Sherborn Sites Pt 4- Large Mounds Along Watershed of Brook

Sherborn Sites Pt 4- Large Mounds Along Watershed of Brook

I have featured similar mounds before from nearby towns.  The fact is, mound building was a large part of the NorthEastern culture going back many of thousands of years and as far as scholars can tell some of the NorthEastern Mounds pre-date the great, more famous Mound-building culture of the Ohio Valley/ Mid-West/ Mississippi basin.  Yet generally speaking these sites have gone pretty much ignored and un-documented, receiving little to no attention from most scholars.  

These larger mounds, which I have featured examples of before are a mix of Earth and Stone, although previously I mistakenly referred to them simply as "Earthen" (they reminded me so much of earthen mid-western counterparts).  These mounds seem to be a surprisingly common feature alongside brooks in this region.  How many people marvel at the mid-western mounds yet these north-eastern counter-parts (and perhaps proto-types in some instances) have been over-looked.

Classic pic of what I am describing.  As is the case with this larger, inter-connected site, related to the previous posts, these large mounds usually appear in clusters.  Large mound in the distance, a man-made feature-

This mound had the ambiance of a Cahokian pyramidal mound platform.  View A-

View B-

View C-

View D-

Two mounds clustered together.  The smaller mound in the foreground has a circular depression/ hollow in the middle.  View A-

View B-

View C-

More mounds in back of the ones from the last pic-

Smaller mound running along length of the larger mound-

Barely noticable mounds to the untrained eye-

Along the edge of water-

Skunk cabbage is starting to come up.  A small part of the skunk cabbage root can be steeped in boiling water and can be used as a natural diabetes treatment, taking 3 small tablespoons daily for 4 to 5 months.  See the book "MicMac Medicines- Remedies and Recollections" by Laurie Lacey for more info on natural herbal plants and their uses found indigenous to the NorthEast region.  A large mound along the banks of the brook-    

All of these mounds were part of the same area of a larger site.  

Sherborn MA. Sites Pt 3- Standing Stones Pt B, Propped Boulder Arrangement, Stone Idol On Altar In Wall

Sherborn MA. Sites Pt 3- Standing Stones Pt B, Propped Boulder Arrangement, Stone Idol On Altar In Wall

There is alot of neat stoneworks to be seen at this site.  Aside from the Standing Stones, some of the features (such as altar stones with idols on them) in this post I will be getting into don't seem to be as researched, addressed or even acknowledged as other features researched such as chambers, cairns, etc. 

One of the more beautiful Standing Stones I have seen in this area located on what was once a sacred hillside to Native people.  To the un-trained eye most people might assume this erected stone to be colonial in origin, without looking too carefully or a proper knowledge base.  As we will see, this is part of an entire alignment of Standing Stones on this sacred hillside.  This stone was worked out using stone tools.  Standing Stone 1; View A- 

View B-

View C, featuring a notch mark made by stone tools-

Below is the stone row running the length of the hillside that the Standing Stones are aligned with.  Below the hill is a flat plain and a pond, no doubt settled by Native people for thousands of years.  For more "conventional" style artifacts the Sherborn Historical Society, like all the towns in this area, have an assortment of stone tools and projectile points found in this town.  The stone row-

Standing Stone 2 (propped boulder) in alignment with the Stone Row and Standing Stone 1-

Standing Stone 3, also in alignment with the stone row.  Nice notching on this one-

View B of Standing Stone 3-

Standing Stone 4, also aligned to the stone row-

The stone row turns into a native-style stone wall capping the plateau of the hillside.  This is a pyramidal terracing technique the ancients built up around the hill.  Such examples are expansive in design and are found all over the region.  Here we can see Standing Stone #5 of this site-

Propped boulder arrangement consisting of 3 boulders, with a sun-set alignment to the horizon.  The bottom stone seems to be a large stone slab, perhaps a "seat"-  View A- 

View B.  The top right stone is a reptillian/ serpent-like profile, with a well-defined eye lid-

View C.  The top left stone is a large bird effigy looking skywards, propped up over the stone slab.  This larger boulder takes on the same shape, dimensions and workmanship of smaller bird effigies/ idols/ fetishes that are hand-sized, which are acknowledged by archaelogists in their finds.  The fact that these larger stone-works are yet to be acknowledged for what they truely are is amazing-

Built into the stone row which turns into a stone wall is this stone altar slab.  As you can see, a stone idol still perches upon this slab of stone, perhaps a bird or a snake.  Also under the stone altar slab is the idol of a small bird head (bottom left corner of altar)- notice the beak and the eye hole drilled out by stone toolmanship.  View A-

View B (the stone idol almost looks like a cobra from this angle.)-

Another interesting feature of the stone wall, before it naturally dips downwards.  There appears to be a serpent's head stacked on top of the base stone (left of pic), with an elongated anthropamorphized stone on top of the serpent's head-

Sherborn MA. Sites Pt 2- Standing Stones Pt A

Sherborn MA. Sites Pt 2- Standing Stones Pt A

This post contains 2 sites with Standing Stones both in Sherborn.  

Site 1 of this post, on a horse farm, Standing Stone A-

A and B-

B-

A again-

C (propped boulder arrangement but basically functioning as a Standing Stone)-

A, B, and C- (C is behind the fence)-

 Pic on top of a protruding knoll behind Standing Stones A and B.  One of the people who lived here was very nice and let me wander the property without bating an eyelash.  Thank you to this kind person.  My research at the Sherborn Library shows the possibility of more than one Chamber in this town (see last post), but it does not appear to be located at this farm, although this protruding knoll looked like a good candidate for such a site at first glance-     

Site 2 of this post, also in Sherborn.  A circle of Standing Stones.  The ancient origins of these Standing Stones is obvious, they have all been worked/ notched out with stone tools.  What is un-clear to me is if this is an original arrangement as such, or if a farmer collected all the Standing Stones around his property and arranged them at the edge of his property like this-

The center stone-

There appears to be a "Hooked X" above the central base of the Standing Stone.  Perhaps there is a third explanation for this circle of Standing Stones- the Knights Templar invaders (wrongfully portrayed as Vikings in the Hollywood movie Pathfinder) in pre-colonial times- 

Sherborn Sites Pt 1- Sherborn Chamber

Sherborn Sites Pt 1- Sherborn Chamber

Compared to surrounding towns in the area, the town of Sherborn I have noticed is especially rural.  More so than Holliston, Ashland, Natick, etc.  There are many large colonial estates, expansive farms and woodland in Sherborn.  While looking for stone-works in this town this spring, I have felt the same ambience that Mavor and Dix described while investigating Calender 1 & 2 Bowl in Vermont.  There seems to be many significant cairns, stone mounds, amazing standing stones and perhaps even un-documented chambers in Sherborn waiting to be explored.  I feel that I am finally penetrating through to more Sherborn sites.  The whole area behind and around Rte. 16, Maple St., Brush Hill and Western Ave. in this town seems to be holding alot of secrets.  

Below I re-present an already documented chamber in the town of Sherborn that came to my attention-

Nice dry-stone masonry, and a rhombazoid-shaped stone to the right-

It was getting dark and I didn't have my flashlight, but you should be able to see a couple of the roof slabs (lintels)-

The side of the small knoll the Chamber was worked into or perhaps the knoll is an artificial construct-