**All information in this article is taken from
America’s Stonehenge: The Mystery Hill Story by David Goudsward and Robert E. Stone, 2003 Branden Books Inc, Boston; and also from the tour guide map published at the visitor center. Unless specifically stated, I take no credit for the information and hypotheses presented here. For information on visiting America's Stonehenge,
click here.**
Introduction
An hour’s drive brought me to Salem, NH, to the prehistoric archaeological site once known as “Mystery Hill Caves." It has since been renamed “America's Stonehenge", and this is the name that intrigued me from the face of a brochure at the New Hampshire Welcome Center. The claims of an ancient, monolith-raising society building an astronomical calendar atop a granite hill ever-so-close to Boston seemed almost like a hoax. It sounded too cool to be true in this land of Dunkin Donuts and dropped R’s.
When I arrived, I learned that I wasn’t the first to suspect some post-colonial foul play in the rendering of the site. Local legend has it that Jonathan Pattee, a 19th century eccentric (who was not, in reality, all that eccentric) hauled the rocks into their current configuration alongside a team of oxen and some baffled relatives. Why? Just because; he thought it would be interesting. Why not? Who knows?
A half-century of research has released the man from reasonable suspicion, however. The site has certainly been altered by colonial and post-colonial activity, as evidenced by the artifacts left behind by 19th-century picnickers, among other things. Jonathan Pattee did build the foundation of his house on top of the stone structures, possibly using one of the caves as a root cellar. He (and, later, Goodwin) made some alterations to the stone walls. A comparison of his craftsmanship with that of the far superior original builders absolves him from the accusation of building the site.
His son, Seth Pattee, harvested some of the exposed granite from the hill in order to reduce labor and avoid the state quarry tax. In the 20th century, antiquarian dabbler William Goodwin performed some informal excavations around the Sacrificial Table, removing soil and current researchers' hope of finding out how the table originally stood. Did it stand directly on the bedrock on its legs, or did the builders bury the supports in soil? Without a soil profile, we can’t know.
Nonetheless, Goodwin is not the villain of the story. He was the first to sponsor a formal archaeological survey, hoping to shed light on his (nullified) hypothesis that medieval Irish monks had built the structures as a monastery. After a week-long survey, his hired man felt that the site was indeed very old, and highly recommended further research.
Malcolm Pearson, a fellow researcher who inherited the site from Goodwin, leased the property to an organization called the “Early Sites Foundation." The archaeologists comprising this effort somehow managed to lose track of 8000 poorly-documented artifacts. All of these were relics from post-colonial activities, leading to the shabby conclusion that the site is less than 200 years old.
Now, since 1956, American Stonehenge is managed by Robert E. Stone. Research groups come through the site to excavate, restore the stone structures, and observe how the astronomical calendar functions. Radiocarbon dating of a tree stump whose roots had grown into a stone slab confirmed that Jonathan Pattee could not have possibly built the site. Under layers of soil littered with post-colonial American artifacts, archaeologists found stone tools that would have been used for quarrying and shaping rocks. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal found around these tools reveals that someone was working around the site 3000 years ago. The accumulated soil beneath the tools continues for another 24 inches, placing the date of construction a few centuries further into the past.
Studies of the astronomical calendar suggest that it was built using Thuban, not Polaris, as the North Star. The Earth, not being a perfect sphere, wobbles on its axis, making a complete circuit every 26,000 years. This means that the star indicating due north does not remain fixed over the millenia, but rather appears to move out of alignment. Thuban was the North Star when the Egyptians built the pyramids, and so it was when the people - who? - built this site on a granite hilltop in what is now known as Salem, NH.
Site Features
Before exploring the current hypotheses about who built the site, it is worth noting the features researchers have observed about it, and how it may have appeared around the time when it was built.
There are two sections of note. The central location consists of stone buildings: walled, roofed, and with openings on one side (mostly the south, though one has openings on an east-west axis). A double-walled pathway leads to the site from the northwest and southeast. The relatively small amount of artifacts found on the hill leads researchers to hypothesize that the people mainly used it for ceremonies.
A drainage system, which still functions in some places, was carved into the granite bedrock. I, for one, am impressed by that. Firepits and clay deposits suggest that pottery was made here: definitely by Native Americans, and possibly by the monolith-builders. One of the wells has not been excavated; another well contains extraordinarily clear quartz crystals taken from a natural vein 22 feet down. Such crystals are thought to have been used for ceremonial purposes.
Inside the Oracle Chamber
The most interesting feature rests on the center of the site. It is called The Sacrificial Table. It’s big enough for a man to lay down upon, and it has drainage channels carved around the edge, which are now filled innocently with pine needles. A basin underneath the table would have collected the liquid draining off its surface.
Beneath the table is a cave, named the Oracle Chamber, containing a crawl space. A person lying hidden in this space could speak into an opening carved into the rock. Their voice would bounce off the walls of the so-called speaking tube and emerge beneath the sacrificial table, giving the appearance of a disembodied voice. The speaking tube was discovered with rocks blocking both ends, suggesting that perhaps it was closed when not in use, or that the occupants of the site had closed it before mysteriously vacating.
