Ancient stone chambers in New England?
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- Опубліковано 26 жов 2024
- Explore the mysterious Stone Chambers, hidden throughout New England. These structures, shrouded in legend and history, have puzzled historians and archaeologists for centuries. Are they remnants of Native American rituals, colonial-era root cellars, or something even older? Watch to uncover the secrets of one of New England's most intriguing landmarks.
thank you for having a normal real life chill voice and not some yelling influencer voice. rare! and cool caves
_influencers...._ ::shudder::
Also for having a matter-of-fact title!
The kid is an Adult. The clarity of the content as well as the presentation denotes a cultivated adult. This is rarity this days.
yes he does have a pleasant yet authoritative voice
And no gay music 😮
I live in West Springfield, MA and recently we found out that our entire neighborhood was built over ancient caverns that run right under our homes. Unfortunately for those of us living here, we discovered these because so many of us have been finding huge cracks throughout our homes and streets. Great video. I'm happy that I found your channel.
Yikes! Best wishes
Should find out history of it maybe your towns archives at library
What neighborhood were these found?. Near bear hole?....... I lived off chestnut st when I was a kid....my grandparents lived off Gooseberry....and I still have family lives off brush hill ave
I’ve never heard of any of that , I live right across the bridge in Spfld !
Probably an older mine underneath and you all will soon need to leave due to a sink hole opening up. Get ready to get that moneyy
We also have "sweat houses" here in Ireland which are kind of similar too. They would burn turf inside to heat up the rocks, then they would clear out the ash and line the floor with fresh plant matter. People who were sick would be sealed inside for a period of time and it was supposed to help cure different ailments, pretty much like an ancient sauna.
I’ve also heard these specific structures in Massachusetts referred to as “sweat lodges” with respect to Native American rituals
Having lived in New England over 60 years I have explored many. Truly fascinating. I personally believe they are ancient but have been used by other people over the years. Good video.😊
A very clear and professional narration.
A very well-spoken young man. Sticks to the details with no fluff. Great video!
I never knew about these in all my years of living in New England. This is super cool!
There is hundreds of them in the Hudson River Valley
Of course you never heard of them... The Powers That Be wouldn't want any of us regular slobs knowing the real truth about ANYTHING.
@@doomoo5365 "Does hundreds?" Proofread, my friend!
I read that Native Americans during the Woodland period stored and secured their corn under stones/ in stone constructs to protect the corn from being eaten by wild animals.
Beautiful, I'm from the south shore and find odd stone ruins in the woods at blue hills and freetown
Weird shit goes down in the freetown forest!
@thekidcambo781 so they say! I run there alone often. The place is so vast so I can see why people get lost out there. I usually don't see people deep in the trails unless they're dirt biking or off roading. I think the folklore keeps people out which is a total bonus for me, I get the trails all to myself! I always ask the forest for safe passage tho. Never stop exploring 🖖
Fascinated by your comment. I'm from Marshfield. Very curious about what you're seeing in the Blue Hills!
Very well written, presented, and edited. Earned you a sub! Thanks!
Much appreciated!
@@Joshopedia at around the 4.00-4.05 minute mark, there's a blue orb, that fades in and out on your right side, while you were in the cave.🤔
Great video. I was shown one of these chambers many years ago, by a friend who had built a cabin out that way, west of the Quabbin; I think it was in Wendell. The chamber looked like, and may well have been that same one that you showed in your first example. It was built into a hillside, had a small opening, and was tall enough for me to just stand up inside. The packed dirt floor was circular and maybe 10 feet in diameter. The thing I found very strange was that none of the locals had the slightest idea about who built it or what it was for, but they all knew it was there. The popular notion was that it was a colonial root cellar, but I very much doubt that. It was bigger than a common root cellar would've been, and more elaborately built.
And exactly like the Irish Bee-hive structures. :)
I’ve been in something similar on Dartmoor in England, it dates from the Iron Age but they’ve no idea what it was used for. I think it’s fascinating that these appear to be aligned with the Pleiades, hope they manage to get an accurate date of construction via some archeological investigations. 👍
I don't know how I got here, but this was a very interesting and enjoyable presentation. Never heard of these. Thank you.
