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Thread: Interesting New England Sites

  1. #1
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    Interesting New England Sites

    Here is a pic of a lost site I stumbled onto ("found") the other month. It is a Native American stone shrine in Massachusetts. It is not located next to a trail, although the boulder it was worked into can be seen in a distance from a trail, but one has to walk up to it and go around it to tell what it is. It is on the side of a heavily-wooded hill (the "jungle" grew back) and to the other side is a swampy marsh/pond, and there is a housing development relatively nearby, but the swamp is between the site and the houses (thank god- better chance of preservation.) Here is the pic I took:

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jPfLds2bxQ...7141845-00.jpg

    There are also nearby Native American rock piles associated with this site as well. The other week I led a hike to the site, which included the Town Historian Joanne, Dr. Curtiss Hoffmann, professor of anthropology and archeology at Bridgewater State University, and several members of an organization called NEARA (New England Antiquities Research Association.) The NEARA members told me that they were going to run an article on the site in their next journal and that a pic of the shrine is going to be on the cover. They also told me that a couple of structures identical to this exist in a nearby town, except they are in a destroyed state, and it is only due to landowner's accounts that any integrity/ history of the other structures has survived at all.

    Dr. Curtiss Hoffmann and others determined (with their fancy phones and gadgets) that there is a winter solstice alignment at the site, which was probably taken in to consideration when the structure was built. Other things I noticed were that there is room enough for 1 person to enter the shrine (probably the local Pawwow) and sit cross-legged or on their knees. Also, the stone on the top of the roof (center) is a bird-head effigy stone, looking up to the heavens. This is conducive with indigenous beliefs- when we pray we look up towards the sky, and the birds, especially the Eagle, are intermediaries between heaven and Earth, they carry our prayers to the Creator, they are the closest to heaven up in the sky. There are many First Nations tales that illustrate the interaction birds play between people and the Creator. There is also a Manitou stone to the left of the entrance of the structure. That is the stone that is standing up vertically. Manitou means "a spirit" so this stone would invite the friendly spirits to the site, or rather the spirits that were needed at that special place.

    Although I know about many other significant sites in my area, and have even found some other things nobody knew about, this is my biggest "find" to date. I am stoked! Figured I would share. Education is good for all of us. It is good to think of where we come from, and where we live.

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by MarathonTmatt View Post
    Here is a pic of a lost site I stumbled onto ("found") the other month. It is a Native American stone shrine in Massachusetts. It is not located next to a trail, although the boulder it was worked into can be seen in a distance from a trail, but one has to walk up to it and go around it to tell what it is. It is on the side of a heavily-wooded hill (the "jungle" grew back) and to the other side is a swampy marsh/pond, and there is a housing development relatively nearby, but the swamp is between the site and the houses (thank god- better chance of preservation.) Here is the pic I took:

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jPfLds2bxQ...7141845-00.jpg

    There are also nearby Native American rock piles associated with this site as well. The other week I led a hike to the site, which included the Town Historian Joanne, Dr. Curtiss Hoffmann, professor of anthropology and archeology at Bridgewater State University, and several members of an organization called NEARA (New England Antiquities Research Association.) The NEARA members told me that they were going to run an article on the site in their next journal and that a pic of the shrine is going to be on the cover. They also told me that a couple of structures identical to this exist in a nearby town, except they are in a destroyed state, and it is only due to landowner's accounts that any integrity/ history of the other structures has survived at all.

    Dr. Curtiss Hoffmann and others determined (with their fancy phones and gadgets) that there is a winter solstice alignment at the site, which was probably taken in to consideration when the structure was built. Other things I noticed were that there is room enough for 1 person to enter the shrine (probably the local Pawwow) and sit cross-legged or on their knees. Also, the stone on the top of the roof (center) is a bird-head effigy stone, looking up to the heavens. This is conducive with indigenous beliefs- when we pray we look up towards the sky, and the birds, especially the Eagle, are intermediaries between heaven and Earth, they carry our prayers to the Creator, they are the closest to heaven up in the sky. There are many First Nations tales that illustrate the interaction birds play between people and the Creator. There is also a Manitou stone to the left of the entrance of the structure. That is the stone that is standing up vertically. Manitou means "a spirit" so this stone would invite the friendly spirits to the site, or rather the spirits that were needed at that special place.

