"Our Hidden Landscapes: Native American Stone Ceremonial Sites in the North American East"

12th Annual Native American-Archaeology Roundtable

 Saturday, October 28, 2017; tentative times: 9:00am-5:00 pm

     The federal government recognizes Native American Ceremonial Stone Landscapes (CSLs) as significant archaeological sites, yet most people – the general public and professional researchers – know little about them. Oftentimes their stone cultural features are misidentified as “farm clearing,” and subsequently destroyed to make way for suburban expansion or industrial developments. This conference focuses specifically on the identification of CSLs, their physical characteristics, relationships to the cosmos, connections with indigenous world view and sacred stories, and the need for professional archaeologists and state officials to identify, catalog and preserve these objects of living history.

Scheduled speakers: Deanna Beacham (Weapemeoc), Jesse Bergevin, Dr. Chris Bergman, Dr. Daniel F. Cassedy, Robert DeFosses, Mary & James Gage, Doug Harris, Dr. Julia A. King, Dr. Paul Loether,  Dr. Johannes (Jannie) Loubser, Charity M. Moore, Tom Paul, Dr. Paul A. Robinson, Dr. Laurie Rush, Douglas Schwartz, and Matthew V. Weiss.           

  Co-Organizers: Dr. Lucianne Lavin (IAIS) and Elaine Thomas (Mohegan).

Open to the public, pre-registration required; $10 conference fee.

Light refreshments to be served.

Please join us for another rousing Native American-Archaeology Round Table with outstanding presentations and panel discussions by professional researchers and Native American leadership.

 The Institute for American Indian Studies (IAIS)

38 Curtis Road

Washington, Connecticut  06793

Visit us online @ iaismuseum.org  

Soon blogging will resume

Back from the summer. Starting to make plans for the weekend.

Blood Hill and Mushrooms

Took Joe and Gail Coolidge to visit Blood Hill on the border of Ashby and Ashburnham. Took a few pictures of the piles, and a few more of the mushrooms.

A familiar shape:

And here is my son, grown a bit older, giving me the thumbs up:

How about these Boletus? These are the ones that make the Russians' eyes glaze.

 

Looks like mushroom hunting would have been good last weekend.

Cairn from Killingworth CT

reader Tim M sent these photos, and asked if anyone has an opinion about this rock pile:

Redwing MN Cairns

We may have all come across the web site:
https://www.fromsitetostory.org/rwl/stonecairns/stonecairns.asp
Which shows a dramatic cairn on a bluff in Redwing Mn.

Some time ago reader Steve K who lives near Redwing, asked about something I had posted about those cairns and also mentioned he wanted to locate them on foot. I asked him to send photos if he took any, and I am pleased to be able to pass along his report.

Steve writes:
If you're still interested, here are some recent photos (08/13/2017) of one of the rock cairn sites in Red Wing. The DNR had recently cleared away brush, shrub trees, and buckthorn from the bluff making it possible to get some clear pics. 

I also included a couple of aerial photos of another cairn site nearby. There's not much to see in that one, but the tree in the foreground is in a hole that used to be the center of the cairn and there are many large rocks strewn around it. 

Looks pretty damaged since the original photo.

Indigenous Stone Structures in Guam

“Latte (also latde) is a Chamorro term that refers to stone pillars and cup-shaped capitals or capstones, which represent house supports and are ascribed to the ancient people of the Mariana Islands. In some accounts, they are also referred to as casas de los antiguos (houses of the ancients)... research has found that during Guam’s late prehistoric period, from about 1200 BP to 300 BP (before present), latte began to be used and became increasingly common before abandonment after Spanish colonization... In modern times the latte shape has become a symbol of Chamorro cultural identity...”

from:

http://www.guampedia.com/guams-villages/hasso-remembering-guams-ancient-heritage-sites/

from:

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/12/the-latte-stones-of-mariana-islands.html

Webster Woods, Woods Hole

I think Mavor wrote about this wedged rock:

 It may have been blasted apart.

I remember this loose mound from seeing it in the past, but I never noticed it was a rectangle with two hollows - which I think is pretty rare on the Cape:

A wonderful woods, out there beyond the golf course.

The 4th Annual Pocumtuck Homelands Festival

   "The 4^th Annual Pocumtuck Homelands Festival was, in a single word, “Nice.” It was nice to be invited, nice to be in a place where Ceremonial Stone Landscape features are recognized and well known. Everyone I talked to was so very nice and almost everyone had a story or two (or ten) to tell about interesting and intriguing stones as I stood at a table with what looked much like somebody’s 6^th Grade Science Fair Project..."

More:

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2017/08/pocumtuck-homelands-festival-2017.html