A Friendly Neighborhood Effigy Row
New Field Footage: Exclusive Video - Revisiting An Old Stone Row By My Childhood Home
Went back in time in a few ways this weekend, by revisiting an ancient stone row…
A few years back, in my early days of investigating New England’s ancient Indigenous stonework, I discovered I’d grown up nearby — and hung out next to as a kid — what could be a possible ancient and Indigenous Effigy Row. The chance arose to take a look at it, take photos and video, and assess the stonework. I headed over to see if there was anything special about it.
A memory then surfaced of a time what were likely stone site investigators showed up at the hang out and shooed off us kids so they could take a look at the stone row — back when it was much longer, stretching off into woods no longer there.
I wrote about this experience and the first visit in my recent book Ancient Stone Mysteries of New England — you can learn more here: https://ancientstonemysteries.com/The-Book/
When I first examined this stone row, I shared photos of this stonework with more experienced researchers, thinking it could be something and asking for their thoughts. They suggested portions of the old stone row appeared to be made up of Serpent Forms, one after another, sometimes in layers, with heads, tails, coils and more features represented in the stonework. Additionally, Effigies of other creatures, including Fish and Turtles, seemed woven into the Serpent Stonework.
Researcher Tim MacSweeney of Waking Up On Turtle Island (http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/) often photo-illustrates posted stone row photos (with permission), adding eyes and antlers to suggest the possible zoomorphic forms he finds in possible Indigenous Stone Rows.
Elements of my varied background in art, design, and masonry work, along with a strong perception of spatial relationships and vivid, trained conceptual imagination, led me even before this to find recurring design elements and non-traditional coursework in some stone rows I’d found. But I hadn’t put a bigger picture together. Tim’s illustrations on my photos of this stone row back in 2020 opened my eyes to the larger forms which appear to be present.
This is one man’s interpretation, of course. Tim doesn’t seem to insist that you see things exactly his way — rather, he insists that you see. He’s happy to show you how.
Possible Serpent Stone Row Features can often be perceived easier in video. While not 3D, video does offer at least the illusion of depth, and stone row features can sometimes stand out better when seen in the shifting perspective of a stone row walk-along footage than in 2D photos.
I’ll likely put out a written and produced video presentation on this stone row revisit relatively soon, a follow-up to the original presentation on this stone row, which you can find below. Until then, here’s some Substack-exclusive Field Footage of this Potential Serpent Effigy Stone Row:
It was educational taking in this stonework anew through a lens of perception more focused, through a few years of site visits, study, and other research experience. Here’s the original visit’s video presentation from 2020 on YouTube:
Learn more at Ancient Stone Mysteries: (https://ancientstonemysteries.com/).