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MYSTERY HILL DEMYSTIFIED
By Wade Tarzia (Drafted in January 1986, expanded in 2002, preface written January 2007)
This draft document is not be quoted without the author's permission.
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Preface
Back in the early 1980s when I had some time on my hands, I wandered up to the tourist attraction called “America’s Stonehenge,” (formerly “Mystery Hill”) which lies in my childhood territory, and to which I had gone often as a child and teenager. The site has long been a “folk archaeology” mecca, and it certainly whetted my life-long interest in archaeology with the tourist-guide tales of preColumbian Celtic colonialism and druidic human sacrifices performed on the grooved stone “sacrificial table” that we could see right before us (probably a cider press or lye-making stone!). Unfortunately it also warped my sense of history, and it took part of my undergraduate education to get it right again.
During that post-graduate year I spent living with my father and seeking career jobs, I worked part-time as an adjunct professor in English, a fisherman’s mate aboard a “six-pack” (mired in fish guts, passenger vomit, and, when lucky enough, amidst the fearful tuna-harpoon line like the one mentioned in Moby Dick), a night watchman at a school for disturbed adolescent girls (I was supposed to stop their jilted drug dealer boyfriends and pimps from visiting; they kindly cut the phone lines on the other guy’s shift).... and as a volunteer at America’s Stonehenge in between the gaps of my varied life that year. For when I had wandered through that day, I learned that an “archaeologist” was at work on the site and would welcome help from someone with a BA in anthropology.
How exciting! The last time I had seen a “real archaeologist” at the site had been when I was around 14 years old. There ensconced in a corner of the tourist shop was a man holding 35mm slides up to the light, with megalithic diagrams on the table behind him, and in his inaccessible archaeological mystery his image had been burned into me as The Way I wanted Life to Be. Though I was now an English post-graduate, my work had continued to bring archaeology and anthropology into the study of medieval folklore. Yet I had never been field-trained in archaeology, a fearful lack to my admittedly romantic psyche -- my BA focus had been in the purely theoretical concerns of emergence of complex society in ancient Peru, and when my professor said they were now shooting at archaeologists there, I traded lost cities in the jungle for lost insights in medieval literature. Now though, I had a quick shot at my first-love-affair with “dirty” archaeology, and the right time in a liminal proto-career year
Mystery Hill -- 2
during which I dimly prophesied absorption into the banality of institutionalized life with little chance to ever lecture about Beowulf, potlatch ritual, and Iron Age archaeology.
Soon I was given an excavation square (just like that!) by the pretty young woman who sold the tickets and fried the hamburgers, and told I could get to work. I had a sketchbook, a brush, a trowel, plastic sample bags -- this was it! Perhaps I was distracted by the visits of the pretty young woman, who marveled that I could be so happy with an inch of excavated depth in 6 hours, because it took me a couple of days to wonder why I had been set out unsupervised except by the archaeologist’s assistant who finally came by -- an eccentric, friendly, unemployed middle-aged man who camped out in the attic of the tourist lodge and was proud of the archaeological certificate he had earned at SCRAP (still don’t know what that stands for) and sometimes gave me a few pointers about trowel technique (“Hold the trowel level so that you don’t shoot the artifacts off like a catapult.” Good advice).
Then, within a few days I discovered that the “archaeologist” who looked like one (khakis, short graying beard) was an adjunct English professor at another college, and was “self taught” in archaeology, and that indeed I could improve his “excavation” in many ways just from the book-learnin’ I’d had as an undergraduate (such as, keep track of what square’s dirt you are sifting -- the one actual native-ish potsherd found couldn’t be traced to the square from which it came, because they were dumping dirt in piles and sifting it later -- this is good if all you want is gold or the diamond eyes of idols). He was a worse fool than I was and a butcher of site information, and one who countenanced worser fools (at one point he let the site’s “trustees” in with shovels to dig for treasure, because they wanted to really, really find something fast!). Yet years later I saw his name as excavation director at an Irish monastic site! Draw what conclusions about Life from this as you can.
Thereafter I withdrew from “excavations” and confined myself to proposing low-impact studies such as surface scatter surveys and reasonable hypothesis testing -- by that I mean trying to teach people to avoid the improbable Celtic, Phoenician, etc. hypotheses that were fashionable and tourist worthy in favor of testing aboriginal and colonial-era hypotheses -- to stop expecting bronze axes, in other words. After all, under the stones of the “megalithic” chambers of this site nothing had ever been found but contemporary artifacts brought down by rodents such as bottle caps and colonial artifacts such as a musket ball. I allowed myself to entertain the “aboriginal hypothesis” but that had also faded by the end of 1986.
But what I had not recognized in micro-managing this social movement was that, uh, it was indeed a social movement, which cannot be managed. I was trying to resist a culture (or “microculture”), and a focus
Mystery Hill -- 3
on archaeology was predisposing me to think archaeologically about weak archaeological theories -- this was not as useful or interesting as the study of the social movement itself. It took an archaeologist, Prof. Dena F. Dincauze, with whom I had had a couple o courses as an undergraduate, to gently persuade me a few years later that this was the better tack, to remind me that my folklore specialization was just the approach to use.
In any event, over the course of that year at the site, I found my efforts were quite unwelcome. The man who owned the site, Robert Stone, treated me quite fairly I must say, which is why I will mention his name here, but a few of the site employees started pressuring me to desist: “We’ve had enough negativity around here.” I was experiencing being the outsider to a solid microculture first-hand.
I retreated to Connecticut where I had found a technical writing job, continued my PhD program, and started writing this document in a truly pious last attempt to convince the Mystery Hill people to change their line of thinking. I showed it to the assistant archaeologist (the primary personality who had been involved for some years at the site) -- he didn’t like this manuscript much but spent much energy nitpicking to death in a very long letter. (Cult archaeological trivia: I was subjected to this same behavior in 1994 after I reviewed the creationist archaeology book, Forbidden Archaeology, and the author Michael Cremo wrote a very long letter back to me, which later became a chapter in a book he published about that attacks Forbidden Archaeology had suffered.) Thereafter I became too involved in a job, marriage, dissertation, and children, in that order, and I dropped this project (ca. 1986) without ever really admitting to myself that I had dropped it. I guess I still have not admitted that or I would be here posting this to a website.
This manuscript, in its flawed forever-draft form (complete with as yet unfound typos, improperly formatted citations I haven’t the energy to fix now, a few weak analogies, and clear gaps in very useful backgrounds such as epistemology), may be of some interest to students of the cult/folk-archaeology movement (aka. alternative science movement). This record may provide that insider perspective into the personal and social issues of this site not mentioned elsewhere, although for the most part I have deleted personal names where their mention might seem gossipy rather than scholarly.
I think this ms. will also be useful for people who have heard of but not yet been able to visit the Mystery Hill/America’s Stonehenge site. The site is worth visiting because of its role in the folk archaeology movement and because the site is an interesting example of the eccentricity a colonial-era farm site can seemingly take on (though the stone chambers would not seem so unusual to the farmers of that era -- in fact they were so usual as to not bear mention in history: read Cole’s "Cult Archaeology and Unscientific Method and Theory," Neudorfer’s Vermont
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Stone Chambers, and Williams’ Fantastic Archaeology for more about that).
In homage to the archaeological over-focus that started me on this project, let me add that I believe my “random number grid” method for testing/debunking the “astronomical alignments” of the stones in the stone walls was a good idea, though rather clunky in its first manifestation here. I have not scanned in the old paste-up figures to demonstrate the method, but I hope the verbal description will make clear what I had intended. As many cult archaeological sites come with these astronomical alignment claims, I offer my method to future over-focused investigators.
The site continues its tourist operations but changes with the times. During a visit in summer 2002, I saw outdoor exhibits including a reconstructed wigwam, Native American agriculture, a Maypole, and others -- what theoretical or touristical goals these were meant to cater to might bear investigation. I also saw artifacts that looked like recent “offerings” of plastic flowers and other objects placed along one of the astronomical site lines. I also wandered off the tourist trail to show my friend the mostly untrodden back of the site, where a rockshelter once gave up native sherds (shown in the tourist lodge), and where the natural defoliation of the bedrock best shows the natural origin of the slabs used to make the “standing stones” -- out there I saw a small triangular slab recently tilted up (as evidenced by the flattened ground on which it had rested) to form a new “standing stone,” probably a category of tourist vandalism or shall we call it “interactive site design”? And so it all continues. Very interesting to the anthropologist and well worth a Master’s Thesis whose topic is the generation of new anti-establishment groups.
Adjuncts to this manuscript are available on this website in the form of my in-draft or published discussions of creationism issues (which can involve folklore and archaeology) and my unpublished review of the videotape “Remembering the End of the World,” a production of E. Velikovsky’s disciple, Donald Talbot.
-- Wade Tarzia, Waterbury, CT, January 2007).
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Abstract
I review and critique alternative (or “sensational”) theories of the Mystery Hill Site in North Salem, NH. Possible builders are narrowed down to post-Columbian colonists and northeastern Native American tribes. To decide between the two most plausible builders, the paper analyzes 'standing stones' and 'astronomical alignments' that have been proposed by previous workers. These
Mystery Hill -- 5
topics lend the site most of its sensational aura, and confirming or falsifying astronomical claims is useful in deciding between the two most plausible builders. The standing stones are discussed in terms of provenance, form, and distribution. Of particular interest is the possibility that the standing stones exist in a quantity and distribution that allows researchers to 'discover' astronomical alignments while the stones themselves may have been placed in their matrix stonewalls randomly in regard to the azimuths of seasonal astronomical events. The report concludes by discussing the need for goal formulation and hypothesis testing methods.
Introduction to the Site and its Background
The Mystery Hill site in North Salem, New Hampshire (hereafter, MH;
named commercially “America’s Stonehenge”) has stimulated nearly a century of
speculation. To some, the jumble of unmortared fieldstone chambers and
"standing stones" existing amidst ordinary farm stone-walls and foundations finds
no precedent in the architectural history of New England. Amateur enthusiasts
have devised unusual hypotheses to explain the origins of the site, most posing
the theory that it was a religious site (later an astronomically aligned sacred site
such as some megalithic monuments of Europe), of medieval Irish anchoritic
monks, with later variant theories positing pagan Celtic, Bronze Age European, or
even Phoenician. Crudely scratched stones have been “translated” as Irish ogam
letters. In contrast, professional archaeologists have explained MH and other
sites like it as a relic of nineteenth century architectural adaptation (see
Cole:1982, Neudorfer:1980), and the ogam as being merely weathered and
glacially striated stones. I grew up a few miles from the site and visited it as a
child tourist, believing until early college years the alternative possibilities touted
by the site’s commercial tour-guides and “archaeologists.” When still later I
came to learn that the most-quoted “archaeologists” were most often amateurs
with nonprofessional background in archaeology, and when I finally considered
the data and theorizing about the site, I decided that the mainstream
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archaeologists still had the best theory for the site -- that it was an early American
(post Columbian) farm site, somewhat unusual but by no means without its cousin
sites in New England, also datable to the post Columbian American settlement.
For me the story might have ended there except MH has continued as a
“Mecca” for alternative archaeological theorizing of an anti-establishment kind.
The site still survives as a tourist site called “America’s Stonehenge,” and site
owners and supporters still favor an Old World cultural origin of the site that
would place European or Mediterranean colonist of the Bronze Age to Iron age as
possible builders of this “religious” complex. Presumably, such ancient overseas
colonists would have co-existed with Native Americans for some time -- some
alternative theorists would even suggest that some Native Americans words
indeed have roots in European languages. So the story did not end, for neither
myself nor this school of archaeological thought. Still, when I wrote the great
majority of this essay over 15 years ago I didn’t imagine that in January 2002 I
would be sitting on the floor of my living room eating my salad and turning on
turn on the TV to relax only to find the nationally televised The History Channel
airing a show about megalithic monuments with an emphasis on Mystery Hill.
There I saw all the site owners and enthusiasts expounding all the old theories and
the professional archaeologists counter-expounding all the (established) counter
theories.
I originally wrote this essay to think through and set down my arguments
for myself, and then to present them to my alternative archaeologist
acquaintances whom I had met in 1983. They were cool to the ideas presented; in
the summer of 1984 as I spoke about this essay as I shaped it, the site manager
suggested my ideas were no longer welcome there: “We’ve had enough negativity
around here.” I was naively disappointed, having recently gained general training
in anthropology and folklore, where I had gotten the notion that colleagues
Mystery Hill -- 7
discussed ideas, happily using evidence to reject weak ideas and develop new
ones. I was naive because I was not thinking about what I was really doing:
telling one social group (a “folk group” in the anthropologist’s terms) that its
basic theories were probably weak but that mine were stronger.
