This just looks old.

Going north on Ringe Rd in Fitchburg, taking a right on Piper Rd, a few moments later this appears on the left, while a view south down an inlet to the Fitchburg Reservoir appears on the right. If you right-click and open this in a new tab and magnify you'll see how the rocks are weathered, moss covered, and deeply covered with dead leaves. It is the oldest looking structure I can think of. So I think this is old.

Coming Up

Pushing back the antiquity of man in America

About the dig in Florida, putting a solid nail in Clovis's coffin:
http://phys.org/news/2016-05-evidence-humans-southeastern-earlier-previously.html

Foot of Blodgett Hill - Merrimack NH

I should probably not drive so far, or find a better way to get there. I took a short walk at the Horse Hill Conservation Land in Merrimack New Hampshire and saw a couple of larger rock piles, one on the way in and one on the way out. Near the first left hand turn off the main trail in:

Not much to say about this. You see remnants of structure in the last picture.

A bit east of there, also in the lower slopes of the Blodgett Hill was this one (repeating a picture):

Note the manitou stone in the wall. Also notice the large boulders that are on the right edge of that large mound in back. As far as I could tell, these larger rocks are part of a modern dumping that ended up on top of an older burial mound. So at times, I hope you can discount some of the largest rocks strewn about. 

I see two hollows: left-and-back and right-and-front of the picture's center. We'll walk around it. Seen from this corner, again note larger junk in the background:

And note the vague sense of rectangularity. Not much hope of making sense of it:

At the corner across from where we started:

You can see there's structure. Too bad it is a mess. Here is a last closeup of the hollows:

This is consistent with other areas adjacent the Merrimack River and I assume we can find these mounds all up and down it's watershed.

Burns Hill Conservation Land - Dracut

I had not been there but was not surprised to find a couple of small sites - much disheveled, perhaps old marker piles. Near the water in one place, and near a golf course in another:

Near the water:

And near the golf course:

Saw this pleasant scene, typical of the edge of a swamp:

Check out this facebook album - Gabes Mountain Trail

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153338586276931&set=pcb.914872138609162&type=3&theater

From https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=rock%20piles. 

I see there are several people reporting sites on Facebook.

Is the stone wall telling us something?

More later.

The rumor of larger 'mounds' near Gates Lane in Stow

I heard a rumor during the various proceedings, so I went over to take a look. Sure enough, in a corner that looks to be part of a development plan (there were pink ribbons and blue ones) there was one old rectangular bump,

divided in two parts:

and some loose piles against the wall nearby:

Along the slope, which was not too far from Elizabeth Brook, there were a few smaller piles and this interesting soil/rock line:

and this more conventional pile with hollow:

This is a faint trace of a familiar structure. There were also rock-on-rocks:

The Threat At Gates Lane Stow

Is illustrated with pink ribbons in the background:

I wonder if they mean "build a road here" or maybe "don't build a road here"? Either way, there are rock piles along there.

Curious "Farm" site in Ashburnham

Where the power lines cross Old County Rd:

A number of structures under the power lines:

I don't know what this is:

East of the power lines, there are some piles on the slope. Non descript:

And other curios:

This one reminded me of a "pylon" we saw years ago, that was said to be a support for a structure.

I could believe these rock piles are not ceremonial. But the nature of the place with its walls, supports, occasional low ground piles, etc, is curious. There were occasional rock piles off in the woods behind that seemed genuine, and other piles further up the power lines.

Faint traces of mounds in eastern Townsend

Access to a small conservation land at the foot of Haynes Rd, made it possible to get back in there exploring.

Somewhere around where that cross appears in the center, there was a small pile next to a wall:

and then some of the faintest traces of "rectangle-with-hollow" I have seen. Here is one, up against the wall

Here is another, also up against the downhill side of the wall:

Thought I should mention it. I should go back and explore more in that area sometime. Also a few steps further along the wall:

Arrowhead Hunting Season Begins

First the plow, then the rain. Now arrowhead hunting can begin in earnest.

Overcoming the Ambiguity of a Rock Pile

 "Only when rock feature sites are regularly recorded in a thoughtful and knowledgeable way, we will be able to identify meaningful patterns and better understand the past through the application of archaeological theory..." 

Overcoming the Ambiguity of a Rock Pile: Their Examination and Interpretation in Cultural Resource Management Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

By Charity M Moore and Matthew Victor Weiss

This paper was presented on January 9, 2016 at the SHA 2016 Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology.

https://www.academia.edu/21974259/Overcoming_the_Ambiguity_of_a_Rock_Pile_Their_Examination_and_Interpretation_in_Cultural_Resource_Management_Yesterday_Today_and_Tomorrow

East of Lake Whitehall (again)

Previous stories here, especially this one. There are good sized conservation lands east of the lake and I went to the northernmost part, finally finding a "marker pile" site at the blue outline.

This has several typical features I won't point out, but note the way the water is at the low point and center of the site. We enter:

At the bottom, at that moment when you realize it is a rock pile site:

And the way the piles cross the slope above:

 The "money" shot:

Nice individual piles:

Here are 4 in a curved "row". The water is downhill to the left.

This is similar to the site I reported recently from Princeton, where the piles also were  clustered above a small spot of water. One more detail of the water: