[214] Gerard LeDuc Ph.D., “No! Gladden and Royer Didn’t Build These Stone Mounds in Potten,” NEARA Journal, Vol. 25 Nos. 3 & 4 (Winter/spring 1991), pp 50-60. Editorial Note: This is one of the few professional excavations of stone cairns reported. LeDuc and another professional archaeologist who participated in excavations subjected their investigations and subsequent analysis to high standards of scientific research. This article would serve well as a standard by which future cairn excavations should be measured against. LeDuc conclusions are conservative. However, he does firmly conclude that the cairns excavated predated the settlement of the area by Canadians / European immigrants. He considered the hypothesis that the cairns were built by Native Americans but felt further research was necessary to explore the issue in greater depth. The abstract of the article is reprinted below. “[Abstract] The case is made that early settlers did not build the numerous stone mounds on the forested hillsides of Potton Township located in Quebec, just north of the Vermont border. This conclusion arises from archaeological study of two stone mound sites which revealed that the mounds had been carefully built and were not stone heaps [field clearings]. No recognizable artifacts were found but two cists were observed, as well as petroglyphs on the stones of one mound. Charcoal discovered under the three mounds excavated produced 14C dates of 1800 and 1500 BP, and 560 BP at the other. The research was further carried out with an ethno-historical survey of land titles from the early days to the present, supplemented with dendrochronological data and the examination of old aerial photographs. At one site, the only known early settler appears to have been a squatter who later moved his house to the village. The other settler was very poor and abandoned the land after thirteen years to move to the USA. Under the circumstances, it appears that, in both cases, it was not possible for these early settlers to have carried out all of the work required to produce the extensive stoneworks present, and that these structures predate the arrival of settlers at the sites.”
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 19:59:44 +0000
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