Suspicion confirmed:
Now, I have strayed down a path into thinking maybe some wedged rocks, especially ones that were quarried using steel tools like this one (?), might be shimmed up so one could more easily pick them up later, with an appropriate piece of equipment. But never fear, near the above was another that looked older, or at least not deliberately split using steel drills:
What I am saying is that this is incompatible with an agrarian use. The quarried rocks were not removed and there is evidence some of the quarrying created slit rocks so they could be wedged.This idea was re-enforced when I saw some other examples. These are from the town of Medway, on West Street. (I stopped to breathe some forest air on my drive from Falmouth back to Concord, and passed them in the car, this one caught my eye)
Looking more carefully in the same suburban yard:
And these ones certainly used steel drills. However, just across the street in the woods, was another split-wedged boulder, perhaps older, with no signs of steel drill use.
It seems somewhat obvious that this place spanning West St was intensely involved with split-wedged rock ceremonies.
Your observation that some split-wedged boulders were initially split using steel drills is important and interesting, as it could suggest that the Indian pracice of wedging boulders extended into colonial times. I assume you saw the drill holes in the boulders (I could not see them in the photographs you posted).
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