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<< Our Photo Pages >> Oley Hills - Cairn in United States in Mid Atlantic

Submitted by aluta on Tuesday, 07 August 2007  Page Views: 28963

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Oley Hills Alternative Name: Longswamp Site
Country: United States
NOTE: This site is 18.543 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: Mid Atlantic Type: Cairn
Nearest Town: Allentown/Reading  Nearest Village: Longswamp, PA
Latitude: 40.495000N  Longitude: 75.654W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
1 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
2

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Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by Aluta : A striking cairn at Oley Hills (Vote or comment on this photo)
Oley Hills is an extensive complex in Berks County, Pennsylvania, the main site built on the side and top of a hill, but elements that seem to be related extend along the ridge for miles. The main site is owned privately and is not accessible to the public. Current owners prefer that specific latitude and longitude not be given. Our hope is that the site can be bought and conserved, and that at least limited access could one day be possible for researchers and thoughtful visitors.


Features at Oley Hills include cairns of various shapes and sizes, interestingly-shaped stones and boulders, and wandering walls which in places link the other elements. One interpretation of its layout is that it served as a sort of ritual mnemonic device, like a 'stations of the cross,' each feature representing a story or part of a story. It's likely, however, that the site had multiple purposes, including astronomical ones.

Note: See comment. Documentation by academics, with the cooperation of Fred Werkheiser and some of the Lenape people.
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Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by Aluta : A huge cairn at Oley Hills. Some quartz chunks, which must have been brought up from the valley floor, are incorporated into it on the other side. Note, on the right, the view across the valley to the ridge on the other side, about 15 miles away (Vote or comment on this photo)

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by aluta : A wall flows artistically over a boulder at Oley Hills in Berks county, Pennsylvania. The handsome young man is my son, Jonas, then 14 years old. (2 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by aluta : One of the larger cairns (note the figures to the right) at Oley Hills. Its shape at the top is a curved rectangle. Building cairns on boulders helps to keep them from crumbling when the ground settles. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by aluta : Another oddly-shaped boulder linked with one of the walls. (3 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by aluta : A large cairn built over a stone at the Oley Hills site in Berks County, Pennsylvania. One problem in getting these sites recognized is their size. A photograph cannot capture the complexity and size of these sites, which are composed of numerous large elements, many connected by meandering wall. (1 comment)

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by Aluta : Two cairns on stones at Oley Hills. You can see a wall well behind them on the left.

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by aluta : A small cone-shaped cairn, showing its age. As Norman Muller points out in his studies of the place, cairns on top of the hill at Oley Hills tend to be flat-topped, while those on the sides of the hill tend to be cone-shaped. On Norman's site at : http://www.neara.org/MULLER/intro.htm is pictured another, more cone-shaped cairn which I could not photograph the day I was there because of condition... (1 comment)

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by aluta : Another of the Oley Hills cairns. Some suggest it resembles a turtle, with the small boulders as head and legs. In this case, I'm not sure I agree, but the box turtle is one of the most important animals in Lenape myth and symbolism, and the name of one of their clans. If you go from site to site, it becomes difficult to quell the suspicion that turtles are being represented in at least some cases...

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by aluta : Still another element of the complex at Oley Hills, Berks County, Pennsylvania: a squared-off boulder wedged between the halves of a rounded split boulder. The boulder is large--those trees behind it are not saplings. (1 comment)

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by aluta : A cairn perched on a group of small boulders, with no linking wall. Some elements in these sites seem almost whimsical, but when seen as a complex they display an underlying order--an impression furthered when similar elements are seen at other sites

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by aluta : The meandering walls at Oley Hills, which do not form an enclosure, incorporate many oddly-shaped boulders as well as linking some of the cairns. More information and photographs, plus a partial hand-drawn map of the site can be found at: http://www.neara.org/MULLER/intro.htm

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by aluta : A huge cairn at Oley Hills, Berks County, Pennsylvania, set on a boulder. Quartz stones from the valley below (seen in the background) are incorporated into this cairn, and the slanted top is made up of smaller stones and pebbles. (1 comment)

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by Aluta : During the conference, two Lenape descendants stand on a stone platform that faces a view across the valley. Note the stone formations below. Oley Hills includes many stone features.

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by Aluta : A huge boulder at Oley Hills. This boulder once rocked, but was blasted by a previous owner. Some say they see an animal face in this stone. (1 comment)

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by aluta : Wall leading to oddly-shaped boulder balanced on a larger boulder.

Oley Hills
Oley Hills submitted by aluta : Another of the many elements of the Oley Hills site in Berks County, Pennsylvania, a large cairn on a boulder, linked to others by a low wall. Note the lichens on the stones--these are not recently built.

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 13.0km E 83° Vera Cruz Quarry Pits* Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
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"Oley Hills" | Login/Create an Account | 19 News and Comments
  
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Re: Oley Hills by Anonymous on Monday, 05 September 2022
Is there someone that can be contacted to ask for permission to look at the oley hills site?
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Oley Hills by Anonymous on Saturday, 01 January 2022
Found preserved neolithic remains in Berks County, and I think a burial mound, but NOBODY will listen.
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Oley Hills by Anonymous on Monday, 05 September 2022
    I’m interested, show me!
    [ Reply to This ]

Oley Hills/Longswamp by Aluta on Tuesday, 08 February 2011
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I visited the Sigal Historical Museum in Easton, Pennsylvania yesterday and was pleased to see a picture of one of the cairns from the Oley Hills site, with a small write-up about the stone sites as part of the Lenape exhibit. Things have come a long way since I first learned of these sites 10 years ago!

