Shadow becomes an Eye On the Old Road to Woodbury CT

 The Seven Hills Serpent Entrance

   The road was spoken of as "The Seven Hills," and every once in a while I'll hear someone from Watertown CT call it that. I was even very surprised one time last year to hear a young country songwriter mention "The Seven Hills" in a song. The road's present day name is Bunker Hill Road in Watertown because it's the extension of a road of that name that begins by the Naugatuck River in Waterbury. I know it well because my grandmother lived near the Waterbury end of the road and my parent's home about halfway between Grandma Rose's house and her parent's farm at the end of the road - and my Uncle Bob's house built on the last remnant of the family farm that has finally sold. 

  How many times have I ridden or driven past this little segment of culturally stacked stones in 70 years? I can answer that quite quickly: "I don't know."

 I've written something before on this blog about this "stone wall," as the world seems determined to call it. I've shown some photos of it, documented some wooden pieces broken off in it that I suspect are from maintaining this old row of culturally stacked stones along a long-used Indigenous road that led from the Village Mattatuck that connected to another road that led to Lake Quassapaug and the Village known in early settler colonial days as the Nonnewaug Wigwams.

Wooden Pieces in Walls | Flickr

  I've suggested that this segment shown is a gateway or entrance in that row of stones, guarded by a stone serpent on either side, aware of the intentions of whoever enters, waiting perhaps for a gift of tobacco to ensure safe passage, just like those snakes on certain rivers in Indigenous stories.

  I've lifted an image from the Gages web pages to compare this entrance or gateway to in the past, and now I add this image as well:

 

  A long way around to say it, but after years of puzzling about it, I passed by this gateway on the way to the grocery store at just at the right time of day, at the right time of year, to see a shadow "become" a snake's eye, a phenomenon seen at a few other sites I know of and probably at a greater unknown number of sites than I'll probably ever know. 

  

Some old aerial and some LiDAR images as well: 

Below, an older photo, showing the flat-topped triangular boulder.

as it appears looking west: 

The "Old Woodbury Rd." | Flickr 

The "Old Woodbury Rd." | Flickr

Actual Zigzag Images

 A collected bunch of Zigzag 'Stone Fences" images - and then some...

A questionable image:

: 

Actual photographs of actual wooden rails on actual culturally stacked zigzag rows of stones:

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2023/10/old-baird-road-zig-zags.html

South Facing Guardian Serpent in Deep Snow (Nonnewaug)

 

Under the Snow (Nonnewaug CT)

The "forward point" of a Zigzag Row of Culturally Stacked Stones, along a road thousands of years old, a Big Snake keeping an eye on me from under a blanket of snow...

Please note that this is not how I usually view the stone feature but that morning it seemed to "transform" under the light and weather conditions, a foot and a half of snow blanketing the landscape.

 

Some Probable Stone Snapping Turtles (Nonnewaug or 'CT Cluster #3')

 Small Stones Turtle

Turtle Effigies in Stone: Tûnuppasuonk kodtonquag(kash) 

         also Tûnuppasuonk qussukquanesash – “Small Stones Turtle” 

"Small stones, stacked as a prayer

to the Turtle, striving to maintain 

Balance in the World, in the Universe. .."

(Above:) Nonnewaug Snapping Turtle Effigy

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/search?q=chicken

 (Above:) "And of course I’m looking for combinations of stone that any reasonable person (not just artists and other types of unreasonable people) just might look at and think,

“That looks like a turtle.”

https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2023/02/finding-big-lost-stones-part-one-ct.html