Friday, May 19, 2006

Carlisle woods - rock piles at the edge of an overgrown field.

by pwaxWe have been to these wood before. Last time it was raining. Today, I borrowed Friend From Carlisle's (FFC's) camera and got some pictures of other piles from a bit downhill from the site I showed before. I should explain the features that make me doubt these are simply from field clearing. Let's start with the first picture above: it is probably not a field clearing pile because these are not random sized rocks. Also there is a bit of implicit shape to the pile and evidently the largest rock on the right in the "front" is a rather special white feldspar rock - another non-random features. So if we accept one pile is not field clearing then that is all it takes to put into question any other piles from nearby. Actually the pile shown above is not a great example. Maybe some of the ones I have already shown from this site are more convincing:
[Bowls]
[Piles]
[Effigies 1]
[Female Effigy]
And near all of those but downhill from there: here we find some piles from the edge of a field. Probably made as part of field clearing but, especially with reference to Jim P's comments earlier, the piles may also be ceremonial. For example these ones next to a brook - flowing hard after all the rain. Two views of one pile:
Here we do see all the different sized rocks. Note the smaller ones towards the top of the pile, and Note the faint traces of a low retaining wall. At one point someone put a little care into making this pile. Here is another a few feet away:
The location of these piles next to a brook and their being close to (many) other piles that are not from field clearing, both suggest these are not simply field clearing piles. I am enjoying seeing rich greens again after a colorless winter.

Here is one more from near the road.
And a last one as we departed the scene.

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