They do look amazingly like the structures in Ireland, especially newgrange,though considerably smaller. The "beehive" construction style reminds me very strongly of those sorts of places. That being said, there aren't that many ways to construct a self-supporting structure out of stone and dirt, so it may just be coincidence.
I've been talking about these for AGES! Thank you, theres another one on the border of Pascoag and Thompson which was built aboveground and still has the beehive shape. Another theory is that they were built for or by railroad and canal builders. As in northern RI, Italians built stick and clay huts when building the railroads and many of the Canals across New Englands blackstone river were built by Irish Immigrants in the 1820s. I like to believe they're linked to Haki and Hekja, they Scottish Gaels brought to Vinland in the norse greenland and vinland sagas, told the other Gaels back home and soon Celts and Natives were secretly in their own trade route. The Irish also built caves in Iceland long before the Vikings.
If there are trees above and around them, how old are these trees?
Very good video. To research the property look in the land records and the probate records. When doing a title search on my land 38 years ago, I found interesting details in the probate records of the 1700s and 1800s. Good Luck, Rick
The one on top of Ragged Hill in W Brookfield was deeeep... they called it the "bottomless pit" but then they filled it in. They said it had stones making up the interior walls. It was on the homestead, but the family history was that it predated the home. I wish I knew the exact spot, to sponsor a dig. IDK who owns the property now.
Oh you got that _money_ money huh
@@daveyjoseph6058don't be a jersey if they have that kind of money and want to help out sponsoring a dig that's their business and unless you plan to send money to help them shut up
I ran into one in the mountains of NH a couple of years ago. I couldn't really understand why it was contracted the way it was. A relatively square underground structure with multiple rooms, only tall enough to crouch in and with one wall fully exposed. It was a magical find though and I spent a little time checking it out.
Hobbits? Or the ancient north American pygmy? It does make one wonder why the ceiling was so low. Underground cities were built long ago in many places. We still build large underground structures today for a variety of reasons. Protection from extreme weather, fallout or excessive solar radiation? We'll probably never know what purpose those rock shelters are for.
Where in NH? I live in NH and would love to explore some of these.
Yes , please where is this !?
The Fae
Fascinating story.
i live in this area, and have been in several of these chambers, and much larger ones in VT We had one just off the property line of the house I grew up in in Lunenburg MA which i would play in as a teenager.
I went to school for Anthropology at UMASS Amherst. I was told by one of our Archaeology professors, who specialized in local Cultural Resource Management work, that there had been a survey of many of these stone chambers and other New England Archaeomysteriae done by UMASS fieldwork teams back in the 1980s i believe, which determined that at least many/most of them were almost certainly early Colonial rootcellars/ice houses. The operative , and important word is "most"
Some, like the stone circle on Burnt Hill in Heath is at least as old as the town, as it is mentioned in the earliest records.
I would love to see another research team revisit some of the sites which were the most likely to not be Colonial , and try to get a proper radiocarbon date etc, or at least a proper survey done to try and narrow in on what is going on with them.
1000%. Research of these caves is very scarce and it would be fascinating to have a deeper look into the ones posing the most question’s.
do you know if there are any really near the 5c consortium ? i go to hampshire and id love to check one out
@@ceciisuppose1530 they are very near- look at the map for Shutesbury for example (near S. Amherst) you will need transportation to get there.
@@SaraKrohn awesome !! thank you :) i have a freind w a car that would have fun checking these out w me so
Lunenberg is about a 15 minute drive from where I live.
So much history around here, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else but New England.
Very interesting Josh.
Calming, informative, unique topic, and entertaining. Thx for posting!
Tremendous Josh! Keep it up, please.
I absolutely love this series Josh. Great work.
The size of the rocks, some being massive and too heavy for even a group of men to pick up and carry, begs the question of how a few monks could have done all that work throughout western and southern Massachusetts.
Thanks for showing love to my area! I lived in Franklin County for most of my life and still work there!
