The Physical Setting
Two rivers, the Assabet and the Subdbury, meet in Concord
to form the Concord river which flows north to meet the Merrimac in
Lowell. The town consists mostly of flat rich farmland and marsh,
broken by ridges of sand and gravel and a few bedrock hills. At the end
of the ice age, 12-15K years ago, the ice receded to the North, blocking
the northward flow of water and creating a large glacial lake which
filled all the low lying areas in Concord. This glacial Lake Framingham
is said to have reached twenty miles from Framingham to Billerica,
being three to four miles wide. At that time Concord would have been a
set of islands.
Walking in Concord you see occasional outcrops of bedrock schist and
lots of glacial till made of sand, gravel and granite cobbles. There
is no good quality material for making stone tools. So all good
material is foreign and a piece of chert or felsite is automatically
an artifact. In many places the soil is a fine silt and any rock
present is likely to have been brought there. The most common such foreign
materials, called "exotic lithics", are a fine bluish mudstone from
Cambridge, known as argillite; a fine grained black felsite with
small white crystal inclusion from Westwood; and various shades of
felsite from Quincy, Saugus, and Marblehead. Also there is a lovely
green semi-translucent stone from Sudbury called mylinite. Other fine
exotic lithics can be found from further away, including chert from
upstate New York ("Onandanga chert"), catlinite from Minnesota, and
real flint [perhaps from a muskett], and a variety of other fine
materials.
3 Soil Layers
One can occasionally view a soil profile at a construction site or
where they have dug a percolation test pit. Typically one sees
a soil profile with 1-2 feet of brown humus, 2-3 feet of yellow
sand, all lying over 8 or more feet of clay, sometimes mixed with
gravel and with sand.
There appear to be artifacts in all of these layers, making the
sequence and duration of the deposition of these soil layers an
important marker in estimating tool age. Unfortunately the soil has
usually been disturbed; and these soils' dates are unkown (?).
I believe this lowest clay level is of mud and
silt from the bottom of the glacier; and that when the glaciar receded,
it left higher ridges of sand and gravel which subsequently washed
down to cover the clay. Over this a brown soil developed. The dates of
these soil layers are critical. Also the question: did the glacier
scrape everything clean leaving an archeological blank slate ~15K years
ago? When stone tool debris comes directly out of the lowest clay
level (for example the second crude blade) either it can be denied
or one can puzzle over how it got there and when.
From Glacial Lakes to Corn Fields
Throughout Eastern Concord there is a clear topographic division
between low/wet areas and higher/dry areas. This division appears
to be an old lakeshore. Glacial lake Framingham formed at the end
of the Glacier, but after the glacier retreated still further, the land
may have rebounded from the removed weight of the ice, lifting the
northeastern end of town slightly. During a very wet period (perhaps
~7K years ago) a second lake may have formed. Even today the town is
vulnerable to flooding. The old lakeshore is at the 145 foot
topographic line on survey maps. Walking here, where the soil is
exposed, one sees crude evidence of peoples who lived here, at the edge
of the lake, or at the edge of the marsh. Lakes and marshes provide a
rich and stable food supply. Behind Maplewood Farm one finds cornfields
that reach from the lowest points to some higher areas. A stone
fishhook was found at the lowest point. Later when the lake dried, it
may have become a prarie where large animals grazed. Still later the
soil provided rich land for farming, seen in stone tools such as hoes,
spades and brush clearing tools. Thus the lake bottom and shoreline
show signs of the oldest and also the youngest pre-history. It is
quite possible to confuse between the artifacts of these two groups.
This leaves open the question of when, between these periods, the
paleo indians arrived in Concord. It is possible that they arrived
after the first lakeshore culture, but in any case they may have
arrived by boat.
Conventional Archeology
Accepted Timeline
12K---Paleo--9K-------Archaic--------2.5K--Wdl--NOW
The Old Way to Common Land
Almost all exotic lithic items visible on the surface in eastern
Concord are from east of the center on the north side of Bedford Road.