In truth, scientists are not happy at being wrong, or being told they are
wrong, and they react to bad news in varying degrees of scientific calm. Further,
scientists all come from to differing ethnic groups and economic classes and
carry their origins with them everywhere (as humans do). As well, scientists
form cliques as rapidly as any schoolyard, neighborhood, and street gang. This
being said, the potential conflicts between mainstream scientists (those with
professional, usually institutional positions) and amateur scientists (those who
pursue some area of science --here archaeology -- outside of their training and
occupation) are increased because these two large groups carry an additional
potential for conflict -- the classifications of mainstream vs. amateur, enough to
define an ideological border between two groups that sometimes overshadow the
usual reasons groups of humans form opposing cliques.
The reasons and consequences for such a division I leave to others who have
deeply studied the profession (see XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX for the
basic discussions [Note 1/07: I probably meant the scholars of epistemology,
science movements, and microcultures: to them I would add the people who have
studied folk archaeology: John R. Cole, Ken Feder, Steve Williams, and others]).
I will speak about what I know -- my experience at Mystery Hill where the
conflict between mainstream and alternative theory has been ongoing, modified,
and negotiated for many years. This is a case study that will, however,
sometimes echo the larger theoretical and epistemological issues ongoing in
today’s co-existence of science, pseudoscience, Para-science, and occult beliefs
and practices.
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First, I will review popular thinking about site origin and work toward
narrowing the possibilities point by point through anthropological archaeology
(the discussion covers basic ideas for a general archaeological audience).
Following this analysis, I focus on anomalous site features -- the so-called
“standing stones” -- and evaluate them from the standpoint of provenance, form,
and distribution -- points that would-be astro-archaeologists must consider before
making claims about purposeful astronomical alignments at MH. In summary, I
show that the mystery of Mystery Hill can be at least reduced and that, indeed,
sensational hypotheses, however much they enliven 20th century living, must be
tempered with practicality if we identify more with science than the desire to see
what would most excite us.
One final pause -- I was once disappointed to find that the “authorities”
speaking about the site were no better informed than myself; I do not wish to
perpetuate such conditions so let me explain my own context. I took a BA in
anthropology with a focus in archaeology. My archaeology training was in the
survey and theoretical kind; I did not train in the specific techniques of field
archaeology. Indeed, the moment when I swiftly doubted alternative theorizing
about the site was when I cast my eye over an excavation there (1983-84) and
found ways to improve it even with my cursory knowledge of excavation and
data-collection methods. I went on to do doctoral work with a focus on medieval
folklore (through an English department), alongside of which I continued
research into anthropological and archaeological theory (through my former
anthropology department and my own studies) because that seemed the best way
to approach medieval customs and beliefs as preserved in its folklore. Between
these studies I have maintained my interest in phenomena akin to Mystery Hill --
I am what I am partly because I grew up near the site, and it instilled in me a
romantic wonder and curiosity in all things odd, historical, and cultural (I have
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few regrets!). So in a sense I am an in-between-person -- trained in an
“establishment” sense, partly in areas that touch on archaeology, yet not an
archaeological specialist, nor a specialist in scientific epistemology. The reader
may judge my ideas with this background in mind.
Site Description and Background
Mystery Hill comprises five major features: 1) the stone walls common
throughout New England, commonly marking field boundaries and not usually by
themselves high enough to restrain livestock well, 2) somewhat abnormal stone
walls in which upright stone slabs (approximately 4 feet high and of widely
varying shape) occur sporadically, 3) several chambers constructed from small
boulders or large slabs of naturally formed stone, 4) ruins of what may have been
other walls or chambers, and 5) a house foundation dated from the nineteenth
century, and perhaps a second one slightly earlier in date. Most of the stone
chambers cluster to the north west side of the house foundation, although one
chamber exists about 240 feet downhill, east-south-east from the house. The
chambers resemble other sites like all around New England, which are usually
called root-cellars.
Historical records do not supply much information. A Seth Pattee appears
to have had a mill at the foot of the hill on Spicket River around 1769. His
grandson Jonathan is the first recorded owner of the site; he built his small house
there in 1832 (Vecelius:1). Anecdotal evidence suggests that the site was sold to
stone quarriers sometime in the latter half of the 18th century when, supposedly,
an unknown portion of the site was removed -- some people claim from 20 to 80
percent -- and used to build some of the curbstones and sewers of Lawrence,
Massachusetts. At the time of this writing I am not sure about the type and origin
Mystery Hill -- 10
of evidence for these “stone quarrying” claims. Holes drilled into some boulders
at the site suggest that quarrying tackle was anchored there.
Written speculation about MH extends at least as far back as 1907, when
Gilbert, Salem's town historian, wrote of the site, "about which the most weird
and fantastic tale might be woven" (Gilbert:1907:418). Curiosity continued
throughout the early twentieth century, evidenced by the activity of investigators
such as Goodwin (an amateur enthusiast) in 1933 and Bird and Hencken (trained
archaeologists) in 1945 (Vecelius:1955:2-3). Goodwin put forward the first of
many 'trans-Atlantic' theories by claiming medieval Irish monks built the
chambers (Goodwin:1946). He reconstructed some of the walls and chambers,
and we do not know how 'creative' his reconstructions are. Bird completed some
cursory testing and was unable to come to any conclusions about the site
(Vecelius:1955:3). Hencken, a specialist in Celtic archaeology, dismissed
Goodwin's claims; he thought the site was built in the 17th century (Vecelius:2).
Popular curiosity probably began in the late thirties, as newspapers got hold
of Goodwin's "Irish monk" theories:
The newspapers were quick to learn of Goodwin's hypotheses, and it was inevitable that the Boston press should feature stories about America's Irish discoverers...It was not to be expected that the appearance of Hencken's scholarly refutation could serve to stem the flow of incautious newspaper and magazine articles (Vecelius:3).
Gary Vecelius (a trained archaeologist) carried out field work at the site in
1954. His excavation, survey, and report have been by far the most rigorous
work completed at MH at the time of this writing (December, 1985). Vecelius
concludes that the site was a colonial-era farm, supporting his claims historically
and archaeologically (for example, he found a musket ball under stones that other
theorists claim are ‘druidic dolmens’ and the like).
Mystery Hill -- 11
Comparatively recent research at the site has involved surveys and minor
excavations by people with little anthropological or archaeological training.
Some restorative work has been done on teetering slabs and fallen walls; the
restoration that I have witnessed has been conservative -- mostly for ensuring
tourist safety (observed 1983, work by David Steward-Smith, a mason; his
restorations can be identified signed by his trademark stylistic symbol carved into
any site features he modified). Ravaging and 'souvenir collecting' has occurred at
all periods of the site. The combined effects of plundering and sincere -- but
untrained -- curiosity have resulted in a tangle of remains that is difficult to
approach archaeologically (Dincauze: personal communication, Fall 1984).
Trespassing is common, and vandalism occurs infrequently, but it is especially
prevalent during the pagan holidays when modern cultists attempt to 'revive' the
site for an evening’s duration. The current management discourages such activity
as much as possible -- which is an impossible task unless one lives at the site.
[ Note, June 2001: the commercial aspects of the site have changed over the years. The site now features simply reconstructed Native American dwellings, a small horticultural garden, and a stage area for performances; the theories offered tourists now combine both pre-Columbian transatlantic contacts as well as Native American origin -- a tendency that was just beginning when I was studying the site in 1983-1984. I am not certain to what extent, if at all, the site operators allow any modern ‘cult’ activity -- such as Wiccan -- to take place there. On one Halloween in 1983, a burned-down black candle was discovered on the grooved stone named the “sacrificial table” at the site. ]
Oral tradition supplies meager and varied information from the early part of
this century. My mother remembers MH as both "Pattee's Caves" and the "Indian
Caves" where she picnicked throughout the nineteen thirties and forties. Vecelius
indicates that one of the remaining Pattees remembers his father saying he did not
construct the chambers, but had improved them (Vecelius:1). Local memory
recalls the Pattees having orchards, and that cider pressing was done on the hill
Mystery Hill -- 12
(Ibid). Some recalled that Jonathan was a moonshiner, and a robber who had to
hide on the hill (Ibid). Similarly, Mrs. Stickney, my uncle’s mother, living
locally, in 1984 recalled the story that outlaws lived on the hill, and that a tunnel
extended from the ruins to the bottom of the hill. In this last belief we find that
MH has participated within the general bounds of folk-legend. “Tunnel” beliefs
are tradition folk motifs in European folklore; I collected several such beliefs
during 1980 fieldwork in Ireland (Tarzia, unpublished manuscript); with little
exception, ruins on hilltops generated stories of tunnels leading down from them
or across the countryside to other ruins. This motif also occurs in the folklore of
England (Balfour: 1904: 60), and it shows the similar workings of the human
mind across both time and ocean.
Schools of Thought on Mystery Hill
Like the oral accounts, written accounts of MH are varied. The lack of
detailed, consolidated, and authoritative research on the site (aside from
Vecelius's work) has formed an ideal basis for diverse speculations. As a result,
several schools of thought have crystallized around Mystery Hill. Most of these
rely upon the "trans-Atlantic migration" theory -- the idea that MH was built by
ancient pre-Columbian European or Mediterranean-area colonizers. But let us
examine each school of thought briefly. I should mention that these 'schools' are
manifest both in popular literature and in the conversations of visitors and
workers at the site with whom I had sporadic but instructive interaction over the
past two years.
The Phoenician School -- This school of thought does not have a great
following, but one finds it arising occasionally. It contends that ancient
Phoenician mariners discovered America and built MH at some point on
Mystery Hill -- 13
Phoenician history. Since the Phoenicians first pushed into the Mediterranean in
the 700s BC (Haywood:1968:106), the school must assume that MH dates after
this period and before the rise of the Assyrian Empire in the 600s BC, when the
Phoenicians came under their dominion.
The Viking School -- Archaeologists have proved that Norsemen reached
the shores of New Foundland and even set up a winter base there (Campbell and
Kidd:1980:69) [June 2001 note -- of course, much more evidence for Norse
occupation in Canada has been published since then] . Possibilities are not
stretched too far by assuming the Norsemen could have sailed further south to
New England. Since the Viking colonization began after the eighth century A.D.
(Campbell and Kidd:65), proponents of the school must date Mystery Hill after
this time.
The Celtic School -- By far the most popular school of thought concerning
Mystery Hill is the Celtic School. Popular authors (Fell:1976, Hitching:1977, for
example) have expounded the Celtic theory for years, and anyone who has visited
MH can speak of astronomical alignments "proven" to fall on ancient Celtic
holidays. The small tourist industry set up at the site has a set of paths, guide-
posts, maps, and an observing station that guide the tourist to upright slabs of
stone that point to the sky. [June 2001 note -- the commercial aspects of the site
have expanded slightly since 1985, as noted above. ] The sun can even be
photographed at the midwinter solstice, in line with the solstice stone and the
designated site center. In the popular imagination, these features point to
mystical druids, Stonehenge, and old pagan Celtic rites. The Celts arose as a
recognizable set of culture traits around 1200 BC in central Europe
(Lehman:1975:89). They spread from central Europe and reached Western
Europe by around 600 BC (Moody and Martin:1968:43, but there is debate over
exactly when Celts arrived in the British Isles, Lehman:93). If we allow for some
Mystery Hill -- 14
time for Celtic populations to establish themselves in new territory before finding
a reason to make distant sea voyages, the proposed Celtic builders must have
begun the site after 600 BC, the point of establishment of Celts in western
Europe. Of course, this date says nothing about the time needed for the inland
Celts to expand to the sea and develop a reliable maritime technology and
experience; so a date much later than 600 BC might be supposed.
The Bronze Age School -- This school can include the 'Phoenician School,'
though I specifically refer to the Bronze Age cultures of Europe who built some
of the megalithic structures there. The Bronze Age in Europe begins around 2000
BC and ends around 500 BC (see Coles and Harding:1979), and the school must
assume that MH's origin has roots between these dates.
The Neolithic School -- Neolithic cultures in Europe have produced most of
the megalithic structures there, and proponents of this school might assume that
MH extends as far back as 4000 BC, when Neolithic social patterns appear in
western Europe (see Clark:1968). The same comment applied the Celts above
apply here regarding development of reliable maritime experience.
The Aboriginal School -- A small but growing group of people rejects the
diffusionist theories and favors the idea that Native Americans built MH. There
certainly is some precedent for such behavior, since Indian sites in the south west
include some that are astronomically aligned (Cornell:1981:168). The school
must assume that the site was constructed after 1200 BC, when cultivated plants
are introduced into New England (Dincauze:1974:53) -- that is, when at least
partial sedentism and the rise of tribal life (thus increased opportunity for
corporate architectural projects) may begin to occur.
The Colonial School -- This is the school that is favored among the majority
of professional archaeologists. They hold that MH shares many traits with other
stone slab and corbelled structures of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
Mystery Hill -- 15
century in New England (see Cole: 1982, Dincauze:1983, Neudorfer:1979), and
that such structures were practical adaptations to subsistence needs of that period
(root storage, dairy storage, etc.).
Let me add that an "ancient astronaut" school also exists, but its theories are
too tenuous to consider here. The commercial owners of the site do not nor ever
seem to have subscribed to it.