Hey, just wanted to let you know something I just read on the chambers. I am not positive whether or not this is reliable, at the moment, but I live in northeast OH. Apparently, when some of the early residents moved in, a farmer at what is now Youngstown finally got perturbed by a weird hill with a bunch of stone sticking out & decided to dig in & remove it, only to find that it was a collapsed stone chamber with the remains of a fire at the bottom (Youngstown was the site of a Lenape village from approx. 1690-1750). After asking around to see if anyone could make sense of it, a trader who had a lot of experience with the Natives apparently told him that such structures were where they would shelter during the winter months. There were likely more than one in this area, all concentrated roughly near Mill Creek. As this one was on the property of the Lantermans, another chamber was known to locals that wasn't collapsed for years, which the experts claimed wasn't native in origin & it eventually got sealed off to stop people from exploring it & a third may have gotten destroyed when building an apartment complex in Austintown, nearby, though the urban legend claims they destroyed a Native burial ground. But, no bodies were found, just a confusing & seemingly deliberately placed buried structure of flat stones.
Very good research. For years, it was a pastime of mine to explore those structures in New England. I had an almost mystical experience while visiting Agassiz Rock near Manchester-by-the-Sea. This triggered my interest in those sites. You might want to check the excellent book: Manitou: The Sacred Landscape of New England's Native Civilization.
I live in Massachusetts ,you have a very cool channel, my sister lived in Upton for about Twenty two years. Keep up the good work❤🇺🇸
Awesome content! Thanks man
Those are so cool, you went to the first one I ever found! I’ve been wondering when you were gonna do a video on those.
I found one near Brooklyn CT. Completely overgrown so I wasn't able to enter but it had a horizontal window that matches the others I have seen online.
Second this
Excellent job!!! Love the history & how you clearly (but smoothly) share facts as well as lore & various theories.. our corporate media could take a lesson!
The sharing of where the name ‘monk holes’ comes from & a bit of its history was a nice add on.
So cool! Ill definitely have to check this place out! Sending ❤ from Central MA! Keep up the great work! I enjoy how you discuss history in Mass...and how it doesn't always revolve around Boston. There is more than Boston when it comes to the rich history of Massachusetts. If you have any merch (t-shirt or hoodies) I'll buy some in support of your channel.
This video rocks! Nice work.
Are you at Temenos? I've been to that one. Did you notice that it was unusually warm? They're so cool
It was! I recorded on a humid day and I wouldn’t say it was warm per se but a very comfortable humidity free climate. It was so fascinating to see in person!
@@Joshopedia we went towards the end of summer and at night. it was cool out and I didn't want to leave.
I'd call it a cellar, built by Europeans. They are all over this country in different forms. Very common, though the forms in this video seem very early settlement being in Massachusetts. Here in Kansas, they are larger and of course, a little more modern building technique. Here, the majority of them are built on flat gound. But I have seen a few built into hillside like this. Also, settlers would build similar structures over the head of a spring to keep debris out of the water. Great vid!
So fascinating
I visited one of these sites years ago. Close to Williamstown, MA. Thanks for sharing this.
4:02 - An orb floats out from behind you on YOUR left and slowly floats away until it fades away. Very interesting.
There’s gotta be some hidden mystery with that place
Its a dust particle. Theres a bright enough light to his right to create the ambient light needed to see floating debris..which is around us all the time. Not everything has explanation, yet not everything is myterious either smh.
Your content is always fascinating. Thank you
Orb spotted at lower right at 4:02.
I'd imagine spirits make frequent use
Oooh that is conclusive 🙄
@@ericnepean Not really. Just an observation.
That would be a speck of dust.
Very nicely done. I had never heard about these structures. Good research and some excellent pictures. Keep up the great work.
Have you spoken to Jim Viera about these? He gives talks all over about it.
I haven’t. Interesting though!
@@Joshopedia he’s from Ashfield, a stone mason by trade. Great job Josh!
Great video Josh! 35 years ago my friends and I found one of these at the base of a mountain on the Westfield / Granville line in Western MA. I'm sure it's still there. It was quite the structure and I'm sure it took a lot of physical labor to construct it. We had no idea as to who built it and why.
