"Dark Legacy" Pt. 3- Ancient Sites & the Industrial Modern World
This is the conclusion to this series of posts- "Dark Legacy". What I have tried to do in these posts is paint a picture that goes beyond just looking at stone-works- the stone-works that remain are great to look at- but there is a larger story at play here as illustrated by the last 2 posts.
Even though these sites are gaining more attention and awareness in recent times by some people (such as the town of Acton) they are still receiving neglect in most cases, and in some cases are being deliberatley destroyed- for example I have documented in this blog at least one site that had stone-works, including a stone ring petroform that was within a construction zone (housing development) in Holliston, MA. (the link is here http://nativenewenglandstones.blogspot.com/2014/10/features-from-holliston-ma-site-in.html). I have heard that the cairns on Pratt Hill in Upton, which lined up to the Upton Chamber a mile away and had celestial alignments were destroyed by the private landowner recently, because he wanted nothing to do with such things. Other examples is the Rock Shelter of Flagg Swamp in Marlborough, which was a rich archaelogical site, was dynamited for I think the expansion of Rte 495 in 1980. I believe there was also a Chamber in Marlborough which was destroyed years back because the site was in the way of development- never mind the fact it is a (pre) historical treasure.
Peter Waksman in his blog 'Rock Piles' documents the expansion of the EMC corporation expanding into (and thus destroying) ancient stone-works sites in Southborough to expand their offices here- http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/2010/09/emc-development-in-southborough-marker.html
This land we live in is prime "real estate" so to speak. The colonial powers knew that, and that is why they wanted the land- Native people knew that too and were here at least for tens of thousands of years. Alot of suburbs of the Boston area are very rich in ancient stone-works sites- the location of ancient village, ceremonial, hunting, etc. sites- much has been lost already, and each year more sites are either ruined or encroached upon. Researcher and contributer Norman Muller to Peter Waksman's 'Rock Piles' blog covered a report of the destruction of some huge cairns in New York state (removing stones from private property to make a profit) here-
The above are just highlights of some examples demonstrating the sensitivity of these sites- unless located on conservation land there isn't much law in place to protect these sites, although this is slowly changing- it took the efforts of the three federally recognized tribes in this area to speak up about the Turner's Falls site to swing the ball in (very slow) favor of preservation and acknowledgment that these are pre-colonial stoneworks- although the old paradigm of dismissal of these sites is still very much in place.
That wraps this one up... stay tuned for more stone-works pics from around the area, with all this snow on the ground I have a large back-log of pics that still need to be posted up, so stay tuned.
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