Analysis of the Schools of Thought
Each of the schools outlined above must be examined in light of certain key
points of argument. I list them here:
1) cultural parameters -- A) considering the customary architecture found in a culture's archaeological record; B) considering the way different cultures regulate themselves through ritual -- that is, whether certain societies would or would not have been inclined to build megalithic monuments for ritual purposes;
2) chronology -- correlating datable events at the site with the dates of the possible founding cultures;
3) architectural form -- taking into account the architectural requirements for ritual symboling and how they are best satisfied;
4) material evidence -- taking into account the artifacts that have been recovered from MH;
5) traditional conformance and continuity -- taking into account the way in which social patterns should show geographic and temporal distribution.
Culture-Type and Mystery Hill
Now let us temporarily set aside the problem of chronology and once again
evaluate the candidate cultures; this time, the discussion will center on cultural
Mystery Hill -- 16
parameters -- the behavioral requirements of designated social types that have
been studied the world over. Anthropologists have generally agreed upon certain
designations and definitions of human societies. The simplest form is band, or
'hunter-gatherer', society (see Lee and Devore:1976, Steward:1969,
Bettinger:1980 for discussion of this social type). The second type is 'tribal'
culture (see Sanders and Webster:1978, Fried:1967, Sahlins:1968). The third is
'ranked' culture, also called 'chiefdoms' (see Renfrew: 1984:203ff, Fried:1967,
Sanders and Webster:1978 for general discussion). The last, most complex
society, one sub-type of which we belong, is 'state' society (see
Flannery:1972:403 for discussion of states -- also, Flannery supplies a summary
definition of these social types and talks about general traits of their hierarchical
organization. Beginning with band society, each social type is generally
characterized by increasing sedentism, population density, production, socio-
political complexity, and technological development.
Band Society (pre-1000 A.D. Indians in New England)
Bands of hunter-gatherer consist of small groups of 10 to 25 individuals
who usually stay no longer than a week at any base camp before local depletion
of edible wild plants and animals forces them to move to new territories -- they
grow little or no food and are not able to remain sedentary for he long periods
required for architectural pursuits. In addition, the low population density of
band society generates lower levels of social stress relative to more complex
societies, with the result that hunter-gatherers need fewer, less complex rituals of
stress reduction. That is, ritual architecture may not have been requirements for
such people.
Mystery Hill -- 17
The high degree of nomadism inherent in hunter gatherer life would not
allow them to remain in any one location long enough for extended architectural
endeavors. And if we acknowledge the recent work of archaeologists like
Renfrew (1984, 1984b), which suggests that megalithic monuments functioned to
support land-holding groups, then we must reject a hunter gatherer basis for MH
once again -- for hunter gatherers are little concerned with land rights or
ownership.
If we are to believe the oldest held date for MH, then Indians would not
have built the site. Once Indian populations grew large enough for them to
require sedentism and agriculture -- and evolve into a tribal social-system -- the
date is around 1000 AD. If AmerIndians built MH, it must have origins after this
date; yet, this goes against the popularly acknowledged dates of the site.
Tribal Society (certain spans of Bronze and Neolithic Age Societies)
Tribal societies, or largely those that may have cyclically occurred
throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Age of Europe (see Kristiansen:1982 for a
discussion of social fluctuation during the Neolithic and Bronze Age) are not
ranked in the sense that clear-cut offices for leadership exist. These societies are
egalitarian in nature -- leadership is constrained to a person's ability to offer wise
advice to the community, and no office exists to compete for, to hand over, or to
inherit (Flannery:1972:402). Also, the egalitarian nature of tribal society does not
allow too much accretion of wealth or differential access to wealth (such as land,
water rights, status symbols) that an individual could use to create subordinate
relationships and rise to power. Subsequently, many conflicts in the society can
not be regulated through powerful leaders or enforceable laws.
Mystery Hill -- 18
Instead, egalitarian cultures use community rituals which redistribute goods
and information to ensure everyone receives equal portions (Rappaport:1971:8-9).
These communal rituals also supply the social unity -- supplied in more complex
societies by a powerful, permanent leadership -- by allowing tribal members to
participate in group ritual. In effect, the community is exalted in a tribal society,
which may be evidenced in monuments that allow group burials. By contrast,
ranked societies exalt powerful individuals who may most often rest in single
graves (Renfrew:1984:181).
Among the socialization rituals of Neolithic Europe may have been the
megalithic monuments. Some of the larger monuments, such as Silbury Hill,
Stonehenge, and perhaps the passage grave complex in the Valley of the Boyne
are large enough to have probably required a higher level of social organization in
construction (Renfrew:1984:182). Other monuments, such as the smaller cairns
and other megaliths, were, however, most likely the products of "segmentary" or
unranked tribal groups (Ibid). If we are to fit MH into the European framework
for the sake of argument, its size and complexity falls into the class of
monuments made by the simpler, egalitarian cultures.
The construction of monumental architecture requires group cooperation --
which affirms group identity. After construction, rituals could be continually
held at the sites, which would serve as the focal point for a thinly scattered group
of people (Ibid:181ff). Structures such as those scattered about Rousay and the
Arrans may have allowed communal rituals as well as the opportunity to bury
people of the community as a group. Perhaps the use of grave complexes for
group burials may have served to legitimate a tribe's claim to the territory.
Perhaps megalithic monuments were the material proof for a tribe's strength,
unity, and ancient heritage -- proof of the right to inhabit the territory. The
psychology of megalithic monuments can be exemplified like this: "we have
Mystery Hill -- 19
buried our dead in the grave for many years and occupied the land for many ages
-- the monuments built by our fore-fathers, which we still hold in sacred trust, are
symbols of our rightful inheritance." The architecture also serves to continually
transmit such information in the absence of the builders, for symbolic artifacts
emit information in the absence of receivers or emitters (Wobst:1977:322).
Ranked Society (Celtic and Germanic People)
Ranked societies are agriculturally-based with populations large enough to
require regulation by a permanent leadership (Flannery:1972:403) -- the chiefs
and their small retinues of warrior/administrators, religious specialists (druids),
poets, and craftsmen. The need for a retinue and a permanent leader may reflect
the need for more powerful ways for decision making in complex societies (see
Johnson:1982:412). The maintenance of a retinue is allowed through the
production and distribution of surplus agricultural goods that can also be used to
assuage famine, or finance a warband (Sanders and Webster:1978:270-1). In a
ranked society individuals are allowed to create client/subordinate relationships,
such as those well discussed by O'Corrain (1972) in ancient Irish culture. For
example one who has accrued extra foodstuffs through luck or wise husbandry
can offer it to one who is not so wealthy, and he in turn owes the client loyalty
(for a discussion of how these "Big Man" systems may function and evolve, see
Binford: 1983: 218ff). Somewhat luckier or wiser people can offer several
people such favors -- this system of financed loyalty is the basis for a chiefdom.
Such societies regulate social conflicts through their rigid system of rank. In
other words, an individual's actions can be limited by his economic and political
standing.
Mystery Hill -- 20
Evidence indicates that many megalithic monuments found in Europe are
not the products of ranked society (Renfrew:1984:180ff). They may instead be
products of tribal society. Massive structures ascribed to ranked cultures --
Stonehenge, perhaps the Boyne complex, and Silbury Hill -- are certainly not
comparable to MH. The candidate Celtic and Germanic societies were "ranked"
societies. We must eliminate them as the site builders. Similarly, ranked society
may have arisen at some points of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, so we must
eliminate these people as well.
On the basis of these cultural parameters and their relation with material
technology, it becomes increasingly clear that, if Mystery Hill is a ritual complex
of some kind, it is highly probable that it was not built by Vikings, Celts, or
Phoenicians, which were not egalitarian societies (Phoenician society was a
highly complex state-type society with well attested technological development --
any theory that postulates a Phoenician basis for the crude chambers of MH is
unrealistic and not of primary importance). For diehard skeptics, further evidence
for this probability exists apart from archaeology. The evidence is based on the
records left behind by some of these cultures.
Textual Records of Europe
Manuscripts from the early middle ages preserve both Celtic and Germanic
folklore and provide some instructive insights into their conception of megalithic
structures. The epic Beowulf (7th century Anglo Saxon) depicts a passage grave
as a mystical place where a dragon guards its hoarded treasure. What follows is
the Old English poet's description of a passage grave (letters in parentheses are
where the manuscript has been damaged and the transliteration is weak; words in
square brackets are supplied in my translation where clarification may be required
Mystery Hill -- 21
or where inflected endings in the Old English require a preposition in English
translation):
deorcum nihtum draca ricsian[in the] dark nights [a] dragon [came] to rule
se the on hea(um) h(aeth)e hord beweotode,that which on the high heath watched a hoard
stanbeorh steapne; stig under laeg[a] high stone-barrow; [a] path lay under [it]
eldum uncuth...[to] men unknown... (Klaeber:1950, Beowulf, l. 2211A--2214A).
Later in the epic, the poet tells how the treasure hoard got in the grave; the last
survivor of a destroyed tribe vows to give the treasure of his kinfolk to the earth.
He has prepared a barrow for it:
Beorh eallgeara[the] Barrow, all-prepared,
wunode on wonge waeterythum neah,dwelled on [the] shore nigh [the] water-waves,
niwe be naesse, nearocraeftum faest;new by [the] headland, fast [with] hiding-craft,
thaer on innan baer eorlgestreonathere inside [he] bore [the] earl-treasure,
hringa hyrde hordwyrthne dael...[the] ring's guardian, [the] hoard-worthy portion...
(Klaeber:84, l. 2241B--2245B, see Raffel:1963, for translation.)
The Old Norse epic of Sigurth reflects a similar tradition, in that the
barrow/passage grave is mystical, holds treasure, and a guarding dragon (see
Terry:1969 translation, or Vigfusson and Powell:1963 for transliteration). In
general the later people of the 6th or 7th century A.D. did not build passage
graves and certainly had no idea what they had been used for -- thus imagination
filled in an otherwise missing function (see Tarzia:1986a in press, and
Mystery Hill -- 22
Creed:1986 in press, for a detailed discussion of these texts and their
archaeological context).
Tales from Old Ireland's Ulster cycle remember dolmens and standing
stones as several interesting things. The eroded remains of barrows and passage
graves, called variously "dolmens," and "cromlechs," often appear to be
suspiciously large "beds" -- of course, for a hero. This hero is always Diarmaid,
and he traveled Ireland with his mate Grainne, fleeing the jealous chief, Fion Mac
Cumhail (see The Pursuit of Diarmaid and Grainne, Cross and Slover:1936).
Dolmens all around Ireland, and some in Scotland, are called "Diarmaid and
Grainne's Bed" in folk traditions, where the couple was said to have spent a night
-- a context quite different from archaeological interpretations of their original
use. In addition standing stones are often used quite humorously in the Ulster
Cycle of Old Ireland. In the following examples we see how irreverently the Irish
Celts worked standing stones into their epics. In the first example, the enemies of
an Ulster hero, Cuchulainn, try to distract him from battle by disguising a camp
fool like a king, and sending a woman out with him as a peace offering. The hero
sees through the ruse:
...He (Cuchulainn) shot a sling stone from his hand and pierced the fool's head and knocked out his brains. Cuchulainn went up to the girl and cut off her two long tresses and thrust a pillar stone up through the fool's middle. Their two standing stones are there still, Finnabair's Pillar Stone and the Fool's Pillar Stone (Kinsella: 1969:141)
In the second example, the poet explains how a local standing stone was named.
Here the army from Connacht hear that a dread Ulster warrior is coming for
them, and they plan accordingly:
In their dread, they put Ailill's crown on top of a pillar-stone, and Cethern attacked the pillar-stone and drove his sword through it, and his fist after
Mystery Hill -- 23
the sword. This is the origin of the name Lia Toll, the Pierced Stone, in Crich Rois (Kinsella:212-3).
It is unlikely that people still using standing stones religiously would speak
of them in such mystical -- or irreverent -- ways. This is especially certain when
other practices mentioned in ancient folklore -- such as the burial rites depicted in
Beowulf -- find close parallels with archaeological recoveries of the periods
represented by the lore (see Klaeber:1950:229ff). In summary the traditional epic
oral/manuscript traditions of these peoples reflects both mystery and irreverence
attached to some megalith monuments. In the context of this essay we must note
the examples from the Old Irish texts; the stones and mounds were as 'enigmatic'
to them as they are to some 20th century people. Accordingly, a Celtic theory for
MH is weakened.
We do find some monumental structures in the above mentioned societies.
The Celts and Germans raised burial mounds, and sometimes lone standing stones
with either ogam or runic inscriptions (see Campbell and Kidd:1980:pl. 96, and
Moody and Martin:1967:pl. 21) -- although there is evidence that the Irish
inscribed runes over the standing stones of previous peoples. The Viking boat-
shaped graves are formed with standing stones, but are aligned according to
cardinal direction and not to astronomical event. And of course, both societies
sometimes constructed extensive fortifications. These monuments are all quite
different from astronomical complexes.
