The recent post at Ceremonial Landscapes had me looking back at photos of rocks on their haunches. But then I noticed a similarity in rock piles with niches at the base and found two that are strikingly similar.
This first photo is a recent find, and I posted about it here. Note the boulder on boulder, with the top boulder turned to create a space under it where the niche is located. Also, the rock pile on top is off to one side, in other words, there is not a rock pile covering the entire top of the boulder.
The second photo is a rock pile from a site I previously posted here. These are smaller boulders. They are also turned so that a niche is created below the top boulder. In this case, the upright rock in front of the niche does not completely enclose it, but it still gives the sense of recognition of the space. I hadn't posted this photo before because the lens had a little blur, but it gives a decent view of the rock pile only on one side of the top boulder, similar to the first photo, although much smaller.
I'm calling the top boulder "turned", but I'm not sure if that's natural or man-made. At any rate, the similarity overall in these structures enhances the notion that something more than "field clearing" is going on here.
I see what you mean. I had not noticed off-center piles like this.
ReplyDeleteI should have also mentioned that both structures are located at high elevations here (about 1900 and 1700 feet) but not at the summit. In both cases, if you hike to the summit, there are more rock piles above these niches, but not below. They seem to appear at the edges of what I would say are significant sites.
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