In one spot there was a small rock outcrop joined to a larger outcrop by a deliberate pile of broken cobbles forming a wall and a continuation of the larger outcrop. The connecting wall appeared quite old, judging from the lichen and leaf deposits. On the smaller outcrop there was what at first appeared to be an iron spike sticking directly out of the rock.

When I bent down to touch the spike, it turned out to be a loose rock on top of the outcrop. It is dark brown, about six inches tall, with a square cross section - like a pyramid - and is sitting on a flat place surrounded by a light gray wash of some kind of material. This "wash" looked like ashes that had been rained on, and tasting a bit of the powder that we scraped loose, I can confirm that it had the sour "lye" taste of wood ash. Here is a close-up view:

Behind the "pyramid", just at the edge of the outcrop, is a larger flattened stone that has been abraded and partially smoothed so that the higher bumps of material are rounded and softened. It is a long way from being a polished grinding stone, but suggests that someone has done some work here.

The questions are: Who? What were they doing, why did they build a small fire about this artifact, where is the charcoal, and what burns and leaves only a residue of ashes? I assume that the pyramid was in the center of the fire, and perhaps it is brown from having been burnt. I assume that this was not too long ago; or else the ash would have been washed away. Also why didn't they simply take this little pyramid with them when they left?

I wish I knew who is doing this sort of thing and why. There are other examples of rituals going on in the woods around here, and I guess that a wide variety of people are using the woods in different ways. How much of the activity is a continuation of activities from the past and how much is some modern-day idea of "magic" is hard to guess. Kids play with fire, but where would they get something like this small pyramid? The activity, whatever it is, seems to been rather structured.

The pyramid is an interesting artifact, but obviously is something not to be disturbed, which is how we left it. I hope it will continue to sit there.