Chronology of the Site and Candidate Originators
The 1200 BC Date
Mystery Hill -- 24
One of the cornerstones of the 'trans-Atlantic' schools is the ca 1200 BC
radiocarbon date from a piece of charcoal claimed to have been deposited over
one of the structures; it is claimed that the structure should be dated prior to 1200
BC The charcoal appears to have been subjected to the proper analysis by the
laboratory; I do not question the age of the charcoal. However, the relationship
between the charcoal and the structure it supposedly dates should be questioned.
The existence of ancient charcoal on the site comes as no surprise. As mentioned
previously, AmerIndians have inhabited New England for millennia. No doubt
MH was as good as other hills for occasional cooking. Or the charcoal could be a
remnant of natural burn-off.
As for the dating of the structure with this small charcoal sample, we should
exercise restraint. The topsoil of the hill is very thin and the bedrock is exposed
in many places. It is quite possible that this sample of charcoal -- which was
discovered apart from further concentrations or even a recognizable hearth feature
-- is an unrelated remnant of an Indian camp fire or a natural burn-off that had
simply washed along the impermeable bedrock until it came to rest against the
structure (Hinton: personal communication 1983). This argument does not
provide an air-tight case against the site's supposedly ancient date, but it does
show that logical and probable alternatives to popularly held hypotheses do exist.
For the sake of further discussion, let us now assume that the charcoal
sample has been dated correctly, and that it does indeed date the structure it was
found against. This 1200 BC date excludes several of the candidate cultures
claimed to have built MH. Of course, it excludes post-Columbian colonials.
Further, 1200 BC is rather too early to include the Phoenicians as the builders,
and too late to include Neolithic people (unless we suppose a Neolithic settlement
lasted at MH for 3000 years or so -- a rather heavy theory to maintain). Likewise,
this date excludes the Celtic culture, with its diffusion to western Europe around
Mystery Hill -- 25
600 BC, and the Viking culture (and sea-worthy Norse ships) with its roots in the
fifth century A.D. (thus we must call into question all alignments claimed to
indicate the Celtic holidays Lugnasad, Samain, Imbolc, etc.). This leaves Bronze
and Neolithic age cultures and Amerindian culture as possible candidates. Of
course, Bronze and Neolithic Age seafaring technology has not been
demonstrated as sophisticated enough for trans-Atlantic crossings. Let us assume
that the technology was available so that this paper may proceed to other
discussions.
We have eliminated four candidate cultures by reason of a radiocarbon date
-- one whose applicability to the chronology of MH is in question but has been
assumed for the sake of argument. The remaining cultures are within the date
range specified by the site, assuming for Bronze and Neolithic Age Europeans a
well developed, sea-faring technology. What is left to decide is whether these
cultures were of a nature that could build and would benefit from an
astronomically-aligned, megalithic construction.
The 1200 BC Date not Considered
If we reject the 1200 BC date as undiagnostic of the structure it was found
against, then we are left with the post-Columbian colonial chronology first
expounded by Hencken, since we are left with mostly colonial artifacts to date the
site, as well as a few late, woodland period Indian potsherds found away from
the main site.
Technological Level of the Site and Candidate Originators
Mystery Hill -- 26
The discussions above support the idea that only Neolithic or bronze age
Europeans could have built the Mystery Hill structures if we are looking only for
a European origin. This presupposes that these people had the technical means to
cross the Atlantic and build a megalithic site. Tim Severin has proven the sea
worthiness of leather curraghs built on the medieval Irish design (see
Severin:1978). However, his voyage was hazardous enough with many of the
modern conveniences of ocean travel, including food/water storage technology, a
safe, reliable stove (important for efficient digestion as well as morale),
navigation equipment, and modern foul weather clothing, including full-emersion
survival suits sometimes worn by the sailors to keep warm. They also decked-
over the boat with leather skins and modern tarps for sea-worthiness -- a modern
convention for which we have no medieval evidence. Even with these
advantages, the voyage of the Brendan was interrupted by stormy winter weather;
the boat was housed in Iceland, while the sailors flew home in jets to live
comfortably until the fair season came around.
I do not question the courage and ingenuity of the Brendan crew, who
certainly showed how Irish Celts might have made trans-Atlantic crossings -- but
what about consistent travel across the Atlantic? The ability of the Vikings is
unquestioned as well. Rather, I question the probability that Bronze and
Neolithic Age people -- whose sea faring technology is undemonstrated -- could
have made the consistent crossings that some authors ascribe to them, or even a
single crossing. We must also think of subsistence technology for an unknown
land. Assuming our Neolithic, etc., Lief Ericsons make a crossing, they then
arrive, probably wasted and diseased, on a foreign shore whose edible flora and
fauna are unfamiliar, whose native inhabitants are strange and possibly hostile;
then they hike inland several miles, somehow subsist in the wilds long enough to
build a megalithic site. Assuming this is all possible, we are left with a question
Mystery Hill -- 27
-- if colonization have roots ultimately in a need for new territory for either
economic or ideological purposes, why would our ancient Europeans have
crossed the ocean? For example, Ireland in the second millennium BC was yet
heavily forested (Evans:1957:14), and therefore uninhabited by large settlements.
Why was not territory like this first exploited, rather than in investing time in
costly, high-risk, trans-Atlantic migration? Proponents of the trans-Atlantic
schools have not dealt seriously with this question.
Conformity of Alleged Model Sites and Mystery Hill
I have been plagued by a difficult question concerning 'appearance.' Why
would trans-Atlantic colonizers, who have participated in a long-standing cultural
tradition (including megalith construction), build a megalithic site that really has
no precedent in European tradition? I speak, of course, about the layout of the
MH site.
Visitors to the site sometimes remark on the chambers -- they 'look' like
megalithic chambers and therefore must be related to European megalithic
chambers. It should not be surprising that the chambers at MH resemble in
construction the chambers of many European sites -- there are only so many ways
in which to build a stone chamber from slabs (Dincauze:1983:10). The chambers
are built of large slabs, true, but when one finds a hill where natural slabs peel
from the bedrock, the best choice is to use them as the efficient building blocks
that they are. This concern of 'architectural familiarity' is not a practical approach
to the site. I think the interesting thing about Mystery Hill is that it does not look
like a European or American astronomical site.
Astronomically aligned sites in Europe, such as Stonehenge and Callanish,
are laid out in geometric patterns. Stonehenge and Callanish exhibit circles and
Mystery Hill -- 28
straight lines defined by well placed standing stones. Mystery Hill shows no such
arrangement; it is a jumble of stones where the 'diagnostic' standing stones are not
arranged around a symmetrical circumference or perimeter. Instead, stone walls
crisscross and outline the site, and the proposed astro markers seem to be
recruited whenever their position satisfies a researcher's need for a marker near
that position. In addition, if one is to align stones with astronomical events at
MH, such as solstice sun risings and settings, one must continually shift position
around the site, and stand, squat, or stretch on the toes to somehow align the sun
with the stone (assuming you are standing on the backsight line (see Figure 1 as
an example). Finally, to locate some site center from which the very alignments
must find their existence, the site operators had to propose an unusual double-
center arrangement -- one site center ten feet north of the other, with the
alignments divided asymmetrically between the two. It is difficult to understand
why our colonizers, who have the skill to make a great sea voyage and survive a
new land with close to no possessions or applicable subsistence technology,
would then cap the voyage off with a structure that bore little similarity to their
traditional ritual architecture -- and one that did not follow a logical design.
Finally, Spicket Hill, only a few miles from Mystery Hill, offers a better vantage
point from which to view an unobstructed horizon were our travelers concerned
with making an astronomical observation site. By 1985 the top of this hill was
still wooded; no one has discovered a “temple” site there I know of; I have
wandered the hill top myself and found nothing unusual.
A close examination of the MH site and its context in the European
megalithic tradition does not support the 'trans-Atlantic' school of thought. There
is a small circle of people who recognize this and favor the 'Aboriginal'
hypothesis. This hypothesis states that Northeastern American Indians
constructed the MH site for ritual purposes, and that this practice may be either an
Mystery Hill -- 29
extension of general Amerindian ritualistic, astronomically aligned constructions
or an independent, northeastern Amerindian development.
The layout of MH should also be considered in the 'Aboriginal' hypothesis.
Though North American Indians did not build astronomically aligned sites in the
form of European sites, archaeologists have identified some regularly laid out
sites, such as the 'medicine wheels' of the south west Cornell:1981:168ff). Even
these simple structures evidence a symmetry and design that has no relation to
MH. It may be that MH is as poorly planned for Indian rituals as it is for those
of the ancient Europeans.
The Material Evidence of the Originators
Once again, let us set aside the above discussions and evaluate our candidate
cultures against the point of 'material evidence.' As archaeological investigators
we must ask our selves this question: what are the consequences, in terms of
artifactual remains, of claiming Celtic, Viking, Phoenician, etc., origins for MH?
No doubt, if the builders stayed long enough to build and use the site, certain
kinds and quantities of remains should be evident.
Take, for example, pottery sherds. Pre-industrial cultures produce large
quantities of pottery for storage, cooking, and display. A ceramic pot is a fragile
object, and even when it is not broken, absorption of cooking oils necessitates its
frequent replacement. But if a pot is a fragile artifact, once it has been broken its
fragments are relatively indestructible and tend to accumulate rapidly near a site.
Secondly, we should expect to find broken or lost tools, personal ornaments,
and perhaps ritual ornaments at a site that has taken time to build. What of
funerary remains? Most societies generate corpses, and in complex societies
Mystery Hill -- 30
(Phoenician, Celtic, Viking, for instance), these corpses are ritually interred and
marked off.
All arguments contrary to a transatlantic or ritual basis for MH would be
easily falsified if sound material evidence existed. But no matter how hard we
look, there are no bronze axes, Celtic torcs, or even shreds of ancient pottery that
surely would have accompanied any lengthy occupation of Indians or ancient
Europeans. If such have been found at the site, the evidence has not been
described and analyzed professionally.
Of course, we may say that these people did not live at the site, just carried
out ritual there, and they may not have buried their dead there. These are valid
claims, although megalithic monuments in Europe are often associated with some
form of ritual interment -- for those who compare MH with European
monuments. And I am surprised that, if a sizable settlement once existed near the
site, a few artifacts have not surfaced over the years, or references to them.
Certainly Indian artifacts find their way into private collections; often they find
their way to flea markets like the beautifully chipped, obsidian lance heads I once
saw at a Pennsylvania market. If New England was host to a thriving, pre-
Columbian, trans-Atlantic population, which some authors appear to claim, then
private and public collections of their diagnostic artifacts are interestingly absent.
Alleged Textual Artifacts at the Site
Textual artifacts are related to material artifacts. Perhaps the most
sensationalized aspects of New England's 'enigmatic' ruins are claims that Celtic
'ogam' inscriptions have been found. Former marine biologist and self-
proclaimed ‘epigraphic’ expert Barry Fell has ‘translated’ some of these
inscriptions and claims they refer to personal names and gods. Let us examine
Mystery Hill -- 31
the 1) media, 2) graphemes, and 3) content of the texts and compare them against
European inscriptions.
[Note: June 2001 -- the late Celticist, Professor Brendan O’Hehir, has extensively critiqued Fell’s work in an unpublished manuscript (possibly dated between 1989 and 1991), “Barry Fell’s West Virginia Fraud.” Hopefully this valuable study will become publicly accessible. but after the author’s death in 1991, the manuscript has ‘fallen between the cracks’. In 1995 I contacted the author’s close colleagues to make them aware of the ms. (I sent them a copy), but I am unaware of any effort to publish the work. By chance I found his son’s address in June 2001 and also mailed him a copy of the study with the hope he might see the ms. to print. ]
Ogam Graphemes
As shown in Figure 2, the ogam consonant graphemes were generally
formed of linear components, probably for ease of chiseling. The vowels were
represented by either pecked out 'dots' or short bars carved along a centerline.
Ogam was normally carved on the edges of squared stone pillars, with the sharp
edges serving as the centerline along which the alphabet was carved. Because
erosion first affects such sharp, exposed surfaces, and because the ogam vowels
are carved on the centerline -- the corner of the pillar stone -- vowels are often
blurred in surviving ogam stones (Lehman:1975:116). One will note that the
ogam letters were named after various trees, perhaps as a way of mneumonicizing
the alphabet.
Ogam Inscription Contents
Ogam inscriptions in Europe are mostly inscriptions of ownership. Most of
them read like the following example: “Dofeti Maqqi Cattini,” or "(the stone of)
Mystery Hill -- 32
Dofet the son of Cattin" (Lehman:1975:17). As such they may serve as territorial
markers since graves are unassociated with them.
The oral/literary tradition of Ireland supplies some information as well. The
heroes in the sagas often carve ogam on a hobbling device (a hoop of wood) or on
a stick and leave them at boundary demarcators like fords (Kinsella: 1969: 263).
The animal hobble is used as a symbolic restriction of human movement. An
example follows; Queen Medb of Connacht has just come upon her warriors, who
are waiting at a ford in the river -- one of the borders of the tribe she is attacking:
"Why are you waiting here?" [says Medb]"We are waiting here because of this spancel-hoop," Fergus said.
"There is an ogam message on the peg. It says: 'Come no further unless you have a man who can make a hoop like this with one hand out of one piece. I exclude my friend Fergus.' It is clear Cuchulainn did this," said Fergus...If you ignore this challenge and pass by, the fury of the man who cut that ogam will reach you even if you are under protection, or locked in your homes" (Kinsella: 1969: 70-1).
And later in the epic, the hero performs a similar ritual:
Cuchulainn went around the armies until he reached Ath Gabla. There he cut out a tree-fork with a single stroke of his sword and stuck it in the middle of the stream, so that a chariot would have no room to pass it on either side...[the attacking army comes to the ford and]...One of their men read out the ogam on the side of the fork: that it was single man who had thrown the fork, using one hand, and that they mustn't go past until one of them -- not Fergus -- did the same, single-handed (Kinsella: 1969: 73).
We also see the ogam being used in the familiar way that it exists in the
archaeological record. A warrior has just been killed by Cuchulainn:
Cladair a fert iarum; satir a liae; scribthair a ainm n-oguim; agair a gubae (Strachan:1944:33).
His grave is dug afterward; his stone is fixed; his name is written in ogam; his lamentation is celebrated. (My translation).
Mystery Hill -- 33
Thus we can see how folklore depicts the use of ogam, both practically and
fancifully. However, both depictions of the use ogam are shown in their border-
demarcation function (see Tarzia:1984 [now 1987], for a more complete
discussion of boundary definition in Celtic society). This leads to an interesting
point undiscussed, as far as I know, by scholars. Recall that ogam script was
named after species of trees. Consider also that tradition and translation assigns a
territorial/ownership function to ogam. The historical tracts mention the use of
"trees/shrubs of various species" as being used to mark tribal borders
(O'Rian:1972). Perhaps we can tenuously relate this fact to the tree-names of the
script and to its evident function in Celtic society.
New England Ogam
The ogam carvings claimed to be of New World origin show a very vague
resemblance to traditional ogam: usually we must stretch the imagination to “see”
this ogam. Also, most cases of claimed New World ‘ogam’ is not constrained
along an upright stone pillar but rather is carved on a flat surface of a stone. For
example, Figure 3 is a reproduction of rock striations that Barry Fell claims to be
ogam*, Fell translates them as "alas--guy, son of h". Presumably, the dash
represents some missing component of the proper name 'Alas--guy'? A
transcription of this might roughly be "Alas--guy Maqq H." The word 'maqq'
might be alternatively spelled 'macc, maqq' according to the spelling system used
by the scribe, or 'mapp/mabb,' according to the form of Celtic used: P or Q-Celtic.
P-Celtic was predominantly a continental dialect or British dialect
(Lehman:1975:98). See Lehman's text for a transliteration of this example into
the original ogam. Variants are supplied since vowels are spelled differently in
old Celtic languages according to the date and other linguistic circumstances.
Mystery Hill -- 34
[ June 2001 note to replace the pasted-in hand-drawing-- from memory, the stone is flat and oblong, looks to be naturally eroded into a smooth rounded shape, is about an inch thick, 6 to 8 inches wide, and 9 to 12 inches long. The ‘ogam’ appears as dull, shallow scratches or abrasions in the flat surface, difficult to see without the white chalk or paint outlining them ].
Now let us observe Barry Fell's carving. Of course, it is difficult to know
from which end the carving is meant to read since it does not come from an
upright stone. If the carving was very regular, we might divine the bottom of the
carving by noting the form of the characters (much like we would know how to
position words carved in modern English characters). However, the rough form
of the characters makes this difficult. Moreover, the graphemes themselves do
not differentiate very well between what might be shorter vowel symbols and the
longer consonant symbols. Using the ogam guide provided above, and assuming
Mystery Hill -- 35
the 'bottom' of the carving is at the two longest components, we can transliterate
to the following phonemes -- and to be fair to the possibilities, I will provide
several possible permutations that the roughness of the graphemes necessitates
(see Figure 4 for ogam transliteration):
Perspective 1: long notches assumed to be bottom
1) g h a b h --- 2) g h m b h --- 3) g h h a b h --- 4) m m h m b h
Perspective 2: long notches assumed to be top:
1) b h a b d --- 2) b h m b h h --- 3) b h a b g --- 4) b h a b h h --- 5) b h m b g
As shown, the attempt to translate Fell's ogam text results in a confusing
conglomeration of phonemes. Perspective 1:2, g h m b h, or grouping them, gh
mb h, does result in a butchered, near unintelligible rendition of perhaps "Guy
son of H" -- if we attempt to transliterate without vowels and if we group the
graphemes together conveniently. We must also ignore the two scratches off to
the side of the carving, since they are not constrained to a centerline. Note that
Celtic ogam does not usually omit vowels except where weathering has eroded
the corner of the pillar stone. Even this version results only if we stretch to the
breaking point our transliteration of the striations.
In this case I think we have glacial striations or other natural features of
erosion or fracturing. We might search through the forest and translate many
boulders, all the time stretching our definition of what ogam might look like until
we have discovered a Celtic Declaration of Independence strewn across New
England. More seriously, if the above ogam carving is similar to its fellows in
other collections and publications, then we need not make the possibility of New
England ogam a primary concern.
Mystery Hill -- 36
Indian Artifacts
Aside from artifacts of Europe, we might expect to find aboriginal evidence
at MH. The few Indian artifacts found at the site -- a woodland style pot, a
possible few fragments of stone tools (nothing diagnostic) -- cannot argue for a
strong Indian occupation. The existence of Indian artifacts on the site comes as
no surprise, since Indians have lived in the Eastern Hemisphere for possibly as
long as 20,000 years (see Adovasio and Carlisle:1984, and Adovasio, et al:1983).
Colonial-Era Artifacts
It is also not surprising to find a profusion of colonial-era artifacts at MH
that attest to the origins of at least the chambers and walls of the site. And oddly
enough, the most obvious explanation for these components of MH is the least
expounded. Gary Vecelius's archaeological report on MH (1955) is not often
quoted by those who support a trans-Atlantic theory of the site -- though the fact
that he once did good, detailed work at the site is a fact often brought up by these
same people. This is understandable, since the attention invested in the site by
this professional archaeologist tends to legitimize its importance. However, much
argument would be saved if close attention was invested into his site report. I
speak in particular of Vecelius's important findings in conjunction with the odd
"Y" cavern:
...as we took up the rocks, one by one, a considerable number of artifacts were found in situ (Fig. 7; Plate IV, C [author's note: not supplied in this report]). In our opinion, these artifacts, by virtue of their position within the wall, constitute incontrovertible evidence of its age, and, in view of the fact that the wall itself seems to form an integral part of the Cavern as a
Mystery Hill -- 37
whole, we feel that they date the entire structure. These objects -- brick fragments, potsherds, nails, and chunks of a plaster-like substance -- can in every case be matched with other specimens from Pattee's cellar. There can be no question but that they date from the early nineteenth or very late eighteenth century (Vecelius:30).
More recently, I was present during the summer of 1984 when some minor
restorative work was being done to one of the chambers. Since several large
stones had to be put back into place, it was agreed that the work allowed a rare
chance to sift the fill behind the careening wall for artifacts that might have fallen
there during the construction of the site. This proceeded with open expectations
-- and produced a small array of colonial-period sherds and a more modern
bottlecap! This minor work only confirms Vecelius's findings. So too do the
large number of colonial-to-recent artifacts that were surface-scatters and still
remain largely unstudied in the site’s storage boxes and on the ground.
Material and Historical Evidence from Other Sites
John R. Cole, of the 1980 University of Massachusetts Archaeological field
school, conducted a survey of stone chambers in Massachusetts. He reports:
No evidence was found to suggest that [Massachusetts megalithic] structures preceded historic settlement. The popular assertion that they are stylistically similar to pre-Columbian Old World structures may be true, but they are also stylistically and technologically similar to unquestioned 19th century constructions which employed mortarless masonry, slab and cobble raw materials, and corbelled vaults in foundations, mill works, pounds, drains, canals, and bridges (Cole:1982:53).
Giovanna Neudorfer of Vermont's State Historical Society conducted a
detailed, three-year study of similar sites in Vermont. In her book, Vermont
Stone Chambers, she states "[The] stone chambers in Vermont are a local
response to local environmental conditions (Neudorfer:1979:61)." This
Mystery Hill -- 38
conclusion is in keeping with Cole's findings, which see the Massachusetts
chambers as "artifacts of a short-lived adaptational experiment...their technology
did not persist, and one must conclude that these stone chambers represent a
truncated adaptive style, technology and lifeway" (Cole:54). This lifeway may
have been the "regional expression of the root crop revolution of the later
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries" (Dincauze:1983:5). The chambers
could well serve as temperature regulated storage cells for such vegetables (Ibid).
Clearly, the material evidence from these sites suggests nothing to support a
sensational origin. Yet "every archaeologist who has worked on American
'Megalith' claims has probably been accused of perfidy at one time or another,
when results turned out not to support exotic claims" (Cole:38). Such an
approach to science would not benefit Mystery Hill.
Summary of the Chronological and Artifactual Evidence
All of the cultures can be eliminated as candidates if we make use of the
1200 BC date and if we insist MH is a ritual site. For the purposes of argument I
included the 1200 BC radiocarbon date as a factor -- mainly to show that this
date, upon which many enthusiasts hang their arguments, invalidates some of the
cultures they like to claim as MH builders. Without this factor -- and I think we
may safely eliminate the charcoal sample as being important -- we are left with
aboriginal culture and post-Columbian culture (post-Columbian colonial culture
must be eliminated if we still insist MH is ritualistic). These are the only cultures
that cannot be entirely eliminated on the basis of social structure or artifactual
remains. And the Indian connection is itself tenuous.
In closing, the work of Vecelius and of others working within a modern
anthropological framework do not support the idea that the main site (the
Mystery Hill -- 39
chambers) are of an unusual origin or explainable through sensational hypotheses
such as Druidic or Phoenician involvement. True, they are anomalous in regard
to the run-of-the-mill colonial and post-colonial architecture of New England --
and the chambers continue to remain as potent reminders of the range of
individual behavior in the archaeological record and its affect on broad
archaeological interpretations. Thus the owners are correct -- even obliged -- to
continue to present the site to the public as a noteworthy feature of New
England's historical culture-scape.
However, I have not discussed the most talked-about feature of the site --
the so-called 'standing stones.' The parameters of this analysis still apply to them;
in other words a European, Old World, or 'ancient astronaut' basis for the
standing stones is not supportable at this time. But we are still left with colonials
and Indians as the likely builders for these seemingly odd features. The
remainder of this paper will focus on these two possibilities. I begin by asking
whether the standing stones mean anything at all.
The Problem of the Standing Stones
It is the burden of anyone who supports a ritual basis for MH to prove that
the standing stones are not features which, among the other stones of the walls,
meant to keep in the sheep rather than keeping out evil spirits! If the site was
configured along the lines of proven astronomical monuments, such as
Stonehenge, Callanish, etc., I would not need to say this. Such sites immediately
strike one's eye -- they are not functional habitation or subsistence features, yet
their builders expended inordinate amounts of energy to set them up impressively.
They were constructed to be evident astronomical and ritualistic markers.
Mystery Hill -- 40
Mystery Hill, on the other hand, has stimulated so much controversy that it
is evident that it is not evidently anything! Perhaps this controversy would have
been less had the site's stones been larger and more regular, not low and irregular,
and if they had been part of precise site geometries, not uneven ones. The fact is,
most ritual sites bear marks of evident rituality. Size, method of construction,
geometry, and decoration are some of the markers of rituality; serious researchers
must ask themselves why MH shares in few of these definitions. The following
sections of this report examines each of these factors.
The Form of the Standing Stones
A study of the form of the standing stones addresses one of the major points
cited by interested laypeople. What sets MH apart from the usual stone walls and
root cellars of New England is the degree to which large slabs are incorporated
into the constructions. It is often stoutly expounded that New England farmers
simply did not construct stone walls of this kind. The "odd" stone walls also
incorporate some slabs that, in many people's eyes, evidence purposeful shaping
by human hands.
I might devise a hypothesis to test the ritual/nonritual bases of the site by
examining the consequences of each possibility. For example: If colonial or
post-colonial farmers built Mystery Hill, then we will not find evidence of
purposeful shaping of stone slabs -- they would save time and energy by using
natural, stable slabs as uprights, and laying all others within the stone walls. I
could also state this in the reverse: If ancient Europeans or Indians built Mystery
Hill for ritual purposes, then the components of the site should evidence
regularity and symmetry to signal the rituality of the site -- thus the builders
would be inclined to choose natural slabs of close dimensions, or to fashion
Mystery Hill -- 41
natural slabs into regular components. Since it is unlikely to find regularized
natural slabs, the fabrication of slabs into site components is the most likely
consequence of rituality.