    Although I know about many other significant sites in my area, and have even found some other things nobody knew about, this is my biggest "find" to date. I am stoked! Figured I would share. Education is good for all of us. It is good to think of where we come from, and where we live.
    That's pretty neat. Those finds are always nice. Down south where I'm from you can walk across 12000 year old stone tools/debris and not even notice it if you weren't looking (yes 12k years old (or at least found in 12k strata), I'll let other people look up the significance of that). Its unfortunate though that so many of these are on private property and thus, no one knows they're there. That and the problems it causes when...sensitive...things are found. You may or may not know of Allendale, SC's Topper site. This was one of the more important sites in the south for a while. It was on private, industrial property. Unfortunately, a couple years back human remains were found. I believe in another post here I mentioned this site and something I couldn't yet talk of. This was that something. What should have been a huge find, ended up sinking the entire site. Smithsonian got there necks involved and botched the operation. I don't think they notified proper authorities (but could be wrong on that) and long story short, the site is now shut down and off limits. At least a half dozen individuals working on their PhD research got screwed out of their study zone after years of work. The remains, I believe but could be wrong, were covered back up and left unstudied. An ex gf of mine was the one who initially uncovered the body and was freaked she f'd up. Wasn't a fun month, should have been one of the best. Research can be a ***** like that.

  3. #3
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    Ya, very cool man. It looks a bit small for somebody to sit in very comfortably so when I hear about or see places like this which are aligned with the winter or summer solstice I wonder if they were more like calendar sign post markers rather than that of a spiritual nature. Either way, still very cool.

  4. #4
    Cool little story.


  5. #5
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    That was great! I liked the part at the end about the masking tape.