Here there are many flakes of a variety of materials and points from all
known periods. Over time this area may have remained popular because
of the nearby presence of major rivers, the large marsh of the Great
Meadows, as well as fresh water springs. The westernmost edge of this
area ends in a steep bank overlooking Cemetery Brook. This edge
contains a high concentration of lithic debris and, in particular, of
paleo and archaic points, spearthrower counter-weights and evidence of
large game hunting. These particular concentrations ask for some kind
of explanation, leading to the following story:
Long ago, when the glacial lakes had dried and filled with grass, large
grazing animals would travel from the area of the river over to the
prarie. The game trail went up Cemetery Brook and followed a break,
through and up to the field above. Hunters waiting there (spearthrowers
poised) were downwind and could strike the animals at the top of their
climb. This was the first economy of Concord. At first the hunters were
paleo indians in seasonal camps; later they were archaic indians
living in larger more established camps a half mile further north and
closer to the fresh springs. This site is a kill site. Later still,
woodland indians used pottery here (at least one small fragment was
found during an archeological survey) and they were still living
nearby when the Europeans came. The old trail was still there and
the field became common land.
On the oldest known map of Concord, the break in the bank is still
visible, labeled "Old Way to Common Land". Still later, in the 1850's,
a new road (Bedford Road) was cut through the embankment, and the field
was progressively flattened and regraded by plowing. The deep plowing
for asparagus, brought artifacts to the surface. Today you can still
see a dip in the field fifty yards north of teh cut of Bedford Road,
and can see traces of all these peoples of the past. In the most recent
history of this location, the town cemetery is expanding into the field
and the development will end any further study of the area. However
the newly cut road trench (where the access road meets the oval road)
affords a welcome chance to examine the soil profile. Here are the
usual three layers, but here the lowest level begins with two feet
of bedded gravel over more than six feet of cross-bedded sands. Layers
of the sand appear to braid together, some thin layers are rust stained,
others are black. In one place bits of charcoal poke out from about
four feet down in the cross-bedded sand; otherwise the sand apears
sterile. Other charcoal near the top
surface of the bedded gravel lies directly above. Standing back
to view the face of the dirt, one sees that the layers of
cross-bedded sand are disturbed and homogenized over the lower
charcoal and that this is the profile of a 6-8t foot deep fire pit.
In this last glimpse of information we see the old hunters taking
their kills and roasting them in deep pits.
Exotic Lithics
The exotic lithic gallery shows examples of fine stone tools from the
areas to the north of Revolution Ridge, and in particular from the
Old Way to Common Land.
Personal Archeology
Use of Local Igneous Stone, Crude Lithic Tools
It is some advantage to be in locations where there are no exotic
lithics, but to be looking very carefully. One sees broken rocks that
follow a deliberate design, and for which the designs re-occur nearby
but not elsewhere. Some rocks are unusually polished.
Eventually one gets the impression that there
are a great number of subtle traces of the past and this impression
grows with more looking. The lakeshore at the 145 foot topographical
level is such an area. In the fields around Elm Brook one finds many
crude stone tools. They are no less interesting for being made of local
rock. For example the "Crude Lithic Gallery" shows pictures of
flame-tipped points and choppers. This is a distinct style, exclusive
to this area in Concord. Other crude "blades" fall outside of any
recognized category, and so are especially interesting. Semi-lunar
knives and other two ended knives are found in the lakeshore context,
suggesting an arctic or "Laurentian" type of culture. Other stone tools
are clearly broken, so that it is worth getting to know the shape of
a discarded axe.
The woodland indians who used bows, and grew corn, did not do very good
lithic work around here. Traces of corn planting, clear enough in the
fields around Elm Brook, are nearly dissolved in even this short time.
Schist, which is not useful for projectile points, is elastic and quite
suitable for woodworking or digging tools; similarly sandstone is good for abrasion
during some stages of hide preparation. None of these materials retain
their shape when lying on the surface. The woodland indians also left grinding
stones: some for corn that have a round or oval indentation; others
for polishing axes have a ground channel. Both are common. A beautiful
example of a corn grinding stone can be seen at the doorstep to the
old yellow farmhouse on Virginia Road at Pine Hill where the old farm
was restored. There is another in the woods nearby. These are rarely
noticed. However, in spite of these obscurations,
there are still many stone artifacts to be found. For example, if you
ever try to make a basket out of natural materials you will get an
idea of just how many and how diverse stone tools would have
needed to be. To remove bark one needs one or two implements. To cut
the bark into strips requires another, to hold the strips while
weaving one might need things like clothes pins, which would be made with
yet another implement. None of these tools would look like an
arrowhead, and it is unlikely that costly exotic lithics would have
been wasted on this. A single person doing routine chores,
will leave a large amount of debris in one year. Multiply this by a
conservative estimate of the number of people and multiply this by
10K years, and you get enough debris to form hills. This debris must
still be there, consisting of items that do not look like points and
are not necessarily made of exotic materials. What do such items look
like?