We can test either of these hypotheses by examining slabs in a natural state
and comparing them with the form of the uprights to see if the uprights are
natural or fabricated. I will discuss below how the shapes of the standing stones
come as no surprise; similarly, we may find that a farmer could have a good
reason to incorporate heavy slabs in his walls.
Availability and Form of Materials
Slabs are a naturally occurring building material at MH. The hill is like a
laminated dome. Layers of metamorphic rock exfoliate from the surface like the
layers of an onion. As a result, the builder has a quantity of large slabs with
which to build. Thus it comes as no surprise that there are dozens of slabs within
the stone walls, as well as the more familiar glacially shaped and deposited
boulders.
Given the fact that slabs are abundant natural features of the hill, we must
ask, "Are the slabs that form the cultural component of the hill in a natural or
fabricated form?" Since many of the slabs incorporated into the chambers and
stone walls are relatively square at their base-- and thus somewhat stable when set
upright -- and since many of the standing stones are 'pointy' at the top, it is
sometimes claimed that someone dressed the stones. The conclusion that is
implied is this: a farmer would not spend time shaping slabs of stone for his stone
walls, and, therefore, the constructions must have been made by other builders for
another, perhaps ritualistic, function -- the hypothesis we must test.
Mystery Hill -- 42
A survey of naturally occurring slabs that lie on the site's eastern slope
helps test the hypothesis. Here, many slabs of stone are breaking from the
bedrock and are sliding downslope, often hastened by the growth of trees whose
roots exploit the cracks and drive a wedge between slabs and bedrock. There is
general tendency for the slabs to break off from the bedrock along their long axis
(i.e., they appear to move "sideways" down slope). The fractures on the uphill
(or fresh) side tend to be thick and often "square edged" (i.e., could form a stable
base as a "standing stone"). The downhill, "leading" edges tend to be wedge-
shaped and often fractured. The fractures are often characterized by 'cupped'
depressions that mimic the concavities of small stone tools. In addition the
concavities often alternate sides along the edge of the slab, i.e., a foot or so of the
edge is slanted toward one side of the slab, and then a foot or so is slanted toward
the other side.
These characteristics arise from erosion. The leading edges of the slabs are
often thinner (and perhaps more susceptible to fracturing) because downhill
erosion has smoothed the bedrock (see Figure 5). The trailing edges are thicker
and straighter by comparison because of the relative freshness of the breaks.
Slabs that have moved a distance from their fracture points are difficult to
comment upon. Gravity and weather have shifted them from their positions, and
the relationships between their thicker, straighter sides with their fracture points
has been lost. We can assume that these slabs originated in a way similar to their
relatives, which are still in the process of breakage and downslope travel. See
Figure 6 for some diagrams of the slabs from this part of the hill.
Mystery Hill -- 43
Many slabs have about four or five sides. Notably so, many of the slabs are
elongated and often 'pointy' towards one end (see Figure 6 above). It becomes
increasingly clear that the standing stones on the site resemble the natural slabs
laying close to their provenance. The ideally square, stable bases that supposedly
characterize the standing stones are natural features. If it is found that a higher
percentage of the standing stones have stable bases, it is simply probable that the
builder of the walls selected the stablest natural slabs in the vicinity of his
construction.
The features noted above are notable only because similar features at the
site are sometimes cited as the work of human hands. All such features result
probably from the unequal structural characteristics that arise from erosional
variations. Even a cursory observation of the natural slabs shows similar features
already in existence or in the process of appearing; the possibility of purposeful
shaping by humans is not likely.
We may also examine ritual/nonritual possibilities by noting the unequal
forms of the standing stones. Some of them, the "February 1 sun set stone," for
example, are barely tall enough to form a recognizable astronomical marker.
Others, such as the "winter solstice stone," are ideal markers because they are
“pointier” at the top and stand out better from the fieldstone walls. If the builders
Mystery Hill -- 44
were concerned with astronomical alignments, why did they not select/fabricate
equally impressive and functional markers for their rituals?
The slabs incorporated into the stone walls offer additional evidence. One
may hear that New England farmers did not use slabs within their stone walls.
The fact that MH offers somewhat divergent building material -- natural slabs --
is often not considered in these claims. Also never considered is the form of the
slabs that are laid horizontally -- a great many -- in the walls. I performed a
simple survey of one wall on the site.
Approximately 50 percent of the large, horizontal slabs (the sample
included only those of a minimum 4 inch thickness and 3 foot length) in the walls
were characterized by "sharp" edges -- edges that could not possibly have offered
a stable base, even if propped upon other stones. The remaining horizontal stones
have either one significant side with a 90 plus/minus degree base (optimally
stable) or a base with a roughly 70 degree angle -- one which I considered stable
when matched with a slope in the ground or when propped upon "filler" stones.
If one does not include the latter type within the "stable" definition, then, at a
conservative estimate, only thirty percent or less of the horizontal slabs can form
a stable, upright component of a stone wall.
We are left with the conclusion that the builder of the walls selected the
stablest slabs for upright placement. Slabs of doubtful stability were laid
horizontally, and when the walls headed down slope, the slabs were cambered
horizontally, relative to the slope, to prevent slippage. Thus the slabs were used
quite sensibly, and, quite to the contrary of popular belief, a farmer may well
have chosen to set upright slabs in his wall -- to save himself time and energy by
using one large slab to take the place of many small boulders. A large, stable slab
may offer enhanced stability throughout seasonal temperature changes. As
anyone knows who has skinned an ankle while walking on stone walls, the
Mystery Hill -- 45
boulders are often precariously balanced. Frost heaves can and do tumble
portions of a stone wall -- an event common enough for Robert Frost to
immortalize in a poem. Using a stable slab in place of many small boulders is
simply capitalizing on simplifying a construction, which makes it more reliable.
Perhaps it is surprising that more slabs were not given the chance of having
a squared-off edge or that uniformity among the standing stones was not
maintained, since the slabs actually modify quite readily with the aid of a 40 or so
pound boulder thrown from overhead. Yet, this is not evident at the site. In fact,
the slab forming a wall for the "chamber of the lost souls" (not my designation)
has an uneven edge made more stable with small "filler" stones. One might
expect that this component, which supports a quite heavy roof slab, would have
been treated with more care if the builders had tended to fashion the stones -- but
evidently the time and energy involved in such shaping was not considered
useful. The builders of the site have saved time and energy whenever possible --
this fact extends to the use of reasonably stable, natural building materials that are
peculiar to Mystery Hill.
For proponents of Mystery Hill's possible ritual function, the 'least energy
investment' hypothesis is important. The relative ease with which slab material
can be found and processed at MH is at odds with the site's generally random lay
out. The extra time and energy expenditure required to 1) lay out the site
symmetrically and 2) choose or fabricate equally impressive/
symmetrical/functional standing stones would not have been extraordinary. If
ancient Indians or Europeans built the site, they sacrificed a feasible site-
symmetry that characterizes astronomical sites the world over; a ritual basis for
MH is not supported.
In closing this section, some mention must be made of a 'quarry site' that
researchers have examined away from the main site. A large slab rests upon a
Mystery Hill -- 46
smaller stone, presumably for the purpose of making the shaping of the stone
easier (Stewart-Smith:1982:2). At first glance this feature does look conspicuous,
especially since several flakes lay before and under the slab as if thy had been
knocked off. However, a tree appears to have sent its root to lever the stone
upward, and the appearance of purposeful lifting upon the base stone may be a
deceptive one. In addition the edge-wear of the slab appears to be natural, i.e., it
is far too sharp, as if the 'quarriers' were fashioning a stone knife ten feet long!
My experience with slab-bashing makes me uneasy -- modification of slabs with a
heavy 'throwing hammer' proposed by the quarry site researcher does not tend to
produce such a uniform, sharp edge. My assessment is that this 'quarry site' is a
‘trick’ by nature on sincerely curious humans. Other quarry sites are claimed to
exist at MH. I have not seen them, although descriptions make me believe these
others are simply zones where natural slabs have been pulled from exfoliating
bedrock by gravity, freeze-thaw action, and root action.
The Distribution of the Standing Stones
I have examined naturally and 'culturally' occurring slabs and have found no
evidence of purposeful modification. Now it is time to consider the larger picture
-- the distribution of individual standing stones throughout the site. As noted
earlier, the standing stones are components of rather ordinary stone walls. The
stone walls themselves delineate 1) a large area around the top of the hill, 2)
several smaller fields within the larger boundary, and 3) what appears to be a lane
or wide path across the hill top. These features are in keeping with other
stonewalls in the New England region, except for the number of slabs used.
The site is often thought of as once having been used for astronomical
rituals, stripped of the stone walls, with the lone upright slabs and chambers
Mystery Hill -- 47
remaining on a bare, grassy hilltop (a 3D model reconstruction in the tourist
lodge suggests the effect). Presumably the later colonials built the house
foundation and the stone walls. I wish to stress again two points: 1) the roads and
fields delineated at MH appear completely logical -- or at least in keeping with
other features that do not conjure any mention or ‘alternative’ theories, and 2) the
standing stones of note are components in these walls. Thus if we are to assume
that colonials built the walls between the standing stones, then we must assume
the farmer(s) delineated property by constraining themselves to lines drawn
between standing stones. The farmers were, then, very lucky fellows to have
found a hill where someone had set up standing stones that corresponded to the
field layout the farmers required for property demarcation and subsistence! It
must have saved them time to take the ancient advice and simply string
troublesome stones between the standing stones.
This picture appears ludicrous, and it does not support a ritual basis very
well. Of course, we may stretch our imaginations to devise explanations for the
apparently silly formulation -- but this is scientifically inefficient. The simplest
explanation is this: postColumbian colonials built MH from scratch. The natural
building materials -- slabs and boulders -- were moved into the stone walls. And
when the slabs were stable enough, they were used as uprights as described
above.
But there are those alignments. How do we explain them? I do so by
remaining with the simplest hypothesis and assuming the standing stones were set
there by colonials. More importantly any alignments we find do certainly exist --
but they are meaningless in regard to ritual function.
Therefore my hypothesis is this: that alignments between standing stones
and astronomical events are quite real but exist only because upright stones
roughly distributed along a north south axis -- that is, perpendicular to the ecliptic
Mystery Hill -- 48
-- will naturally align to the events and appear to define an astronomically aligned
'site.' If you chose the backsight to these upright stones, you can also “choose”
your alignments. I outline a method for testing this hypothesis below.
The Case for Random Alignments
Here I address the chance for random astronomical alignments. Previous
researchers in Britain have also been plagued by possibilities of error and random
alignments (see Hitching:1977:158, Cornell:1981:57ff), and I think this is the
most important question that can be asked about Mystery Hill. This part of my
research may dismay those who have devoted large amounts of time to the
astronomical theories of the site. But we must not use devotion and investment of
resources as an excuse to avoid a fundamental question: why does Mystery Hill
not look like an astronomical site? -- that is, why must we use our imagination to
'see' the site?
If Mystery Hill were a regularly dimensioned site of 1) standard-sized
standing stones, 2) 'filled' alignment positions, and 3) consistently distanced
features (from a center), then many scholars would be less inclined to picture the
site as a random scatter of slabs set in mundane stone walls. Instead, the site is 1)
composed of various-sized 'markers' -- a mix of slabs and boulders of various
sizes, 2) composed of some tentative alignments, some of which are not really
marked by an obvious stone (such as the 'November 1/Lunar Minor North'
alignment), and 3) composed of so-called astronomical markers that, if their
matrix stone walls were stripped from them, along with tourist trails, signs, and
the observation tower, they would appear to be an asymmetric scatter of slabs and
boulders. This is in contrast with less questionable astronomical sites whose
design is regular and purposeful relative to natural features.
Mystery Hill -- 49
The Requirements of Ritual
For perspective let us discuss aspects of human ritual behavior before
returning to the subject of the form of the site. Rituals are defined by Rappaport
(1971:62) as behavior composed of conventional moves or postures, performed at
regular intervals (calendrically, or on specific occasions), affective value, and are
non-instrumental. Rappaport sees rituals as "transducers" which transmit, among
other things, information from one cultural subsystem to another (Rappaport:61).
If a communication is to be effective, it must be distinguishable from ordinary
communication -- instrumental communication that serves practical, 'every day'
needs but not ritual needs. Thus, the more "bizarre" the ritual posturing is, the
more easily it is recognized as ritual (Rappaport:63). This aspect of ritual
communication shares fundamental requirements with information transfer in the
most basic sense as defined by the Theory of Information (see Campbell:1982).
Now let us apply this definition to monumental structures.
The "bizarreness" to which Rappaport refers is a fundamental in symbolic
behavior, of which some megalithic sites are a part. Rappaport speaks of ritual in
its human context: particularly, of its manifestation in tribal courting dances. But
ritual posturing is in effect permanently solidified in megalithic 'temples', which
are unusual, impressive features relative to natural features or instrumental
cultural features (practical structures like houses, barns, and kilns). Further, the
characteristics of other ritualistic artifacts defined by anthropologists -- status
paraphernalia -- are useful in identifying rituality in monuments. To be symbolic,
to be impressive, to function as an object of religious beliefs and rituals, an
artifact should be characterized by A) an impressive investment of time and
resources and/or B) an impressive, peculiar form (Binford:1983:228, and
Mystery Hill -- 50
Haselgrove:1982:82). Such things as headdresses made from feathers of exotic
birds, 'voodoo' masks, the Egyptian and South American pyramids, and
megalithic monuments are all symbolic artifacts and all share in one or both
aspects of the 'bizarre' definition.
