Ceremonial Arrangement in an Old Stone Wall

A curious arrangement in a wall near my mailbox. When I posted this on a Facebook Group page, someone posted an identical arrangement they had photographed in Rhode Island; so this is a design to be repeated, a Motif, which had shared, cultural significance.

The quartz rock has a rose color within it, and can easily be pickup up out of the niche it is set in.

A Series of Rock Piles Oct 14 2017

This is series of unique rock piles running along a ridge in a northerly direction , regularly spaced so that as you walk you can anticipate where the next pile will be.  They are spread out over almost 3/4's of a mile.  I expect if I had more time and a few less years, I could follow them for several more miles.  It appears that they have been knocked about over the years, and are buried in woodland debris. They may not be in the exact order.

Two Years Later

Today I took a longer walk through the area which I photographed two years ago. It was a bit disappointing to discover some of the rock piles or features had been run over and destroyed. Perhaps my pink ribbons had blown away. Bits of evidence showed otherwise, however.

Photo taken August 14, 2017. The beautiful bird effigy is covered over with branches cut from the tops of downed trees.
There is too much for me to clear.  But this wasn't the sad part. The sad part was finding some of the features have been totally destroyed.  The circles with quartz in the center are impossible to find under the brush.
I had been more hopeful. 

Revisiting the Rock Piles

Two years ago a forester began cutting and he was obviously going to run over everything in his path with huge equipment.  So I tied ribbons on the rock piles and asked him to not run over them. I acknowledged it wasn't my property but

hoped.
he would respect why the rock piles were important. He said he would try his best, as it was difficult to see from the top of his big equipment. I dared not go back until today, 2years later.
He had tried to give the more important piles a miss.

Where the Light Comes In

Throwback to August 2015.

 The woods have been "harvested" since this photo was taken, and many of the stones have been run over by heavy equipment, or are buried underneath the fallen branches that were never cleaned up afterwards.
Without a wide angle lens, my cell phone wasn't able to capture the scene as I first came upon it, .but you can see a few glints in the 2 o'clock position, which turned out to be an array of quartz rocks placed within rock circles or set on top of a base rock.
Magical!

Thunderbird

Overlooking The Lake

The black and white closeup illustrates the care taken to construct this effigy. In the center a round rock has been placed to hold the head in place on the supporting boulder. There are smaller stones placed on and around this feature.

Rock ring with Quartz

There are many consciously placed  rock rings lying under the Norwich woodland debris. Shown here is a double ring which outlines an oval depression.  Note the one white quartz on top right.

Wild Turkey Facing West

This  Wild Turkey shaped "perched" rock differs from a lot of other boulders dropped by the last glacier because of it's "perched" demeanor, and that it isn't buried as deeply in woodland debris.
About  3 feet tall, it stands on a large flat bolder, similar to the one in the right background.  If someone were to dislodge the several flat rocks propped against the downhill side,  it could easily be rolled  on down the hill.

Eagle Rock

Eagle head facing left, 9 o'clock, with outspread wings......carved out of top of ledge overlooking a large vein of Quartz.

This is within close proximity to two other rock carvings. Go to  THIS EARLIER POST and scroll down to the bottom two photos.

Pisgah Rock Piles

Forty years ago we bought a 10 acre wood lot about 1 mile from our house. Turns out, we never  used it, and the last time I walked there was 25 years ago. The old Hemlocks need harvesting, sadly due to Wooly Algae infestation. Today, camera in hand, we took a walk.  There are two old stone walls bordering about  2 acres  closest to the road, used as pasture over 100 years ago. Further back in the woods, however, were some interesting Rock Piles. Given that this property is located close to other sites with Native American features,   the rock piles deserve closer examination.  

A walk in the woods. 

The neighbor's Hemlock grove being managed.

Quartz in the middle of a rock pile at the base of a huge oak tree.

Large shaped stone on top of a larger flat rock striped with quartz. On the far side a triangular shaped quartz rock is tucked underneath. 

Smooth bolder with a carefully placed necklace of smaller stones along  the west side.  These stones are too small to bother with in terms of field clearing. 

Large flat stone with a circle of mid sized stone; one is quartz and faces the south west sun. 

Large stone with mid sized rocks placed around. 

Turtle Rock with rocks; one triangular shaped quartz rock facing south west.  

A very large boulder with two mid sized rocks tucked close together. 

April After the Snow Melted

With the snow melted  I could see, weaving through the woods  the remnants of an old foot path heading towards a brook which flows into the south end of The Lake. I followed it a short way and it led to an old Bent Trail Tree, which was pointing  in a 90 degree angle to the path itself. Following the direction of the tree, I came a large Rock Pile.

Bent Trail Tree

Pointing to the South West

Nose of the tree has a smooth round stone embedded inside. 

Rock  Pile: Notice at the 2 o'clock position, the two  upright stones. Flat stones are layered in a mounded pattern  through the center towards 5 o'clock. The entire area is over 10 feet in length by 15 feet in width.
The stones closest to the two standing stones are lain flat; at the near side many are placed on edge, leaning into one another.  At about 6 o'clock, there are gaps to be seen, where some of the rocks have slipped away. 

Thong Marks

View of the Brook from the Top of the Stone Pile