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.
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
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.
Native Stone Face, Caves, Inscriptions & More
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