Ritual Requirements and Mystery Hill
We are constrained by theory and by precedence to define a ritual
monument as one recognizable from natural features and from cultural features,
that, however, do not function directly toward supporting basic life functions
according to Rappaport's definition (a 'voodoo' mask does not directly support a
life function: it is ritualistic; a scythe, however, allows food to be efficiently
harvested to fuel the human body and is non-ritualistic). In addition a ritual
monument must be characterized by bizarreness in form and/or energy
investment. Were we to test a hypothesis stating that MH was a ritual
construction we would have to test it against the consequences of rituality defined
above -- and we would have to falsify that hypothesis, for Mystery Hill does not
readily fall into the definition.
MH does not look like a ritual site possibly because its diagnostic features,
the standing slabs, were placed in their positions randomly in relation to
important azimuths. For example, assume that the hill-top was once littered with
naturally occurring slabs; assume further that a farmer needed to clear the field as
farmers all over New England had to do. This farmer was a practical fellow -- he
didn't want to work more than he had to -- so as he cleared his fields and built his
walls from the troublesome debris, he stood many slabs upright as a way to save
himself time, as discussed earlier.
Mystery Hill -- 51
Since so many upright slabs exist, we can arrive at the site and draw
astronomical-event-lines (azimuth lines) through the slab and into the center of
the field. Thus a random scatter of slabs around the perimeter of the farmer's
property would offer curious observers the chance to 'discover' astronomical
alignments if they stood at a certain point in the field from which he could
observe the primary astro-events (sun rising and setting) over several of the tall
stones along the fields perimeter. In this case we have no obvious backsight or
observation platform where we would know where to stand to observe these
events (as at MH). Let me stress again that the observer must find that point in
the field where she can view, ideally, many or all of the primary solstice or lunar
events. A person might, if he were very lucky, accidentally discover this point
while wandering the field during the midwinter sun rise, let us say. Curiosity
piqued, he might remain at that spot until sunset and view the setting of the sun
over another stone on the other side of the field. Of course, this is unlikely.
What is more likely to happen is that the observer would become curious seeing
the odd standing stones in the stone walls, then go home, draw a map of the field,
and use a compass to calculate field alignment, then solve an alignment equation
(see Aveni:1980:120ff). Then she would find that azimuth lines drawn between
events and standing stones sometimes cross in close proximity -- and close to that
point one could view several of the astro events taking place over the stones. As
at MH, not all of the lines from all of the stones converge at a convenient central
point -- but the fact that many of them do is enough, and he is excited at having
discovered an astronomical site.
Figure 7 schematizes this possibility in a simple way. In the drawing I have
delineated a generic field site as a simple rectangle with the longest sides directed
to north and south -- an approximation of Mystery Hill. I distributed 11 points
randomly around the perimeter that represent standing stones in a stone wall
Mystery Hill -- 52
matrix. I used a computer graphics program to create 'azimuth' lines for a
hypothetical winter solstice sunset and sunrise at that latitude. The computer
duplicated these lines precisely (i.e., at precise angles) and I could move them
around the field area and line them up with the standing stones. In this simple
model there are already some random alignments between two stones: line A.
Line C and B come close to aligning. Thus it could seem to a worker who has
solstice azimuths for that latitude at hand that these stones are markers and
backsights -- when they are nothing more than random alignments.
As a better comparison to MH, assume we are made curious by these
possibilities, and since no clear 'site center' exists, we look for a point near the
center of the field where several alignments might culminate (of course, the
center of the field is a definition biased by the placement of the colonial-era
stonewalls, which may make us find a center to a 'later version' of the site). We
are also assuming that an observation platform might have been destroyed over
the years (i.e., the site’s “stone robber” argument stemming from supposed
quarrying activity). After plotting all the stones on sunset and sunrise azimuths,
we find several places where one can stand and view both events marked by
Mystery Hill -- 53
separate stones. These points are where the azimuth lines cross in the drawing.
We are faced by many site centers, certainly. To narrow down the possibilities,
we might find that point which also aligns to a standing stone in the north of the
site -- assuming that the ancients 'calibrated' their site to true north. A point
exists, labeled point C, where both solstice events can be viewed over separate
markers, and where the point also aligns to a true north stone.
In this example not all of the stones fall on convenient azimuth/site center
lines. What of these? Perhaps they are alignments that we have not yet
calculated. Perhaps they are nonaligned stones with some other mysterious ritual
function. Perhaps the farmer who owned this land took them from other aligned
positions in order to build his stone wall. ‘Of course,’ says our theorist, ‘there is
a lack of symmetry to the solstice-observation site, but so what? Colonials
certainly did not set up slabs in their walls, so this site must be ritualistic. No
doubt ancient Europeans built the site for solstice observations!’ In the end we
can rationalize site anomalies in several ways and leave ourselves the possibility
that we have 'discovered' an astronomically aligned site. I think that this situation
can arise from a random distribution of upright slabs in a stone wall.
The above example is a quick, simple demonstration. It is a scheme of what
may be happening at MH, where there are 1) many standing stones, some which
align nicely between events and an observation point that has been inferred, 2)
curious asymmetries in site layout, and 3) stones that do not align with events.
To test the 'random' possibility we must simply make the above situation simulate
more closely the scope of the MH site.
What we do when we examine MH for alignments is try to define
backsights or site centers since no material site center exists. We can discover
astronomical alignments by 1) first finding possible markers in sight of the
horizon where an astro-event would occur and 2) if the horizon does not offer a
Mystery Hill -- 54
notch or peak on the horizon as a marker, we must look 'backwards' for an
observation point or 'back sight' (see Figure 8).
Random Alignments
I oversimplified the situation outlined above in order to introduce this new
method of studying Mystery Hill. Obviously, the case for random alignments
must rest on an important factor -- the relationship between the perimeter of the
site and the number of suitable slabs that could function as astronomical markers.
The more densely packed is the area, the more of a chance exists for random
alignments to delineate a site center or to provide individual backsights. What we
must do is look at the site to decide if enough standing stones exists to provide
coincidental alignments.
We may analyze the case for random alignments best by 1) simulating the
general configuration of the site's stone walls and 2) superimposing it with a grid
system for plotting random points. The random points will be the standing stones
in the quantity that is presently existent at the site. For example, about 100 large
or standing-type stones are marked on the site map. Let us assume that these are
peculiar stones out of place in the standard New England stone-wall type and
possibly of a ritual purpose. We must then randomly plot a hundred points in a
grid composed of blank points equally spaced that correspond to the stone wall
layout -- for standing stones at MH are predominantly found in the stone walls.
The points must be numbered, and a hundred random numbers corresponding to
100 standing stones must be generated. The random numbers are then matched
with the grid points to form a MH with 'new' standing stone arrangements.
The invariable factors in this study are, of course, the azimuths of certain
astronomical events for a given epoch. Let us assume for the moment that the
Mystery Hill -- 55
azimuths calculated for MH are correct for an epoch (i.e., “1200 BC”) that has
been selected with sound archaeological reasoning. If we can draw lines through
the azimuths of the astronomical events and the standing stones, and if these lines
all culminate at some central point or if single alignments culminate at a second
marker (a platform or second standing stone), then we can justify the site as an
astronomical one.
Results of the Total Point Scatter: 100 Points
A colleague generated 100 random numbers on a computer. They are
presented in Appendix A. I chose 100 points for this first experiment because the
published site map of MH marks about 100 major slabs and boulders; I took this
number as the quantity of stones likely to have been dragged from the field and
set up as markers. Possibly these represent the best (in form and stability) of the
stones for upright placement. There is a fault in this approach, which I discuss in
the next section.
I used graph paper to set up a coordinate system and placed the random
points as shown in Figure 9. Figure 10 shows these points connected for the two
solstices, and I indicate 28 paired or tripled alignments. In other words, the
azimuths for both solstices (rise and set) passed through two or more simulated
standing stones for a total of 28 possible alignments. In several places one can
notice where the symbols of each alignment overlap -- this means that some
points that function as backsights for one alignment azimuth are also backsights
for other astronomical events. We might think of such points as possible 'site
centers.' The point that is a backsight for the most events could be the most likely
site center (but what to do with the other less likely “alignments” would remain a
problem!). If this center falls near some other site feature, such as a foundation
Mystery Hill -- 56
or slab chamber, we might be further willing to claim this point as the center of
an astronomically aligned site -- as has been done as MH. In addition, some of
these centers have standing stones due north of them or due east -- for true north
or equinox alignments. Such evidence might add further to our definition of the
center.
Though these results are interesting, the scatter field does not adequately
represent an MH-type site. For the standing stones at MH are predominantly
features of matrix stones walls; since the uprights are constrained linearly, (thus,
to a small overall area) this probably changes the chance for alignments in some
way. I used the square grid discussed below as a better model.
Figure A [note 1/2007: seems to be damaged after transferring between various
systems over the years; I believe it once was a MacDraw file] -- Simple
illustration of a random-scatter experiment. The square box symbolizes a field
defined by a stone wall. The grid marks represent the average width of “standing
stones.” The black circles are stones randomly inserted into the grid through
Mystery Hill -- 57
some random-number method. Thus the schematic represents a thought-
experiment: “What if a patch of land had a number of unusually sized stones
among all the other stones, and a farmer used both typical and unusual stones
when making the stone-wall around his property. Let us assume he inserted the
unusual stones without knowing or caring that they might or might NOT align
with astronomical events if he stood somewhere in the center of his field and
sighted over the stones. Given this situation, what is the chance that I could
“discover” by wandering the field that some point existed in the field that could
form a back sight from which one or more astronomical events could be viewed?”
If I found one point where several astronomical events could be viewed from over
the standing stones, then we might be tempted to say the stones were part of an
ritual astronomically aligned site. Or we might say that enough large stones
existed in the area that it is highly probable that we could find such points in any
field built with that kind of material, and that the alignments are a chance. Such a
possibility is enhanced when we find that some, even many, of the unusually
large stones do not seem to align with any known, culturally significant,
astronomical event. In a nutshell, this is my test for the significance of the
alignments at Mystery Hill.
Random Scatter Constrained to Simulated Walls: 65 Points
An example of the 'book keeping' grids is supplied in Figure 11. These
were computer-generated, then cut-and-pasted over the lines representing the
stone walls. This is an 'idealized model' of Mystery Hill -- a rectangular
perimeter crossed by internal 'walls' perpendicularly (see a reduced configuration
of the square grid in Figure 11). Such a grid serves as a generic site-layout and
aids a researcher in quickly finding and plotting points to test this method.
Mystery Hill -- 58
To accommodate my eyesight and my simple tools, I selected grid
increments of about 1/8 of an inch. The schematized layout of the stone walls on
which the increments are placed approximates the scale of the site: about 50 feet
to the inch. Thus my grid allows me to place a standing stone every 1/8 inch, that
is, about every 6 feet. A more precise study of this kind would use a closer
increment. However, since I am using these points for drawing backsight lines
and not as targets for simulated transit sightings, the large scale does not greatly
affect this experiment. I discuss a more precise method later in the paper.
The 'generic grid' is an attempt to conveniently simulate a site that is
defined by a stone wall perimeter and crisscrossed by internal walls. This
approximates the situation of MH, though MH is considerably more asymmetric.
I chose 65 points for this and following simulations because in several
walks around the site I could not identify more than 65 major slabs that are
standing upright in, leaning from, or fallen out of the stone wall matrix. I used
this definition for a 'standing stone': slabs 1) with at least one stable base, 2) at
least two feet wide, 3) at least three feet tall, and 4) with only their broad side
parallel with the matrix wall (maximally visible to an observer standing roughly
in the center of the site). In addition there are about 45 stones slabs that are lying
horizontally on top of the stone walls; others are buried within them. [Note
1/2007: I have digital photos I can e-mail on request] I did not consider such
stones. Former MH researchers include some large boulders as markers, and in
one instance include a boulder that is overlain by smaller stones in a wall (feature
"E5" in the 1985-current tourist map); I do not define such stones as markers no
matter how they may align. I assigned random points to the grid by using the
table of random numbers supplied in Thomas (1976:428ff, Table A.2).
Since it is difficult to plot clearly at this level of detail, I plotted each
alignment separately on the square grid. In other words, I made one plot for each
Mystery Hill -- 59
astronomical event. I correlated all the plots by overlaying each plot with a
transparent grid on which I could mark where each backsight line extended. I
completed two such plots: one in which the grid extended downward (south) from
a 'true north' standing stone (as has been done at MH), and one to the left (west)
of this area, but unmarked by a north stone for an alternate sample. I could use
this record on following grids. The result is a record of the zones where each
backsight line crossed. The incremented zones represent about 100 square feet,
or a square ten feet to a side -- which is similar to the accuracy of the MH plot in
which two observation points are defined, one falling ten feet north of the other.
