Arrowhead from West Concord

Reader Steve S. writes:

After a few months of looking, I think I’ve found my first ever arrowhead in a farm field in west concord. Picture attached. 

Earthworks in Newark OH - Great Circle and Octagon

A couple of comments on how Illinois and Ohio seem a bit contemptuous of their major mound sites. In the case of Cahokia, the state of IL put a landfill mound just a few miles away, that is larger than "Monks Mound", the largest mound in America. In the case of the Newark Earthworks, there are NO SIGNS to help a traveler realize there is a site there; and the views of the Great Circle and Octagon are completely obstructed by unnecessary tree plantings. I mean.... really? Apparently the visitor center at Cahokia has been closed for 4 years - due to lack of initiative to finish the job.

A quick look at Cahokia

 

I was surprised to pass Cahokia on my drive home from Nevada.

Rock Piles, Wachusett Reservoir

Reader Larry J. writes:

Hello!

I stumbled across an interesting rock formation and was curious what your thoughts on it are! Ill attach a video of me walking around it. Also a couple photos, one of Lidar.

Thanks!

Larry .

Lidar:

Walk around [I rotated the video, and uploaded it to my YouTube channel]:

Tahattawan’s World

Thursday, May 14, 7 pm at Acton Memorial Library

Who were the Indians who lived in the Acton area before the English arrived? It is widely understood that this band, led by their sachem Tahattawan, transferred Musketaquid/Concord to the English in the 1630s, adopted Christianity, settled down nearby at Nashobah/Littleton, endured rough handling during King Philip’s War in the 1670s, and then merged into the general diaspora of Christian Indians in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Local historian Brent Ranalli has undertaken a fresh, close reading of the source documents from the seventeenth century for a new book project. This talk presents some of his findings, enhancing our understanding of the band and their story.
Please register at https://tinyurl.com/Ranalli-May14.

Friends of Pine Hawk

Remembering and Reconnecting: Day of Remembrance, Commemoration of 350 years after the Great Falls Massacre this Saturday, May 16

From the Nolumbeka Project:

Rocks that look like creatures

From here: Aphrodite and Eros Spotted in the Desert and Neither Fish Escaped Typhons Attack as you will See [A video I had a hard time following.]

The Seven Hills Serpent at an Entrance

 Shadow becomes an Eye On the Old Road to Woodbury CT

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2026/05/shadow-becomes-eye-on-old-road-to.html

Clovis and Crystal Quartz

Some gorgeous photos:

 Why did Clovis toolmakers choose difficult quartz crystal? New study offers clues

NEARA fieldtrips

Worcester, MA - April 19

[?] CT - May 2

No doubt the details are available at www.neara.org

Found a Snappit Point, over in RI

A short video:

DNA population comparison is BALONEY

 According to my chatbot:

Percent of variable DNA examined

Humans have roughly 3–4 million common variable sites (SNPs and similar variants). Standard population‑genetics datasets examine 300,000 to 1,000,000 of those.

The proportion is:

$$\frac{3\times {10}^5\text{ to }{10}^6}{3\times {10}^6\text{ to }4\times {10}^6}\approx 10\mathrm{\%}\text{ to }30\mathrm{\%}$$

So population‑comparison studies typically use about 10–30% of the variable DNA.

That’s the number.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Got that? Between 1/10 and 1/3 of "important" dna is compared. A vast playground for cherry picking.

Also, do not wait around for them to perform any form of reasonable sampling. I read something about using "30" individuals. Are you kidding me? If a tree has 100 branch points, you will not deduce it from a sample size of 30.

Atherton Brook republishing

I was reading an old post. I am so pleased to have discovered places like this. Please someone, go have another look.

https://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2022/04/atherton-brook-quabbin-and-also-site.html?

From my Chatbot:

"Consumer ancestry tests do NOT analyze more DNA for Native American ancestry than for any other population.

They use the same SNP chip — typically 600,000 to 1,000,000 SNPs, which is about:

$$\frac{\mathrm{1,000,000}}{\mathrm{3,200,000,000}}\approx 0.03\mathrm{\%}$$

So, the amount of DNA examined is ~0.02–0.03% of the genome, regardless of whether the comparison is Native American, European, African, or anything else."

Next time you hear a genetic analysis, this is why it is bullshit.

Three Neanderthals Cartoon

(AI Cartoon...not rock pile related).

Preparing for the hunt:

A vigorous discussion of options:

Wiser heads prevail:

Kennewick Man and archeological politics

About 45 minutes in, they are talking about how, in North America, skeletons are treated as "an embarrassment" rather than as a "national treasure" (as skeletons are viewed in Mexico).

Killing Kennewick Man: Dr. James Chatters

As it stands, the NAGRPA laws are used to suppress most studies of the past. Skeletal remains cannot be shown in journals whose supposed goals are to study the past. 

You can make of that what you will, but I am thinking we dodged a bullet here in the East because the "openness" policy was embedded in the earliest history of rock piles. There have been efforts to privatize the subject, keeping sites secret and demanding certain spiritual buy-ins from visitors. [see Rock Piles: Sacred Stones, Vision Quest, and the Nashobah Praying Indians] However, thankfully, more curiosity-based thinking prevailed. The tribes had discussions of whether or not to keep things secret and let old sites molder away back into the soil; or whether to support open research and publicity for newly discovered sites. 

I am not sure what swayed the Indians involved in those early discussions. It might have been that, at the time, the Indians felt a small debt towards the discoverers of site and adopted some of our attitudes. It might also be the argument we made to the effect that so much development and land use tension occurs in the East, keeping things secret nearly guarantees developers will bulldoze sites.

Anyway, the point I am making is that research has not been stifled towards rock piles in the same way that research about sites is discouraged elsewhere. We are lucky our sites are not privatized or co-opted by the tribes and, as it goes, the USET resolutions codify a research partnership that is lacking, out West.

"Sharing Mohican Knowledge and Presence in the Berkshires" Zoom presentation, Sunday

 

'The Indians' of Woodbridge CT

 

Sheila McCreven

Jun 29, 2024

 "In the book, 'History of Seymour, Connecticut with Biographies and Genealogies' published in 1879 by W.C. Sharpe, in a chapter titled 'The Indians' on page 36, the following passage provides some details connecting the native people of Seymour and Woodbridge...A small group of hikers set out to visit the last known settlement of the Paugussetts on June 29, 2024...the group of hikers soon locate the area, enclosed by a fieldstone wall with its entrance marked by two stone pillars, each with a capstone bearing an inscription — the words “Paugassett Indians” on one; and “Last Settlement 1833” on the other...Woodbridge Town Historian Marvin Aarons tells the tale:

"According to Woodbridge resident Edee Lockyer, who visited the cemetery as a child in the 1940s, the graves were then mounded up and covered with rocks. Sadly, the graves were repeatedly disturbed over many years. Today, there are no gravestones or burial mounds; rather, the grave sites are sunken."

https://www.townhistory.org/the-last-paugassett-settlement-on-the-border-between-woodbridge-ansonia-and-seymour-2/

https://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-last-of-woodbridge-indians.html

Full Moon Festival - Greenfield MA

 

Bring back the Wolly Mammoth

[Not rock pile related]

Colossal Biosciences Announces Historic Breakthrough: The Woolly Mammoth Is Back, Meet Baby Manny - Technology Org

How cool would it be?