I noticed that the site is now listed as the Longswamp Site. No need to change the name here on the Portal, but if we haven't already, maybe someone who knows how could get the latitude and longitude for Longswamp, Pennsylvania and substitute them for the ones we have above. When I originally posted the site, I was asked to make it inaccurate. The town of Longswamp is within a couple of miles of the site itself, a much more accurate location.
[ Reply to This ]

Who built them? by Aluta on Monday, 29 November 2010
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This fellow has some interesting ideas about a connection between an ancient Scandinavian people and the eastern peoples and sites. It has bugged me for a long time that writers, upon first seeing the eastern Indians, commented that they looked like Europeans and no mention was made in those early writings of Asian features in Algonkian speaking peoples. This fellow has put together a thoughtful theory, which includes some of the stonework of the British Isles.

Mind you, I'm not saying I agree necessarily. I think it will be some time until we know the truth (if ever). But this article has interesting things to say. Read it here.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Oley Hills photos at Penn Museum by Aluta on Saturday, 30 May 2009
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Saw photos of oley Hills at the Penn Museum's exhibit, Fulfilling a Prophecy, yesteday. Photos were labeled Longswamp instead of Oley Hills, so it seems they're releasing a little more information. There was a bold statement about the stone work in the east, asserting that some ceremonies have been performed at some sites right up to present day!

It was amazing to see artefacts that I have held in my hands displayed in an exhibit at this prestigious institution I have been visiting since I was in secondary school, and to see pictures of, and hear the voices of, people I know personally presenting information in this context which even the most sceptical observer would regard as legitimate. I found it moving.
[ Reply to This ]

Oley Hills featured in documentary film by Aluta on Monday, 18 May 2009
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To be released any day, a film entitled The New Antiquarian (this is the States-no one has heard of the M***** Antiquarian!) includes footage shot at the Oley Hills site. On the cover of the DVD is one of the Oley Hills site's cone-shaped cairns. I haven't seen this yet, but all of Timreck's films come highly recommended.
[ Reply to This ]

Exhibit on PA Lenape by Aluta on Monday, 10 November 2008
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An article on an exhibit about the Lenape Nation at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology mentions that it includes a picture of a cairn and it sounds like it must be one from Oley Hills.

"A Werkheiser photograph of a distinctive cairn in eastern Berks is one of the first items visitors see when they enter the display area."

The article is here.

The museum article on the exhibit is here.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Latest articles about Oley Hills by Aluta on Tuesday, 08 April 2008
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Latest articles, with good pictures, concerning aspects of the Oley Hills site, from Norman Muller of Princeton University:
Row-Linked Boulder Site, Oley Hills, Pennsylvania and
Terraced Boulder Site, Oley Hills, Pennsylvania
[ Reply to This ]

Cone shaped cairns at Oley Hills by Aluta on Wednesday, 05 March 2008
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Pictures of striking cone-shaped cairns with comment by Norman Muller, who has spent more time than anyone studying the Oley Hills site, can be found here on the Rock Piles Blog.
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Re: Oley Hills site by Aluta on Monday, 26 November 2007
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For info on the Oley Hills site and a Vermont site, an excellent article by Norman Muller can be found here.
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Re: Oley Hills site by Aluta on Thursday, 27 September 2007
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Here is the Wikipedia entry for the Oley Hills site. I added some of the same pictures I used here, as illustrations for the text.
[ Reply to This ]

Oley Hills by Aluta on Tuesday, 07 August 2007
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If we are ever to see preservation or purchase of sites like this by groups like the Archaeological Conservancy or any government funded institution, the study of this site by a prestigious institution like the internationally respected Penn Museum is a crucial step. It is very exciting to have people from the museum involved at this site. A positive judgment on their part could open other examples of the ceremonial stone landscape for examination and publicity such as this topic has not had before. Here's hoping that pictures of the Oley Hills site will be seen henceforth in the pages of American Archaeology rather than those of Ancient American.

We're still a long way from seeing Oley Hills bought, cleaned up, and opened to visitors, but we continue to move forward.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Oley Hills by Aluta on Monday, 06 August 2007
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News story concerning sites like Oley Hills. Research on the ceremonial stone landscapes is being carried out by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, with the cooperation of Fred Werkheiser and some of the Lenape people
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Oley Hills by Aluta on Thursday, 29 March 2007
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Please think long and hard before doing a dig there. If you must, please have an expert there for it or at least a few times during it, to record everything, someone who will recognise items that you or the average person might not recognise as significant. Another thought would be to get in touch with Jim Beer, spokesman for the Lenape Nation council.

Some of the elements of these sites are very subtle and easily overlooked. You might want to seek input from the people at the Rock Pile Blog.

It is your property in the end, but more will be learned through such an endeavor if you find out everything you can about that sort of site and about that ridge of hills and the people who once lived there before you begin.

Beautiful place to own property!
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Oley Hills by Anonymous on Thursday, 29 March 2007
Our hill side property is within a mile of the prime Oley Hill Site. Norman Muller visited a few years back and kept repeatedly commenting: "Very Interesting" as he snapped many pictures. I had contacted him after seeing a few features on my property that appeared similar to those at the "Hill" site. I've been giving thought to taking on a "DIG" project near one of the big boulders that looks inviting. I too favor the request that specific latitude and longitude not be shared.
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