Tuesday, August 25, 2009

More from the area of the shell bead

This first picture is the best rock pile I found in the area, upstream from where the bead was found, but not along the creek:

The next pile is located downstream from where the bead was found. It is so close to the creek, I had to stand in the creek to photograph it from the west side. At first, I was pretty convinced that this is a field clearing pile, due to the small sized stones and no stacking at any of the edges.

A closer view of a few rocks on top that look like they could be stacked, although maybe unintentionally?

But then this arrangement of rocks at the "head", making the pile look testudinate and coming out from the creek. The rock behind the "head" is white in color (although the color is obscured by the moss).

Another view of the head-like rock.

So, although I feel like there is more compelling evidence that this is field clearing, could there be something else going on here? Is it possible there is a smaller, well-stacked pile underneath the little rocks and this is the product of "construction on construction"?

Closer to where there is a purported Indian burial ground (and also uphill and upstream from where the bead was found), I found a few short stretches of stone wall, some with rock piles preceding them, making them look like the rock piles used to be a wall but had either collapsed, were never stacked by the builder, or were sold off. But there was this one rock pile set off from the wall and I really took interest in the use of the granite here, whether intentional or not. This first picture shows the stone wall in the background:

This is a side view of the same pile, with the wall just off to the left, but not visible:

This is a section of one of the stone walls in the area. The void in the wall is interesting and definitely not practical from a field clearing point of view:


This area is in jeopardy of development for natural gas drilling. If they hit it big on the one well they have just started, they are planning many more for the area. Here is just one article at The Freeman's Journal on this subject.

1 comment:

pwax said...

Really nice. I wonder why there is not more debris and growth on tp of the low "testudinate" pile? Also, looking at the first picture, I see suggestions of hollows like in the stone wall. This seems a common feature in many of the piles you show.