By Peter Waksman, a Concord resident with a passion for prehistory, tramping through the woods, and wondering who used them before recorded history. An expanded versionof this article first appeared on The New England Antiquities Research Association Website. For more of Mr. Waksman's articles on Concord's prehistory, see our Virtual Booklet on our early history.

I was mainly exploring in Acton's Nashoba Brook Conservation Area, looking for small rock pile effigies in vicinities of springs. For now the survey has accomplished its goals. Initially I wanted to explore springs to see if I could find a third example of a female effigy which followed the same design as the ones of Concord and Carlisle (see my previous article on this subject....the Concord female effigy is pictured at right).

In a little over a month, between April and June, I explored perhaps ten springs. I found much more than I expected. Hunting out a spring in an undeveloped area, using a topo map, it almost became predictable that I would come across little rock piles. I found at least five piles that appear to be females and two nearly identical "males". Then, surprisingly, I started finding other piles that seemed to represent turtles, dragonflies, birds, and even a rabbit.

Rather than the topic becoming clear with more observation, it has become more and more complicated. It seemed clear from the start that females tend to face east and males west. This was more or less born out. But then trying to make sense of the directions faced by these other creatures was not so simple, and was probably compounded by my not having a compass with me when I found them. I was not ready to understand these other observations, nor am I clear what more is to be observed from them, and what remains at other locations. For example, I covered northern Acton as well as possible, but when I went beyond this to Stow, or say Concord, I found effigy piles there as well. So the boundaries of the region where these may be found is still not known. [There are effigy piles in the Midwest, perhaps it is only a matter of time before we find traces of the same thing everywhere between here and there.]

Since this study is a series of observations, a provisional definition for "effigy" is used to mean any rock stack with one apparently larger or more prominent rock suggesting a head. Symmetry with respect to the head is desirable, but not required.

May 7 South of Nashoba Brook. This is a very stylized bird. The head is to the left, the tail to the right, the left wing (bottom of picture) is missing - but a flat plate of rock has fallen off on this side and sits in the leaf debris below. This faces south and west. (schematic version at right)

Here is another female. This faces north. Two views below.

  

Here is a male (below left). I believe this faced south. I am not sure but remember it as facing the opposite direction from the above female. This example may even have two legs, as is easier to see if you click on the photo.

And here is a turtle (below right). Note that there is an artificial shelf with the head sitting on it. The head is triangular and has been broken with a beaked edge in front. This one does face north.

  

All in all there is a surprising degree of similarity to the rock stacks we have seen before. We can even give a version of the some of the designs.

Then I came across this one, which has all the elements of a human figure, but a bit jumbled. If this is an effigy, I take it that the head is the topmost rock in the pictire, the pedestal the bottommost. But rather than two breasts for a female or a crosspiece for a male, we have an ambiguous combination bewteen top and bottom. Note that the supporting rock underneath is shaped a bit like a hand, as with the Grassy Pond female and the "Fertility Square" female from Carlisle. This faces due East.

Here is what I see schematically, with a dotted line where I believe the ear is broken, and with a lighter line color for rocks that do not contribute to my sense of the design.

Here is a detail of the rabbits head, and a view from the other side of the rabbit. The cheeks and rabbit face are well formed. The second view, from the other side, leaves the head almost out of sight on the right end of the pile. The haunch on this side is formed by either a natural or man-made curve carved in the support rock at the lower left (shown from two sides below).

  

At the last site, the gallery of piles found June 2, the number of different piles was overwhelming. Their variety goes far beyond simple male/female figures; it even goes beyond any simple hypothesis about animal representation. We start to glimpse "effigies" which do not have a shape but celebrate a particular rock crystal, or "effigies" that might be telling a story. After this, it is time to sit back and think a little about what we have found. We can go out later and find more examples.

This study is in debt to Jic Davis for several reasons. He found the second female and this started the whole thing off. Also because of his persistent cleaning of nearby rock piles, he discovered the value of brushing off the leaves and (sometime) pulling out the roots and moss, to get a clearer picture of the rock pile. Without his sharp eyes and good sense and ideas about what we were finding, I probably would not have found most of what is here.

Photos: ©Peter Waksman
Backgrounds: Peter Waksman, Helen's Images, and Hometown Websmith.