The Sacrificial Table.
From here, one views the solar, lunar, and other celestial alignments on the astronomical calendar. I consider this the second section, because it was not particularly noted by post-colonial meddlers and researchers until Robert Stone leased (and later bought) the property. Monoliths shaped by stone tools stand in significant places along the wall, marking the solstices, equinoxes, and the Celtic holidays of Beltane, Lammas, and Samhain. The Winter Solstice stone, when viewed from a large boulder further down the wall, also marks the apparent standstill of the moon, which occurs every 18.61 years. Another stone, thought to correspond with the lunar cycle, has a weathered carving of an eye on it. Including the wall, the site spans about 20 acres of land.
Ecological changes in the area account for why it took so long to realize the astronomical significance of the wall. In order to view the sunrises and sunsets aligning with the monoliths on significant days, Stone had to cut down the trees that have grown on the hill to get a clear view of the horizon behind each monolith. These trees are a testament to the Woodland Age, the name given to the period of time in which Algonquian-speaking peoples and Iroquois lived in the Northeast undisturbed by the colonial ambitions of others. Abundant berries grow where the land has been cleared, and the soil yields itself to the Three Sisters (corn, bean, and squash). Woodland Age people would have found the clay deposits useful, and indeed a 30-foot wigwam and cooking rack dated at 2000 years old were found near the hilltop. Researchers also uncovered a 300-year-old dugout canoe, made of pine in the manner common to the people from that period.
A most delicious ecosystem.
Before the site was built, just after the Ice Age, dugout canoes would be out of the question. The bedrock lay bare on the hill, stripped by receding glaciers and riddled with fault lines that made extracting huge slabs of stone relatively easy. After the ice age, sea levels were higher, placing the hill closer to the coastline, where it would be more easily discovered by sea travelers. But by the time the monolith-builders constructed their legacy, the climate and ecology were similar to that of modern New England. The hill’s elevation makes for easier viewing of the horizon, but (from my understanding) they still would have had to clear land.
Winter Solstice monolith with land cleared behind it.
Who dunnit?
The prevailing hypothesis, surprisingly, credits early, pre-colonial European immigrants with construction. Native Americans certainly knew about the site and used it, but some very interesting findings suggest European origin.
Comparative archaeology reveals that American Stonehenge bears the most similar resemblance to sites in the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal), built by the Celtiberian peoples, and sites on the islands of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. There are two problems with these observations. One, the Maltese and Portugese sites, while both similar to American Stonehenge, are not similar to each other in the same ways. Two, it is difficult to say whether the methods of the monolithic builders developed independently in separate geographic locations, or whether they were imported by sea. The Celtiberian peoples, who regularly interacted with the Carthaginians, may have been capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and they left mainland Europe for the British Isles around the time that American Stonehenge was built. It is possible, but not proven, that some of them landed in America.
Researcher Barry Fell, who wrote the bestselling nonfiction title America BC, examined writings found on stones at the site. One of the stones has writing in Iberian Punic, which Fell translates as an artist’s signature. A stone written in Ogam states, “dedicated to Bel," while another stone written in Iberian Punic dedicates itself to Baal. This strongly suggests a connection between the Phoenician god Baal and the Celtic god Bel. The so-called Beltane Stone, written in Ogam with Roman numerals, translates as “39 days" or “day 39." This seems to correspond with the Latin Celtic calendar, which would place Beltane 39 days after the start of the year. Thus, the prevailing hypothesis credits Celtic peoples with the building of the site.
Still, many questions remain. Why would Bronze Age Celtiberians use stone tools instead of metal? Could a different group of people have built the site? What exactly was it used for? What was the relationship between the builders and the native populations of modern-day New Hampshire? Stone, with painfully pun-filled irony, has his work cut out for him.
Me inside a prehistoric house, storage room, or pizza oven.
Current Uses
A visit to the site reveals some quirky modern-day additions. Foremost is the alpaca farm located next to the visitor’s center and gift shop. When I visited, it looked like the alpacas had been recently sheared. Skeins of their yarn could be purchased in the gift shop. Alpacas, of course, are in no way native to North America. They hail from the Andes, but they have made their home at various farms and homes across the Northeast region.
I'm not kidding about the alpacas.
As I walked the astronomical trail, I came upon some stumps arranged beneath a tree in a way that suggested, to me, that magick was afoot. Sure enough, there in front of the summer solstice monolith stood a structure built by a local woman. It was a sculpture of the Goddess adorned with shells (in New England, one can easily drive from mountains to lakes to ocean beaches in half a day). People had left medicine bags, prayer scrolls and ribbons, and offerings there. I asked about it in the visitor’s center. Apparently the local woman holds a dedication ceremony on ceremonial days, and it is okay to take pictures.
Goddess sculpture at Summer Solstice stone.
Prayers and offerings.
A spiritual, ceremonial location.