Upton Chamber a traditional Bee Hive and S. Woodstock Vermont a Winter Solstice Site. Read America BC by Barry Pell , I have been into these Chambers for decades ! Thanks for this great post
I found this presentation a few minutes ago and remembered 30 yrs ago reading the book you mention: "America B.C.," by Barry Fell (F as in Foxtrot; not P as in Peru; Harvard prof., as I recall, but not in archaelogy). His observations should be of great interest to you, although his conclusions are roundly ridiculed by mainstream archaeology. He paints a very intriguing set of connections among, in one set of cases, some details of archaic Irish runes. In other cases, he argues that Phoenician influences and inscriptions can be found in many areas accessible in N. America from navigable waters.
It seems that someone marketed in Europe copper, mined among the Great Lakes, many thousands of years ago. If you look into the "Solutrean Hypothesis," associated with Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley and in youtube presentations currently available, you will see other Europe-America travel speculations. I do not know how much inroad these ideas have made in decades of life, but there seems to be a lot of potential in considering Ice Age and post-Ice Age coastlines and islands with grossly lower sea levels than present.
The one in South Woodstock, VT is known as Calendar II. The sunrise on the morning of the Winter Solstice passes through the doorway onto the back wall of the chamber, on that day only. That back wall is actually a fireplace, with a crude vent type of chimney above it. The gigantic slabs that form the roof are very impressive.
I live a few miles south of it. My friends like to call it “The Hobbit House”.
@@1wheeldrive751 hi, thanks for response, I went to S Woodstock site about 20 years ago and wass able to go inside and walk around the property was just sold before we got there America BC highly suggested book
@@StandingStones1776-vb6zn - apparently the people that own that property that the cave is on, don’t mind folks viewing it, if they are respectful of it. Which seems to be true so far. I believe there is a group of crazy folks that show up on the morning of the solstice too. I’ve never been brave enough to do that. There are a lot of loonies here in VT.
Thank you. this is REALLY interesting.
I'm from Ct, I would love to visit these places. Great vid, man! I am now subbed. (cool shirt)
Your videos are getting better each time. It's a pleasure to learn of the curiosities in MA, mostly western Mass. those chambers- it seems no in-depth archeological examination has been made. Anything in the floor like seeds, pollen, or vegetable traces? Clothing fragments or artifacts?
No artifacts have been found in these chambers or even near by.
Happy to have found this channel. I really like you Josh, looking forward to seeing more videos. 😁
BayStater here. That was really interesting. Great video.
Interesting, thanks. There's similar beehive structures remaining here on Dartmoor, England, that were build from the 1700s by the miners and quarrymen working on the moor to store tools and, later, explosives - as well as root cellers (aka Potato caves) near many old farms. It's hard to be sure of origins just from the shape, though, as it's a simple and efficient way of building a structure using available materials - either above or below ground - so will be common to any purpose where a small, safe place was needed. But exploring these theories and imagining uses is where so much of the magic of history comes from!
Hey I think I’ve been in that one! Used to band practice in Wendell in my early 20’s and one of my band mates showed us a nearby one.
I was searching for the second one but had no luck. I can only imagine how many haven’t even been found yet.
how are the acoustics?
@@sirclark4405 lol, well now I’m genuinely curious. Probably terrible I would assume.
Ever since hearing about these structures I have super interested in them.
All sorts of "areas" underground! Interesting information! Thank you!
Very interesting ... Thanks Josh
Very interesting! Having lived in Massachusetts most of my life (including a stay in Pelham!), I’m surprised I’ve never heard of these before!
Very cool and informative 👍
This is cool. Nice job.
dude wheres the working out video your jacked!!!
Theres a calendar 2 site in woodstock vermont. Its very quiet and peaceful in there, and mysterious stones with perfect drilled holes in them also nearby
I just got a 300 level college class. Well done!!
I think at least - some - are Native American. I've heard of other stone structures (cairns, circles) across New England here and there that are more or less thought to be Native American in origin, so they'd probably be capable of constructing these. As interesting as the Irish Monk theory is, I don't think they would've found much solitude in North America. I have heard there's good evidence that the monks were probably the first people to try to visit and live in Iceland, at least before the Norse showed up. But who knows, more research is probably needed.
