Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Old Damaged Rock Piles on Top of Annursnac Hill - Concord, MA

Tim Fohl told me about this site on top of Annursnac Hill in Concord. It was found while he and Doug Harris were surveying the hilltop as part of the activity associated to an application for siting of a new cellphone tower up there. It is always a little embarrasing to hear about a rock pile site in my home town that I did not find myself. Here the excuse is that I looked carefully up there for a patch of woods and all I saw was private houses. Who knew there was a small access road from the south up to the water tower on the summit - all hidden behind the private houses? This is not the first time I failed to locate a site in Concord (see Punkatasett Hill) and the reason is clear: I explored all of Concord long before I had developed any skill at it and missed plenty. I should really re-explore the town. Anyway, here is another new site on Annursnac Hill which I am publicizing under my guidelines, as follows: the site is in plain view, on publicly owned land, very badly damaged already, and (in my opinion) not related to burials.

There is not much to see today except rock pile "smears" - piles that have achieved a near terminal state of being spread out. The only characteristic I noticed was the presence of black rocks and burnt rocks in the piles. This is consistent with memorials or fire related activities on the hilltop. Beyond that there is no guessing. Several of the piles had been cleaned off by Tim, Doug, and others.Here are the piles I thought were the nicest:Note the black rock(s) visible in each pile - perhaps just a coincidence but still noticeable. There were between 10 and 20 piles up there and, although it looks like a southerly view on the map, actually the view on the hilltop was a bit west of south.

Fred Meli tells me that he was on the original excursion with Fohl and Harris.

Correction: Fred comments that he went out separately not with Fohl and Harris.

2 comments :

archaeologist said...

Peter;
I was asked by the Annursnac Conservation Group to look ver the site. I was not with Fohl, Harris, that I believe happened more recently. My form went out there last November, with representatives of the Annursnac Conservation and a member of the Concord Museum.
Fred Meli.

pwax said...

Thanks for the clarification.