bulldozer, so it is preserve and conserve.
I hope to post a report when we are finished. Dr. Fred Meli.
Dear Pile bloggers:
ReplyDeleteThe situation with the Nipsachuck Swamp is the So Called seeconke's Who are jonny come lately. They have no standing in USET nor are they recognized by other Wampanoags who hace federal recognition. They are getting everyone all worked up and looking to gain some recognition through the media storm. They are not the genuine article, just ask the Narragansett's John Brown, or Doug Harris. Look out, they will trun a solid arcaheological find into a media circus, with the so called tribal hsitorian leading the way.
Cudo's toe N.S. Conservation Commission and Dr. Meli, they are trying to protect the area.
Dr. Edwin Wind. Retired Professor UMASS.
excuse the miss spellings, I am not a computer wizard. Just an old man trying to set the record straight. E.W.
ReplyDeleteIf you were to read this blog systematically you would see that, from the beginning, there has been some skepticism that this site is an Indian burial ground. The Indian politics is another matter.
ReplyDeleteThe excavation is being done without a lot of scientific context and against all odds of the mainstream academic archeologists understanding what is found. There is the Native American historical narrative. There are the traditional archeological methods, which have not been very effective at studying these kinds of sites and there are the newer methods such as archeo-astronomy and the descriptive, qualitative approach of me, Norman Muller, and a few others.
But regardless of anyone's opinion further study will be of interest; so I look forward to Dr. Meli's report. And if it is good I'll stop chattering skeptically.
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