Europeans might have hit the shoreline 650 years ago, but there's nothing in these spots that seem compelling for them to go to these spots. They wouldn't even know these spots existed until they got there. I doubt the local population would have been friendly either. "Why are these guys in are 'hood?". I know I'd be asking that question. Europeans would have clung to the shoreline. With their back to sea, it eliminates one direction if there's conflict and also makes it easier to bug out. Nobody is going to land in let's say Salem and the first thing they do is travel 70-80 miles inland to build these things. They leave a crew at the shore and say "We'll be back in 3 months. Wait for us". Not going to happen.
@@dlewis9760 Europeans never stick to a shore. We are the most curious and prolific explorers in history.
@@michaelbehrens1660 His point is sound, you stick to the shore when exploring, initially. As you colonize you move inland, yes, or if you've already charted the shore then you can explore inland where it seems interesting. But in this region it's just completely hilly and wooded and very hard to traverse. Without roads, how long would it have even taken them to cut their way through to these locations?
Remember, coasts are always the best places to build cities because of the port access for shipping as well as an easy sea food industry. This is why most cities are on the coasts. There are some big inland cities too, but they're more rare. Early European explorers almost certainly would have stuck as close to the shore as long as possible before pushing inward, and once they got to that point we'd have evidence of their existence, they would have left bits of tools and construction that we don't see. You don't start pushing inland unless you have infrastructure on the coast (at least an outpost or settlement) to support you. ALWAYS stick to the coast when possible, history teaches us this. You never know what that dense, dark jungle is hiding in the shadows. Usually not good things.
As somone who grew up in ct and spent almost evryday in the woods.. i say they are most definitely not root cellars, i have found many. One that i will always remeber was several hundred meters long more like a tunel system actually it came to a 90° turn to the right after that there was a partial collapse i pushed through but it got to narrow to the point of almost crawling in mud i could tell that it kept going and going . I went back many times seeing it was close by and found that there were more situated very close by, they were smaller but one seemed like it may have connected to the collapsed tunnel
Very well done video on this topic.
Very cool. There was a show on History Channel that did an ep. on stone chambers in the US. America Unearthed
Big thank you to Mr. Josh. Educational content. Well done. Root cellars would be close to a home, if not below a home. These are dwellings, most likely for one. There was much traffic before Columbus.
That was cool! I never knew there was such a thing as a root cellar cave. Now I know.
There is one of these we’ve visited a number of times in Pelham, the kids liked going in it when they were smaller.
When Lewis & Clark wintered with the Mandan Tribe on the upper Missouri River, they noticed that a good many members of the tribe had light-colored eyes, fair hair & skin tones as well. One of Lewis & Clark's party also noticed that many words in their language resembled Gaelic, a language native to both the Irish & the Scots. They also had an "Ark", in which a number of sacred items were kept. Many of the item that they were shown resembled coinage & medallions of European origins, in fact, at least two of the 'coins' had faded dates on them that looked to be either from the 1st or 2nd century and were quite possibly Roman in origin. They also used a round watercraft that they called a "Bull Boat", which strongly resembled Welsh/Irish "Coracles", or bowl boats. They were a craft used predominantly by the Mandan, which other tribes along the Missouri ascribed to them
The Mandan said that their old fathers came across the "Long Waters", (meaning the Atlantic Ocean), long before, these indians may well have been followers of St. Brendan The Navigator, who was said to have led a large group of followers who were fleeing from the encroachment of the Romans back in the 1st to 3rd Century C.E.
So, it's quite possible that there were those who came from Wales or Ireland, landing at what is now New England and lived in that area for some time, slowly moving inland until they wound up in the Upper Missouri River. I just get tired of hearing the arguments of who it was that "discovered" North America, when it had people already living there for tens of thousands of years, if not longer.
Very interesting video. Thank You 😊
Hey man great video 👍 and good research on everything 👌 just a great piece of knowledge thank you 🤙
Thankyou. Very interesting.
There is one in Southern Windsor County VT. We used to wonder about it a lot. Definitely older than the first settlement here.
Dang i love this channel !!! thank you for excellent videos.
Looks like a good place to shoot arrows from. Maybe they are placed by game trails as hunting blinds? Or along important routes for security?
Excellent information. How cool!