Of course, this is only a small sample of the possible 'site centers' that could exist
in the middle of the grid. Thus the results are conservative.
The results (Figure 12) show that a point of 5 or 6 possible alignments
existed for one column of plots, and two 4-alignment zones also existed.
Numerous 0, 1, 2, and 3-alignment zones also existed. For the column beneath
the north standing stone there was a possibility of 7 possible alignments
(including the north stone); two 4-alignment zones exist, and numerous 0, 1, 2,
and 3-alignment zones exist (Since the medium is cumbersome, only a sample
plotting grid is provided in Appendix B; the others may be viewed upon request.
The refined random-study method outlined below is directed at improving the
reproduction of primary test results from original data sheets).
Discussion of the Random Point Model
What does it all mean? The several plots, representing various ways of
representing an astronomically aligned site, show that standing stones randomly
placed throughout a small field or throughout the walls defining a small field can
appear to define an astronomically aligned site. It means that we must be very
Mystery Hill -- 60
careful in claiming that a peculiar feature of a site represents a purposeful, ritual
arrangement. This is especially true when little other supporting evidence exists.
It would be difficult to reproduce a Stonehenge, or Callanish, or medicine wheel
arrangement by the random-point method used here. However, I have come near
to reproducing Mystery-Hill-like alignments with the random method. Certainly
this is an important point.
It is important to realize that certain weaknesses in the site's features allow
such comparisons to be made. In particular the fact that former researchers had to
rely on an awkward twin-site-center arrangement in order to find their alignments
throws doubt on the site. If the site was laid out with a central observation point,
why must we move ten feet between centers to find alignments? It seems here
that the site was made to fit the hypothesis. One hears at times that this had to be
done since the terrain did not suit all the alignments. But builders of astro-sites
usually find good terrain for their sites -- and there are other hills within a few
miles of MH that are either higher or provide a good view of the horizon.
Additionally the alignment markers for both centers appear both around the main
perimeter and in walls that cross the main site relatively close to the centers -- and
in no observable pattern. Some markers are not there, some alignments fall
amidst a small grouping of slabs, and some markers are not slabs, but are
boulders and in one case a corbelled chamber. My point is that there is little
system to this arrangement.
Astronomical sites less questionable than MH also have many stones and
can suffer from a random alignment problem. But such sites are at least
recognizable as purposeful, ritual structures because of A) their 'bizarre' and/or
systematic form and B) energy investment in relation to instrumental
constructions like fortresses, livestock enclosures, and smaller habitations. They
are recognizable as such because of an evident symmetry. Even if you had the
Mystery Hill -- 61
permission and resources to string New England-type stonewalls around and
between features in Callanish, Stonehenge, and the medicine wheels, you could
probably easily disentangle the ritual structures from the mundane ones. But this
is simply not true for Mystery Hill and other 'enigmatic' structures in New
England. The difficulty and emotion we experience in trying to prove these NE
sites to be ritual -- let alone astronomically aligned -- is a measure of how
plausible such ideas really are.
I conclude this experiment conservatively: my results do throw into question
the claimed astronomical alignments at Mystery Hill. However, my method must
be honed sharper and replicated before doubts can be seen to be proven facts.
The method needs to be more precise, more easily replicable, and closer to the
specific circumstances. In particular I would like to account for the size of the
standing stones. For example, if the stones that mark the alignments appear to be
larger than the so far unaligned stones, then the possibility for randomness in the
claimed alignments is reduced. With this refinement should come a recheck of
the claimed alignments by a professional surveyor. A new set of alignment
azimuths should also be computer-calculated to complement a survey. These are
important aspects for astronomical theories and require repeatable results and
insurance against errors by previous workers. What I have so far presented is a
method and some tentative results that demand further substantiation and support.
I discuss ways to improve accuracy below in more detail.
Improved Random Grid Analysis
[ June 2001 note -- many of the problems I note below are today solvable by advanced computer-graphics packages not available to me in 1985. ]
Mystery Hill -- 62
The goal of an improved random grid analysis is tripartite: 1) to improve the
precision of scale, 2) to facilitate replicability, and 3) to facilitate reproducibility
in report form. These points are explained below.
The current level of precision is hampered by the need to use easily visible
grids for placing the points generated from a computer or taken from a random
number table. The large grids present a confusing array of useless information
after plotting. This problem can be remedied with a percentile-based plotting
system. The percent-chance for a standing stone to occupy a given 'slot' in a
stone wall is calculated, and a series of random numbers is generated on a
computer that will correspond to a 'binary' system of standing stone generation.
For example, let us use the 65 stone arrangement. Assume a standing stone
is at least two feet wide. Assume the perimeter of MH is 4000 feet. Thus there
are 2000 'slots' in the stone wall matrix that a typical standing stone could occupy
-- assuming, of course, that we do not allow standing stones to exist directly
behind each other (within touching distance) relative to an azimuth line drawn
from the approximate center of the simulated field. If 65 stones are to be
distributed throughout a possible 2000 slots, then there is a 3.2 percent chance a
stone would be dragged to that position by a farmer (for example) and set upright
(It would be desirable to account for nonrandom processes here, such as slab
availability plotted for designated zones over the hill top. Thus wall 'A' might be
expected to have more standing stones if the adjacent area produced more natural
slabs -- perhaps because of increased erosion in that zone -- than other areas. I do
not know whether this kind of precision is possible at the site).
Summary and Conclusion
Mystery Hill -- 63
I have examined Mystery Hill and falsified several of the more sensational
of the hypotheses that have been applied toward its origin. The slab and
corbelled chambers, although peculiar, probably represent 1) the sharing of a
general 18th agricultural/architectural innovation of New England, 2) the more
localized manifestation of the latter phenomenon through the local building
materials that occur naturally at MH, and 3) finally, the individual 'flavor' of the
person or family who built the site. Secondly, recent and not so recent
investigators collected a variety of colonial-era artifacts in direct relation to the
chambers -- these results serve to date the chambers most probably to the
postColumbian colonial period even without analogies to other sites.
For those theories that rely on direct analogy to European megalithic sites, I
have reviewed the consequences of rituals in ranked and egalitarian societies; I
found that a site of Mystery Hill's configuration simply does not fit what
European societies were accustomed to producing. Thus I falsified the European
basis for MH according to cultural parameters. Furthermore, the more specific
we get in our analogies, the more we can falsify -- if we review what the Celts,
Vikings, Phoenicians, etc., had built throughout their individual histories, the
picture of MH as a temple for any of these people becomes evermore unlikely.
I left the chambers of MH as colonial artifacts -- interesting in their own
right -- and considered the as yet undated 'standing stones.' I found that they do
not appear to have been shaped by humans -- only moved by humans.
Furthermore, the roughness of their form and distribution argues for a nonritual
use for them. More importantly, a random-point analysis produces a simulated
site-map from which -- if we did not know better -- we could 'discover' an
astronomically aligned site and justify it in a way similar to the process that has
been occurring at MH. More than anything else, this analysis sheds doubt on
Mystery Hill -- 64
alignment claims for the standing stones. This doubt demands that further
evaluations of this nature be made.
In the end we are left with a site with very little sensational basis. Even if
the standing stones remain 'enigmatic,' we are still left with a far simpler
hypotheses -- such as the aboriginal hypothesis. So far the popular literature has
stressed that only ancient Europeans -- read that as ancient whitefolk -- could
have produced MH. Yet such a view ignores entirely the culturally rich, native
Indian inhabitants of this continent; thus the transatlantic views have a faint odor
of racism about them.
I suggest that the following options remain: 1) that MH is a peculiar
colonial farmstead (highly likely), or 2) the site is colonial farmstead with an
aboriginal component -- the standing stones (not too likely). And either way, a
basic research strategy should apply:
1) Research at the site should be coordinated and focused: realistic
scientific goals must be formulated, a strategy for reaching them defined, and all
efforts focused on completing and professionally publishing the results. (See
Dincauze 1984 on the problems of inadequate hypothesis testing methods in
archaeology [note to self; work in this article don’t just mention it!]).
2) Further research should continue without the aid of excavation for the
present time. Until a professionally trained archaeologist with realistic time
and/or funding studies the site, amateur excavation can only lose evidence and
continue to earn MH a poor scientific reputation. This is not to say that all
research must cease. But research may be nondestructive and still provide
valuable insights.
Focusing the Goals
Mystery Hill -- 65
During my own experience at the site I have observed a fundamental
inefficiency: 1) the lack of well-thought hypothesis testing and 2) a lack of
focused cooperation for reaching research goals.
1) As for the importance of hypothesis testing, I shall quote Hole and Heizer
(1971:17):
The central idea behind "new" archeology was that one should establish and test hypotheses and that to do so requires the explicit statement of relationships between theory and archaeological data; that is, the setting up of an appropriate research design so that the results, like those from any good experiment, give definitive answers.
2) As for a lack of cooperation toward research goals, this is a guilt that I
have shared in -- and so I am well qualified to identify it and its effects. For
example, in my zeal to demonstrate a surface-scatter survey method on a portion
of the site, I defined an unrealistic time-frame in which to complete the work, and
considered myself able to complete the work alone. The only thing I
demonstrated was that even a scatter survey demands a considerable effort.
Furthermore, I required help in the project, which was unavailable, partially
because I did not ask in time, and partially because other researchers were off
doing their own projects -- for the most part single-handed like I was.
Time spent in formulating research goals and a research design to meet
them will in the long run be extremely beneficial for the site. So far the strategy
of "we're sure this is a Bronze Age site and we must dig up a bronze axe to show
it" is too shallow to be useful -- and it alienates the scientific community. A basic
goal should be the formulation and testing of reasonable hypotheses. When a
theory requires more imagination, fact interpretation, and emotion than another
theory, it is too complex, i.e., transatlantic theories. So far the most reasonable
hypothesis is the 'colonial' one, and it is the logical starting point. With the
Mystery Hill -- 66
burden of evidence on the colonial side, it makes far better sense to define in
great detail the colonial-era presence at the site before doing other work.
Testing the colonial hypothesis first need not exclude the evaluation of other
possibilities. Indeed, if results of research turn up material evidence or
deductions that do not support a colonial basis for the site, then the hypothesis is
at least partially falsifiable, which should lead to the next most plausible
hypothesis, such as the aboriginal one. The most important point here is that
reasonable research does not exclude any possibilities for MH -- it just
approaches the question of origins from the most reasonable standpoint.
A focused effort might logically begin with studying the surface-scatters
that have accumulated over the years and are yet to be found. Reconstructing
formally where these artifacts were found, what they are, and publishing the
results can go a long way to defining the cultural presence. And performing a
surface scatter survey (as that defined in Moir:1983:15ff) does not destroy the
site, does not require a huge work force, and requires minimal financial
investment. Yet the results of a nondestructive survey can help answer many
questions.
And even nondestructive tests must be reasonable to save time and money.
In 1986 I heard of plans to perform aerial infrared photography to survey the site
features nondestructively. However, I also heard mentioned the possibility of
"finding new chambers" with the infra-red photographs. Therefore it is possible
to use otherwise fine research methods along with an old 'research' philosophy.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the employees and part-owners of Mystery Hill (now called 'America's Stonehenge') for allowing me free rein in investigating the site -- even when many of my ideas went against their own. Thanks also goes to
Mystery Hill -- 67
Professors Dena Dincauze and John W. Cole (not to be confused with John R. Cole) for supplying information about modern surface-scatter survey techniques and for answering my questions about recent work in historical archaeology. However, let me stress that formulations in this paper are solely my responsibility. [ June 2001 note -- thanks to John R. Cole (not to be confused with John W. Cole!) who from 1988 onward has taught me much about pseudoscience movements and useful ways to think about them. ]
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Mystery Hill -- 71
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Figure 1 -- Awkward sighting lines at Mystery Hill throw doubt on its astronomical purpose.
Figure 2 -- The Ogam alphabet (after Lehman:1975).
Figure 3 -- Purported New England ogam carvings translated by Barry Fell
Figure 4 -- Suggested ogam transliteration of Barry Fell's ogam text.
Figure 5 -- Downhill erosion is an ideal mechanism for making slabs.
Figure 6 -- Typical natural slabs found at Mystery Hill (off main site).
Figure 7 -- Demonstration of a random point analysis.
Figure 8 -- Typical kinds of backsights for astronomical complexes.
Mystery Hill -- 72
Figure 9 -- First Experiment: random scatter of 100 points, unconstrained.
Figure 10 -- Random 100 point scatter of 'standing stones' with sample 'azimuth' lines shows 28 paired alignments of stones.
Figure 11 -- Computer generated grid segment for random point book-keeping and the 'generic' site layout around which they were placed.
Figure 12 -- Results of the 65 point, linearly-constrained, scatter experiment shows areas of multiple alignment centers.
APPENDIX A -- Tables of Random Numbers
APPENDIX B -- PLOTS