On the subject of obscure stone tools, mention should also be made of
extremely small stone tools, such as necked pendants 1/3 inches
long and oval scrapers 1/2 inch long. Were there small people living
here at one time?
Possible Presence of Ceremonial/Megalithic Architecture
There is probably a great deal of ceremonial landscape enhanced by
sacred architecture in New England, but it is hard for this amateur
to be sure of any examples in Concord. As you walk through the woods,
the commonest place for a big glacial erratic is at a strategic
hillcrest (exactly opposite of where it should be in the valley).
The stone "walls" on Pine Hill near Hanscom are worth studying - as
they radiate from a single large erratic near the top, and there is
supposed to be a stone chamber in Estabrook Woods. There do seem to be
some mounds out there in the swamp off Virginia road. There are some
stone animal effigies illustrated below, and some reasonably secure
examples of Oggam. Other possible examples of ceremonial rocks,
that are common, are large erratics that have been drilled once and
left to split with frost. This seems like deliberate vandalism,
suggesting that someone wanted to get rid of such rocks.
It is also worth mentioning that the east end of Revolution ridge
gives a good view to the West, and there is a small stone ring up top.
Cermonial Architecture
Here are some suggestive scenes from Sarah Doublet Forest in nearby
Littleton Mass. This is an interesting area as it was part of the
Nashoba Indian praying village established in an attempt to control the
indians in colonial times. Indians lived here until recently (Littleton
still has many Nipmunk), and almost certainly built these
structures. Similar structures are common everywhere in Massachusetts,
but lack this pedigree and are considered colonial. In any case, these
kinds of anomalous stone structures are common, and have no
apparent "purpose". With some sensitivity they are easy to spot in the
woods.
Here is a small scene in the woods: a 1.5 foot thick layer of granite
cap rock has slidden forward and nearly off of its support. Someone
built a small wall out of small pieces of stone (a minor engineering
feat) and has symbolically rejoined the broken piece. In the background
a small slab is propped up.
Here is a typical large glacial erratic, not quite at the brow of the
hill. It is adjacent to the previous site, and lies on its side a few
feet below a flat sconce, where it might have once stood. Why are such
large rocks almost invariably near the top?
This is in the woods nothwest of the corner of Fort Pond Road and
Nagog Hill Road. The picture barely shows this: a curved berm of
cobbles, ~4-8 inches in diameter. The berm is perhaps 40 yards long.
Oggam
This is perhaps a petroglyph, perhaps oggam. The horizontal line has
a "feather brush" at the left end, and a triangular tip separated from
the right end. The cross strokes are clearly deliberate. The arrow
points at a nearby shallow stone bowl. This is from the east side
of Nagog Hill Road. [Here put second better example of oggam].
Animal Effigies
This appears to be an animal effigy with a head, mouth, forlegs and tail.
Around here these are thought to represent turtles. This one is 4
feet long by 3 feet high, and sits in the woods on Acton conservation
land. This one may be part of a larger scale stone alignment. There
is another like it closer to Rt 2, and a third in Lincoln.
There are also supposed to be larger stone turtles at Great Brook
Farm in Carlisle.
This figurelike stone is partially crystallized quartz, has a small
amount of pecking under the "arm", and is shouldered to suggest
a head and torso. The stone is polished as if from repeated handling.
This type of stone is thought by some to represent a spirit or
"manitou" stone. Perhaps it started as the standard Stark hafting
style, later interpreted as a figure, ultimaltely giving rise to
the design of some grave stones.
Speculative Timeline
[Accounts for standard chronology but also tries to include peoples
such as lakeshore "arctic" culture, the small people, the people who
left debris in the lowest clay level, and others not accounted for by
the simplistic 3-stage chronology.]
Ethics
The responsibilities of a surface collector are to discover, protect
and interpret; and to share a sense of wonder about the past. Although
the goal of protection may be in conflict with the goals of discovery
and interpretation, in practice there is a lot of construction and many
opportunities for seeing artifacts on the surface, so that the
conflict doesn't need to be resolved for the amateur. Digging should
be avoided. Even surface collecting depletes a non-renewable resource.
This is acute in Concord, and others, lucky enough to live where
there are still so many arrowheads that in a day they can collect
as many as are shown here, should show some restraint after they
have -say- 10 of the same kind of item. All collectors should make
their collections available in some way.
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