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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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Very nice to see. I did some exploring in that area of Sherborn last year around the same time as this. I do believe that there is symbolism in the stone shape of the conical/ triangular stone in the center, on top of a flat "slab" like rock no less.
ReplyDeleteI see the conical stone as a 'power' stone. For instance at the Robbins Museum in Middleborough they have a pottery display and an explanation of some of the symbolism behind pottery designs. A Wampanoag elder explains in writing that the pictograph for "awareness" or "alertness" is this triangular/ conical/ pyramidal shape.
So I figure that the same symbolism used in pictographs and pottery designs could also have it's counterparts in the stones. However it's possible that some or even many of the stone sites are older than the practice of pottery making in this region (so far as scholars are able to tell as of yet.) If we are to follow this line of logic this means that the pictograph for "alertness/ awareness" was expressed in the conical stone shape since the most ancient of times.
On top of this I would add that this shape, whether it be found in pottery or expressed in a stone shape, having the meaning or expression for "alertness/ awareness", although accurate, is a '101 Intro Course' into the symbolism behind the stone shape (or pictograph, etc.) As far as I can tell the symbolism behind this stone shape is sacred and probably more profound in meaning than just "alertness" or "a heightened state of awareness."
For instance, we must ask ourselves why is this stone shape sacred. Also, how did this come to be the case? What events deep in the past led to the propagation of this sacred stone shape (I have noticed this stone shape in many places before.) Did geological events such as the formations of monadnocks and mountains after earthquakes/ floods happened play a part in the birth of such symbolism? Or is this sacred symbol far older yet?
We know that this stone shape is conical/ pyramidal. Is it a coincidence that in modern western culture people use phrases such as "You should get a degree at a high place of learning." Such phrases come to the modern world from the Romans and Greeks, but before that, came straight out of Egypt. So my thought is, that this Native stone shape, symbolizing alertness can also be expressed as something of "a higher state." (of course when you are alert you are in a higher state.) However the process of attuning oneself to a higher state in the ancient past as expressed by the stone shape meant something different and is different entirely to what a modern person's perspective is about "higher learning." This last paragraph at least should be considered as speculative. However, this last thought on the subject is indicative that Native people here in the ancient past had a very ordered thought process and cosmogony comparable and on par with the rest of the world.