    I really dislike looters, wether it be artifacts or somebodies property. As a youth I would happen upon things like arrow heads, pottery shards, and in NC civil war artifacts...etc., while out in the wilds of nature. After checking these cool pieces out I'd simply set them back down where I found them so that others could enjoy the moment as much as I did. When I grew up and became friends with some archaeological types I realized how important this practice was. For me, it was more about that stuff isn't mine no matter where I found it so why should I take it. For an archaeologist it seems to go much deeper. And for an archaeologist/anthropologist with a deep spiritual connection to say the Choctaw tribe it goes even deeper. One of my friends who heads the cultural dept. for the Choctaws often has to repatriate artifacts and bones when people accidentally dig them up. On tribal lands there are people on call 24/7 to monitor and investigate projects like road building, pipelines..etc., and when they find anything that resembles a bone or any type of artifact all work stops until it can be verified that it is or isn't part of some tribe from any time period. It's not like they shut the world down for long, but work will stop long enough to repatriate the bones or artifacts to another area approved by the tribe.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by SoCo KungFu View Post
    That's pretty neat. Those finds are always nice. Down south where I'm from you can walk across 12000 year old stone tools/debris and not even notice it if you weren't looking (yes 12k years old (or at least found in 12k strata), I'll let other people look up the significance of that). Its unfortunate though that so many of these are on private property and thus, no one knows they're there. That and the problems it causes when...sensitive...things are found. You may or may not know of Allendale, SC's Topper site. This was one of the more important sites in the south for a while. It was on private, industrial property. Unfortunately, a couple years back human remains were found. I believe in another post here I mentioned this site and something I couldn't yet talk of. This was that something. What should have been a huge find, ended up sinking the entire site. Smithsonian got there necks involved and botched the operation. I don't think they notified proper authorities (but could be wrong on that) and long story short, the site is now shut down and off limits. At least a half dozen individuals working on their PhD research got screwed out of their study zone after years of work. The remains, I believe but could be wrong, were covered back up and left unstudied. An ex gf of mine was the one who initially uncovered the body and was freaked she f'd up. Wasn't a fun month, should have been one of the best. Research can be a ***** like that.
    Hi,
    Ouch, yeah- I can see how things could be botched up at the SC site. Also, up here in the north east, especially in the Connecticut River Valley are a lot of artifact deposits (knives, projectile points):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYuK1...yer_detailpage
    Last edited by MarathonTmatt; 07-08-2014 at 06:12 AM.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoldenBrain View Post
    Ya, very cool man. It looks a bit small for somebody to sit in very comfortably so when I hear about or see places like this which are aligned with the winter or summer solstice I wonder if they were more like calendar sign post markers rather than that of a spiritual nature. Either way, still very cool.
    Yes, I have thought about what you have said too. I think it did serve as a marker like you say, but that their cosmology (and thus spirituality) was also inter-connected with that too. It obviously would have been a special structure one way or another- as for somebody sitting in it- I guess we will never know for sure, due to the very harsh suppression of Native culture. Here in the Northeast, it was long thought that such structures simply did not exist as they did in other parts of the country. The remaining descendent communities themselves largely forgot about their ancestor's stone constructions (but not completely) until more recently, and now tribal preservation officers as well as archeologists like Dr. Hoffmann who have good relationships with them are taking an inventory of these sites. As for me I am more of an "amateur enthusiast" of mixed ancestry (Canada/ Mid-west) living in the New England area.
    Some things I did notice though is that one of the stones on the roof is loose, and that top soil and leaf-litter would have built up on the ground over centuries, for instance we cannot see the true bottom of the entry-way or the ground inside the structure as it would have appeared hundreds of years ago.
    Last edited by MarathonTmatt; 08-14-2014 at 03:58 PM.

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    Pics from another site

    Here are more pics I took of another site. A lot of natural boulders that were incorporated with indigenous stonewall/ stone row building to create enclosures. This site is near a brook that is a tributary to a major river. Also at this site were many Native American style "cairns" which is an English word used to describe rock piles of various origins- a modern hiking cairn may distinguish a trail path, a modern boundry cairn may distinguish a property line and so forth.

    The truth is, the word "cairn" isn't the right word to describe Native American stone mounds, heaps, etc., but that is the word researchers began using to describe them decades ago and the name stuck. What they really are is various effigys, monuments, markers, donation piles and "prayers in stone", etc. Notice the symmetry and different patterns in the pics below. Also most effigys are on boulder platforms, with bedrock underneath the surface vegetation. I only got a few pics of the larger site in general. Hoping people will enjoy:

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4mB0DyjwOC...llboulder1.jpg

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bPTylUw2N0...8141841-00.jpg

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FOVusZsWjH...s/s1600/A6.jpg

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0DKgHOvpja...2Rombazoid.jpg

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Vl8fJnVHkF...600/cairn1.jpg

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fVW9_SBWTr...600/cairn2.jpg

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7IadxWp09S...airn5front.jpg

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uJpY5eUxLL...00/effigy3.jpg

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiI9xwmX21...600/cairn4.jpg

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7_Q8RtMbzg...ngat-ledge.jpg
    Last edited by MarathonTmatt; 07-13-2014 at 07:26 PM.

  9. #9
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    Propped Boulders/ Horizon Markers.

    I was hiking around a place called Echo Lake (in Massachusetts, west of Boston) last weekend. It is the head of the Charles River. The English named the river after one of their kings. The true name of the river in Algonquin is something like "Quennebaug," very similar to the naming of the Kennebec river in Maine, but in a different dialect.

    Here are some pictures I took of some propped boulders, and some smaller "standing stones" which seemed to function as horizon markers. There were also some other features I noticed like a couple small petro-forms (some info on petro-forms here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroform) and some effigies (cairns) but for some reason I did not take pics of those.

