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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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When I look for diagnostic characteristics that suggest this type of a testudinate petroform, of course I look for the stones chosen and placed so that there is a suggestion of at least a shell and a head. I observe that in the photo, but am drawn immediately to the edge of the upper stone directly over the suspected head where I observe a rather symmetrical suggestion of a nuchal notch, an accurate detail of a turtle shell that may or may not be “natural.” But I suppose that could be a “testable” feature of a pattern that sometimes can be found, and just maybe helps to identify a certain species with a low-domed carapace and a similar nuchal that might be found inhabiting just that sort of water feature behind these stones in the photo. Is there more that I don’t see that might suggest a specific species that is known to have been used as food or something else as well, found in archaeological sites in the area?
ReplyDeleteAnd are those cup marks in the upper shell? Would a clam shell fit in the larger depression on the right in the second photo?
Looking for the nuchal: http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2014/07/turtle-parts-looking-for-nuchal.html
ReplyDeleteOne problem with these details: The notch does not line up with the "head" and there is an equally large or larger notch on the other side.
ReplyDeleteLooks dark, shadowy, like a hole that may go completely through the rock.
ReplyDeleteLooking at images of Turtles in MA, I have to say that if it is a turtle, it's most likely a Wood Turtle, maybe at a nesting site.
ReplyDeletehttp://slybird.blogspot.com/2008/06/herp-of-day-glyptemys-insculpta.html
There may be a possible Ceremonial aspect to the consumption of Glyptemys insculpta. It also turns out that the Wood Turtle, much like the Box Turtle, has a fondness for mushrooms – including Amanita muscaria: "The Amanita muscaria has a long history of human cultural association and the resultant ethnomycology ranges from its well established use as a hallucinogen to some imaginative theories about its use in early religious practices. The various tribes inhabiting the northern regions of Eurasia known as Siberia have long used the mushroom primarily as a part of religious ceremonies, their holy men known as shamans obtaining a trance-like state that was thought to provide them with god-like perspicacity (perceptiveness)...The use of A. muscaria in shamanistic rituals is still practiced by the Ostyak, Vogul, Kamchadal, Koryak and Chukchi tribes of Siberia. One of the more fanciful theories is that the shamans would dress up in red and white costumes to mimic the mysterious magic mushroom from which their power derived - this serving as the basis for the legend of Santa Claus complete with the flying reindeer...”
ReplyDeletehttp://hikersnotebook.net/Amanita+Muscaria