Another little bit of structure in the Woods Hole Woods

From the back one of the ridge north of the Fire Station.

Looks like a couple of piles, or a broken wall.

 The lower part forms a 'V"

Stone Snake, Big Tree and Stonework Remnant by the River (Bethlehem/Watertown CT)

And some Stones on a Boulder - or maybe in a Mortar?

   A flood in the mid 1990's wiped out a nearby bridge and along the river bank, some of the old carefully made - and quite tall, as I remember - zigzag retaining walls. A construction company rebuilt the bridge, possibly using the remaining stones in the process. Not a trace of it remains.

  I often drive this partially unpaved road now and again, slowing down to look at the Snake Petroform on the other side of the river bank:

I'll mention that along the little stream above the bridge does still exhibit some stonework that I suspect to be Indigenous in nature:

But back to the Stone Snake - and the (now leaning) Manitou Stone:

(Here's one for you: Do you think that white quartz once rested on the head of this Probable Petroform - in front of that sort of stone I've taken to calling a horn rest?)

The Snake seems to end at a Big Tree:

A couple aerial images suggest more stonework once continued to the east, connecting to more stonework on this now Land Trust property, along the Nonnewaug River. 

The Big Tree centered here in 1934:

2016 aerial and the 1934:

1965:

Walk toward the pines and the sound of the river,

catch up with your good friend:

Downstream there is a wall of stone along the river bank: 

Pass by something suspiciously like a metate or grinding slick:

To where the very distinct and remarkably intact stonework begins:

On the top of the wall, about where my friend is standing, a stone protrudes upward:

Leaning across the top, a familiar shape is seen again:

I need a bright but cloudy day to get some good photos of some remarkable details.

A couple for now:

It's constructed not unlike the body of that Big Snake:

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2019/03/stone-snake-big-tree-bethlehemwatertown.html

A Stroll along Hanton City Road - Smithfield (RI)

Hiking in Greater Rhode Island

"A stroll along Hanton City Road - Smithfield (RI) - Recent survey work has identified old boundary markers ... so cool...BTW, does anyone know why the area is being surveyed?"

Equinox Story (Woodbury CT)

   "It's the last dying day of Winter. By the time the sun sets later, Spring 2019 will have just begun.

I guess it was back in 1990 that I first watched the Equinox Sunset, standing in the Heart of the Nonnewaug Wigwams, looking across the old planting fields toward the Fish Weir, noting when the sun touched the hillside above a sort of triangle of stones..."

The Desecrated Stones of Nonnewaug Wigwams

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2019/03/line-of-manitou-qussukquanash-sacred.html

West Virginia Rock Piles

via Norman Muller:
https://wvexplorer.com/2019/03/14/wv-rock-features-may-have-sacred-origins/

More Bigfoot rock piles - Colorado

Propped boulders, rock piles, stone walls:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YXWGjSsEiY

Awfully familiar.

Old stone walls record the changing location of magnetic north

via Norman Muller:

http://theconversation.com/old-stone-walls-record-the-changing-location-of-magnetic-north-112827

Beech Trees are so pretty

Went for a walk in a familiar small woods, down on the cape, and managed to find three new clusters of rock piles - even though I have been exploring those few acres (maybe 30) for several years. It goes to show how easily these things can be camouflaged. Sometimes you have to be almost standing on them to notice.

Why "getting it right" matters to rock pile protection

Let me express a personal belief, in an extreme form:

Trying to protect an archaeological site with incorrect and false information will never work.

I am not sure if I can justify this principle but it is a basis for my criticizing people who understand a part of the picture, maybe, but who are naïve about the breadth of phenomena and the significance of certain features. Too much incomplete interpretation may be harmful.

Sometimes I get a little superstitious. It is enjoyable. So, while a scientific argument might be made that falsehoods and incomplete truths won't hang together logically so as to compel understanding and belief about a site, a more superstitious argument might be that a site has its own defenses, built into its underlying truths, and those defense can only be engaged by being seen and understood. [These arguments are equivalent.]