    Here are some of the pictures I took from Echo Lake:

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cm2qPCEdec...lakeprop7A.jpg

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kc-yhkIIj8...lakeprop7B.jpg

    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RKwYDcx_Uh...olakeprop3.jpg

    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-evx77Iqi9U...olakeprop4.jpg

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0xKOcJuCCX...olakeprop6.jpg

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RUkPoU9jlX...tandstone2.jpg

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EDVU-ddTBH...andstone2A.jpg

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XhkAA_InUZ...tandstone4.jpg

    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cXk1WTiGVI...stndstone1.jpg

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cm2qPCEdec...lakeprop7A.jpg

  10. #10
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    Angry A Return to Echo Lake.

    I went back to Echo Lake, MA. this weekend. I am surprised (well, not really, actually, but glad,) with what I found. These pictures are more mind-blowing than the last pics I posted from that area, this time I went deeper into the bush:

    Here is a back-angle of the stone structure ("chamber/shrine") I found:
    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pfIhjwihL8...ckofshrine.jpg

    Here is a Petro-form (stone circle w/ an altar)
    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-72bpX9_J2_...cho-petro1.jpg

    A second petro-form, the stone on top is marked out to represent I fish, or so I believe (you can see the eye socket, mouth & shape of stone)- Good luck fishing!:
    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-exZe5ntEPe...cho-petro2.jpg

    Another standing-stone marker:
    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GPADPla-NO...stndstone5.jpg

    A marker on a nearby hill-top that seems to be pointing to the direction of the ancient Chamber:
    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8-w4LXdeHi...tonemarker.jpg

    Entrance to the Stone-Structure ("Chamber"), Nice Slabbed-roof!:
    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K851bHNE0D...of-shrine2.jpg

    The back-wall inside the structure (my finger got in way of left corner):
    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-axHw7iXpDA...debackwall.jpg

    Another view of the outside-back:
    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-USrC5aisUT...ack-shrine.jpg

    A stone circle directly outside the structure:
    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TpFyycc_RV...ide-shrine.jpg

    I climbed on top to get these pics of the roof slabs:
    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EN6FNvvbCT...fofshrine2.jpg

    Close up of entry-way slabs (and you can see into the back):
    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--0HF4w8as_...shrineslab.jpg

    View of roof from inside:
    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-umADTrtG-7...nsdeshrine.jpg

    Another propped boulder nearby:
    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fA7m1121c6...pedboulder.jpg

    Stone enclosure (stone circle) :
    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a3Ag-FN7LL...-enclosure.jpg

    A Drum-stone nearby to the Chamber. This rests on the boulder platform, and with one hand you can shake it like a see-saw, and it reverberates and shakes the ground, and you can hear it for miles (I have seen another drum stone at another site before):
    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0Qkk-5gk8H...hodrumstn1.jpg

    Another view of the drum-stone (perfectly perched):
    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bb-RJsABfN...odrumstne2.jpg

    Also some additional information about Echo Lake, Massachusetts from Wikipedia:

    "Source of the Charles River. Hopkinton is the highest point in the region and is at the headwaters of three watersheds: the Charles, the Blackstone, and the "SuAsCo" (Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord) tributary of the Merrimack River."
    Last edited by MarathonTmatt; 08-20-2014 at 07:15 PM.

  11. #11
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    Upton Chamber

    Here is a link to a well-known site called the Upton Chamber. The town of Upton is doing the right thing by preserving this site and more recently, putting it on the National Register. If only the other towns in the area would do the same with their sites, this stuff is all over the place. A lot of the time the town historians/ town government themselves don't have a clue what is on the land. In the 1600's, the founder of the state of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, wrote about these structures as being Native in origin. He said:

    "Pesuponck; a hot house. This hot house is a kind of little cell or cave, six or eight feet over, round, made on the side of a hill, commonly by some rivulet or brook." (Williams [1643]1968:236)"

    Unfortunatly most people today are ignorant of such structures. Here is a link about the sad statistics for preservation efforts in New England:

    http://www.nativestones.com/preserve.htm "every year, more gets destroyed." It goes on to point out that only 1 Native stone construction in New England is on the register, contrasted to almost 500 historical churches of European-American origin.

