In this area of northeastern Groton there seem to be rock pile sites of different ages including a strong component of the tradition of rock piles with hollows. Looking at the map there is an obvious adjacent area to be explored.Last weekend, I went back to take a look at what appeared to be crescent shaped piles that I found just after snow started to accumulate (see here). I missed them at first but instead found maybe ten or more piles like this:
Other piles appeared like ridges:Another variation was piles with fewer, larger rocks, and larger mounds:
Here is another small one with a hollow, the same larger mound in the background.
As you can see from the topo map, this site is in a valley. The site is along the edge of a wet area.As I walked back out, I finally came back to the crescents I photo'd in January. Now I think they were just snow covered examples of these small rectangular piles with hollows. The main "spine" of the pile somehow persists, giving them a curved, tailed, or slight crescent shape.
Update: The apparent difference in ages of piles with hollows versus the "pretty nice" piles is an example of rock pile half-life: the idea that older piles will be more damaged. That leads to the possibility of a chronology, if not a calibrated age for different styles of rock pile. In this case it simply restates the obvious, that the ones with hollows are older. But the existence of this site, with the combination, allows for comparison of the styles.
2 comments :
The first photos remind me of the mounds in my old chickenyard:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mkWM5AxA3FA/R8_zbbCcuKI/AAAAAAAAA-s/pi27RbUZpTg/s1600-h/March+6+2008+chicken+yard+024.jpg
I do not agree. See next post.
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