Did you happen to note the elevation of this chamber? I'm curious about its position in relation to glacial lakes left by the retreating Laurentide ice sheet. The tendency seems to be to either relate these sites to either Native Americans or colonials. But we know so little about the movement of Paleoindians in the region. I've noticed some of them pointing to what would have been prominent land masses during that period, such as Mt. Ascutney. We tend to look at these places with a focus on how the landscape looks today. But it has changed so drastically that it may be worth examining their purpose while exploring how the region looked as the ice sheet retreated north and nomadic people were able to venture into newly exposed areas.
Edit: grammar and such.
Excellent! Thank you!
Reminds me a little bit of certain areas at America’s Stonehenge in Salem, NH!
Really cool video. Good job.
Amazing Video man
Well done. Great informational video. I think they were a whole lot more. I don’t think at our ancestors or anyone else’s would spend that much time building a stone structure just for vegetables.
Great vid! Where is the one in Shutesbury located?
I remember finding a beehive curran when I was a kid. It was in the woods between Holland and Wales on the Connecticut border, it was about 6 feet tall.
Great video. I believe there is a small one in Borderland State Park in North Easton Ma along the Bay Circuit trail near Leach Pond. It was my kids favorite spot.
Ive seen one of those somewhere along the SNETT (Southern New England Trunkline Trail). I never knew what it was.
Very interesting, first time i know these things exist.
would be awesome to find one sealed up, untouched, and discover what is inside of it.
Incredible, there is alot of industrial history in the hilltowns of western Massachusetts that i am really interested in, abandoned quarries and the first emery mines in the state, now abandoned I've been doing research on them for years! if you would like some info please reach out!
Thanks for teaching me something today love your videos!
i think them being burial chambers makes the most sense since they’re alined with the Pleiades and solstices maybe some type of elaborate ritual
I can't think of anything more valuable to a settler as food storage, spending the time and energy to make a permanent one, such as these caves, seems very logical. Thanks for the video.
If the "root cellar" floods, you starve. No drainage visible in these holes, so .... nah.
@bendy6626 high ground above the water table won't have any issue with that. Bone dry, 24/7/365
I wish so much that this could finally be solved, it's weird how these structures can even be mysteries. The only potential reference I came across was a letter from 1654, it was a New England VIP asking someone about stone chambers occasionally found by the settlers on their new properties.. implying that they were older and already a mystery then. I wish he was more specific but it doesn't sound like he saw one first hand. There should be more evidence, I can't believe people didn't either include these in official business or rave about them being mysterious.
I agree with Native American root Cellars I found them in Maine one of them was over 30 ft wide though 10 ft tall ceilings and 20 ft long very small insurance
Well done 👍 great presentation!! Well done parents and instructors!!😅
💥💥💥@2:42 Note the Colonial stonewall in the upper screen left. Now look down at the road under your feet. Motor Vehicles once used this road, before that, it was a wagon Road and before that, a cart path. Do you think the monks or indigenous peoples that built the chamber, also built the stone walls? Do you think the stone chamber was built at a different time than those stone walls? What an amazing coincidence it would be, if monks and Indigenous peoples, built stone walls and structures exactly like the 100,000 plus stone based colonial homesteads, that would spring up across all of New England, just a few years later. You, my friend, are standing in an old colonial homestead.
before a cart path, a deer trail? the road well travelled
this is sooo interesting
There is one I know in Bolton ma. It’s a winter tomb for bodies until the ground thaws. It’s mentioned in the town history but was covered up. It was 7x7x7ft. There were four flat protrusions on all four walls, it was said coffins were replaced there till the spring. In 1971 my friend found it and we went there at night with candles and found bones. We brought them somewhere and it was three humans and a cow…..
Never knew that, lived here all my life. There is a trail on Green road, almost directly across from where Nourse intersects, there used to be an old shanty not too far in, visited it in '94 with my boy scout pack when it was still standing. Revisited it a couple years later and it was rapidly deteriorating. On a final visit in '01 it was completely collapsed, a friend found a jug of moonshine and a milky white mug underneath the foundation, kind of a comical and fascinating moment you can imagine. The place is just about completely forgotten at this point, many in the area have moved on, and I can't quite recall if I was told the history of the place in those early educational visits. Clearly it was a small house, that much is certain, I do remember there being some indication - table, chairs, perhaps the rusted out skeletal springs of a mattress.