    Here is the Upton Chamber link:

    http://www.stonestructures.org/html/upton-chamber.html

    Note that sadly, the site was featured in a book called "The Ruins of Great Ireland in New England." That was in 1946, and historians still hadn't figured out that the Native people the first settlers encountered in the area were already remnant populations of a once greater society. Also European Americans liked to romanticize Native people as "primitive." Even today when I talk to some people they think Native people never built in stone in this area, and they will state this like an adamant fact because that is what they were told by some ignorant grade school teacher or something.

    People still don't realize the great impact this culture had on the landscape. In fact to get a clue, see my above post, "A Return to Echo Lake" for it has some epic pictures of my exploring in that area. That area was definitely the site of a significant pre-historic village/ center.
    Last edited by MarathonTmatt; 08-20-2014 at 06:11 AM.

  12. #12
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    Head- And- Shoulders Manitou Stones

    "Head-and-shoulders" stone bust in 3 different sizes.

    1) Large (large effigy stone bust, the trees growing up around this monument have been mysteriously cleared away...):

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RDxOssCwZQ.../nrthmill4.jpg


    2) Medium, incorporated into a native wall:

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UBDi18lfgm.../Charles18.jpg

    3) Small, as center-piece In a Stone Ring:

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3CdK7DVCJt...600/petro1.jpg

    All pics taken by me.

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  14. #14
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    Bird Stone God Effigies & More

    On a wooded knoll-

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-beuvK281E7.../fairprop5.jpg

    Propped onto a boulder platform-

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VrQ8tIX4fS...0/Wilson12.jpg

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S97mPG0Ze5.../Wilson12A.jpg

    Smaller effigy protecting the nest-

    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5nZzS5AW7v...0/Wilson13.jpg

    U-Shaped Stone Ring "Prayer Seat"-

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-v0KkBeQsZ9...0/Wilson18.jpg

    A couple of the pics I posted here last night-

    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yMcu4yUeKv...1600/face4.jpg

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jFmvB22iQ9...barreprop5.jpg

    The style of stone effigy work in this region is abstract and minimal on purpose, as if trying to be non-invasive while modifying the landscape. People made just enough markings and cuts in the stone to abstractly represent a deity such as a bird. These monuments would be "popped" to life by decorating stone gods and the such with red ochre and perishable plant-based paints that have worn off with time- a lot of these structures probably go back to "Early Archaic" period times aka "the Red Paint People" (maritime archaic culture) especially the network of chambers (ie shrines) accessible from the water-ways through the region. And of course, Native religion was suppressed and persecuted in colonial times up through the present day, also whole villages perished from disease, war and slavery, and most survivors were either re-located or assimilated to the point that these stone-works were almost entirely forgotten about despite the fact there are records of such structures by colonists themselves. More of these sites get destroyed each year and the State Historic Comissions have lied to people about these structures for generations
    Last edited by MarathonTmatt; 10-10-2014 at 06:15 AM.

  15. #15
    Greetings MarathonTmatt

    It took a WHILE to see the bird!

    With the u shaped ring: Did you notice how the stones appear to extend from and return back to the dark stone at the top. as if sitting at that top position was not just for prayer but for the receiving of assistance, answers, even knowledge; a real connection to the Ancestors and the Cosmos. There is also a yin and yang configuration going on there, with the darker half unexpressed, with the exception of the dark stone at the top; it's polar counterpart being the large white stone at the far-thest part of the loop.

    Just a couple of observations,

    mickey
    Last edited by mickey; 10-14-2014 at 02:54 PM.

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