Monday, April 07, 2008

Southwestern facing slopes looking across a wetland

A few weeks ago I described visiting a site [click here], which was a "marker pile site" facing southwest over a wetland. A weekend ago I went back to see if there was more to the site and, in fact, their were two other clusters of rock piles, also situated on southwestern facing slopes along the same wetland. It was as if that side of the slopes had been spray-painted with rock piles from the same southwesterly direction. Here are some photos from my visit, going from west to east (left to right on the map). First, another picture of one of the larger piles from the site visited originally. This is a platform type pile at the edge of a drop-off. View from above:View from below:Walking on along the edge of the wetland I was happy to see some more rock piles about 200 yards away: Another view of the slope from the other side: You can see a pile with a hole through it to the right hand side of this last picture. Here is a closeup: As I said when showing this as an "Appetizer", this hole through the pile is probably deliberate. An aperture pile with a bit of damage. Here is one with a bit more damage: Here is a suggestive looking rock-on-rock. Over time I have come to think upper rocks are sometimes a deliberate shape. It is easy to believe in this case. There were perhaps 7-10 piles in this cluster. Continuing on to the third cluster (furthest right on the map) these were much lower to the ground. Eventually I came away thinking this was an older part to the site. All the piles here were broken down. In this cluster, this part of the overall site, we are lower down, closer to the wetland. In fact we are within the breakout zone giving rise to the wetland. We're talking old broken down piles. How much longer till they disappear completely? And look at how the piles begin to blend in with the apparently random jumble or rocks: There were a couple of structural features to this sight worth mentioning. There was a larger boulder uphill from these piles making me wonder if the piles might be marking lines of sight from the boulder. And to the far side of that boulder there was one outlier pile. It was easy to imagine this pile being a line of sight from the boulder. I think this pile is in good condition and the pointed rock at the right hand edge is deliberate. I keep seeing these things and not noticing. I need to pay attention to the shapes of rocks in piles.I should mention this is in Southborough, MA.

4 comments :

Tim MacSweeney said...

I had just posted some very similar looking "rocks on boulders"
that are similar sizes (I think), sort of lined up the same way but much further apart - http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2008/04/by-old-hunting-caves-2.html
Is that a double stone row??

pwax said...

As usual I did not notice anything about the stone rows.

Tim MacSweeney said...

In the comments for Boom, Bust, or Barkaboom?, Dr. Fred writes in that "it all seems connected," which to me makes sense _ and is what (my open minded) Indian friends say too about the landscape.
Dr. Fred also says he has photos too; well, I'm interested!!

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