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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.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Foster RI site from the farmstead on the Foster Tract at Parker Woodland? It all looks very familiar. I also want to be sure this isn't a new RI site.
ReplyDeleteThat is absolutely right. I am wondering if anyone has really studied these particular structures before (the small chambers). I am sure very many people visit the cairn field in the Coventry part of the forest but I wonder if much attention has been paid to the farm site or if it is perhaps more often dismissed as all just post-colonial ruins. These structures really have me scratching my head. They are so very similar to some other chambers that I feel are very likely pre-colonial but they are right next to this foundation. If the chambers were there before the foundation was built, why wouldn't the builder have used the stones? If they were built at the same time as the foundation, is it a coincidence that the pedestaled boulder, cairns and other stonework are so close by?
ReplyDeletePerhaps it was an Indian Farmer.
ReplyDeleteMy brother and his wife rented the caretaker's house at Parker Woodland for many years. One of the most fascinating facts about that piece of property centers on the old saw mill ruins by Turkey Meadow Brook on the Coventry tract. It was the last building to be occupied in the area. Those ruins are very close to the main cairn site.
ReplyDeleteThe saw mill is unique in that it was owned and operated by free men of color. It was locally known by generations of whites as, "ni**er saw mill." At that time in Rhode Island's history, very little racial distinction was drawn between African and Indian.
My theory has always been that the saw mill was owned and operated by Narragansetts who used the surrounding woodland and remaining stone structures to continue traditional ways. There's certainly no disputing that Narragansetts were the busiest stone masons in the state at that time. They may have been hired to build and supply all the homes in the area, from stone foundations to the wood that's long since rotted away from the cellar holes.