Some rocks in the woods remind you of an animal
or a face. Here is a Stone Turtle on Acton Conservation land. Rocks
with a prominent head like this are called "Turtles" because of the importance
of the turtle in Native American creation myths. This figure looks more
like a ram. It is four feet long and faces north. There is every reason
to believe Native Americans would have been sensitive to unusual rocks
like this. Many of them may be natural, but the ones pictured here have
some breakage around the "head" suggesting that nature was enhanced deliberately.
Here is another Stone Turtle from Lincoln (walk in along the
fire road across Rt. 2 from Orchard Road, take the first left, it is within
100 yards). Although these figures sretch credibility, the purpose is not
to convince but to suggest that such figures may have had a ceremonial
meaning in the past.
At Great Brook Farm in Carlisle there are supposed to be several large
stone turtles and here is a link to an interesting tobacco offering stone
in Connecticut, under the topic "Connecticut
Bear Stone" in the table of contents.
Another example from Acton, south of Nashoba:
