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Ground Piles with quartz: Muddy Pond - Westinster, MA (2)
Near the first site (click here) I reported, there was a flat area filled with low ground piles. Most piles showed a single piece of white quartz. Now FFC thinks the piles were evenly spaced and in lines; I got distracted and did not really verify that. At first I saw a solitary pile on a boulder:
This pile is a bit like a damaged effigy, with a larger "head" rock at one end. And then my feet stumbled on a ground pile and, looking around, I saw several more. These are piles with a single piece of quartz:
They were pretty well covered with debris and pretty hard to notice unless you stepped on one.
Here is one of the nicest examples I ever saw of a ground pile with quartz:
And a closeup of the quartz:
Out here, "out west" (beyond the Nashua River from where I live) there are many places where the woodlots and fields have grown back to forest. This place was open and without trees maybe 50 years ago, judging from the ground cover and the size of the trees:
Mountain Laurel, a member of the rhododendron family is one of the opportunistic plants that fills these open spaces back in. At times it is dense and hard to get through and yet it's presence is a sign to me that I am out in the wild places - pushing through like a jungle explorer, finding new ruins in the forest. So I have a love-hate relationship with the plant. I have learned how to get through even pretty dense laurel and I idealize the idea of finding rock piles in the laurel. This is getting close to that ideal:
This is as close as you can get, with a single rock visible from the pile:
So let me summarize: a flat spot, with ground piles. Piles with single pieces of quartz. All beside a single effigy-like rock pile built on a boulder. These are characteristics I think of in association with burials. However the FFC statement about even spacing and lines of piles suggests an alternative possibility, a site with some calendrical function. Either way, a nice site beginning to be covered over with laurels. A view to the south of Mt. Wachusett.
This pile is a bit like a damaged effigy, with a larger "head" rock at one end. And then my feet stumbled on a ground pile and, looking around, I saw several more. These are piles with a single piece of quartz:
They were pretty well covered with debris and pretty hard to notice unless you stepped on one.
Here is one of the nicest examples I ever saw of a ground pile with quartz:
And a closeup of the quartz:
Out here, "out west" (beyond the Nashua River from where I live) there are many places where the woodlots and fields have grown back to forest. This place was open and without trees maybe 50 years ago, judging from the ground cover and the size of the trees:
Mountain Laurel, a member of the rhododendron family is one of the opportunistic plants that fills these open spaces back in. At times it is dense and hard to get through and yet it's presence is a sign to me that I am out in the wild places - pushing through like a jungle explorer, finding new ruins in the forest. So I have a love-hate relationship with the plant. I have learned how to get through even pretty dense laurel and I idealize the idea of finding rock piles in the laurel. This is getting close to that ideal:
This is as close as you can get, with a single rock visible from the pile:
So let me summarize: a flat spot, with ground piles. Piles with single pieces of quartz. All beside a single effigy-like rock pile built on a boulder. These are characteristics I think of in association with burials. However the FFC statement about even spacing and lines of piles suggests an alternative possibility, a site with some calendrical function. Either way, a nice site beginning to be covered over with laurels. A view to the south of Mt. Wachusett.
I must say Mountain Laurel is quite magical and beautiful when it's in bloom.
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