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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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Peter! It's been ages since we've been in touch. Just wanted to let you know that I still check in on your blog from time to time cuz I'm still interested in the rock pile scene back in the U.S. I see you've now written a book and I'll be sure to order that sometime soon. Just wanted to let you know that I very much miss our explorations together and also say that I consider you to be the "Godfather" of rock pile research. When I first got interested in rock piles it was you who I found (and you introduced me to Jic, who is an amazing person and wound up employing me for over a year to build the "Great Wall of Carlisle" in his yard). There are now at least a few Facebook rockpile groups out there and if you weren't aware many of the key founders/members look to you as "the guy" who started it all. I hope history will give you your the recognition you deserve. All the best you you my friend. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Bruce. You were the person who found the largest sites, down there near the top of the Charles. Speaking of history, there is a sub-chapter in my book about the sites you showed me, including our drive down Rt 202 in New Salem.
ReplyDeletePeter. I can't wait to buy your book and read it. I still say that the site I showed you near the head of the Charles (which is enormous and spans the towns of Holliston, Hopkinton and Milford) is probably the most amazing site in MA but that's also likely because most of it is on conservation land and thus hasn't been destroyed. And yes, that day we drove down Rt 202 we saw some pretty amazing stuff. But then again, we saw lots of amazing stuff together and if you think about it we were there together in the early 2000's getting interested in this stuff way before anyone else. And you were the guy that I found that got me into this stuff. Apparently that site on Murray Lane in Harvard is now open to the public. I have so many awesome memories of spending weekends together exploring sites with you Peter and it's kinda cool that we were doing rock pile exploration years before this idea appeared on anyone's radar. I think I told you about my friend who was going to write his thesis on rock piles and after we had a meeting with his professor (Dr. Steven Mrozowski) he got letters from the office of Brona Simon written by Ed Bell (her henchman) threatening to sue him if he dared do a thesis on such a topic (and he had been doing archeo work at the praying village in Grafton)! That's how controversial the topic of rock piles used to be. We've come a long way since then. Anyway, I'm glad to have some communication with you and I really do miss going into the woods to explore with you (though I don't miss the 2 times I got Lyme disease). In my opinion you are the guy that started all of this but I'll be happy to have been considered your sidekick when years ago we were out there in the woods overthrowing archaeological paradigms that someday are going to be taught as normal curriculum. I'll be back in the U.S. in either November/December if you want to get together. :)
ReplyDeleteOK, It's sure that NEARA was getting into this stuff too before we were but a lot of that was focused on weird Phonecian and Ogham and Norse pseudoscience nonsense. To be fair there were NEARA people and many others before us. But I see a delineation in the early 2000's when there was a rupture between those previous ideas and a distinct focus on differentiating native stonework from farming/field clearing stonework.
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