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The Archaeology of People: Dimensions of Neolithic Life, Whittle

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<< Feature Articles >> Ring Mountain - Carving in United States in The West

Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Saturday, 17 May 2008  Page Views: 43782

Multi-periodSite Name: Ring Mountain
Country: United States Region: The West Type: Carving
Nearest Town: Tiburon, California
Latitude: 37.911394N  Longitude: 122.489211W
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
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
5 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.
2 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
4

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Ring Mountain
Ring Mountain submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Close-up of deeply incised ancient Native American grinding basin located on a large boulder, such that the user may sit comfortably on the boulder. The basin is approximately 30 centimeters in diameter. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Rock Carving in Marin County, California.
Ring Mountain was a Native American seasonal habitation and ceremonial site on the Tiburon Peninsula of Marin County, California. The mountain, peppered with multi-colored schist boulders, displays ancient petroglyphs, grinding stone use and Miwok tribe middens. The site is also known for its biodiversity, particularly of endemic rare and endangered wildflowers that are associated with Ring Mountain's serpentine soils.

PETROGLYPHS The site's rock carvings are concentrated on a large metamorphic boulder standing alone on a south facing exposure of the mountain. The carvings in chlorite schist are thought to have been made by Hokan or Penutian speaking peoples and date 5000 to 8000 years before present. (Anderson, 2006) The inscription geometrics consist of circular and ovoid features, which are similar to other pecked curvilinear nucleated (PCN) stone art in the California North Coast Range spanning from Humboldt to Santa Barbara Counties; the greatest concentrations of these PCN carvings occurring in Marin and southern Sonoma Counties. Analysis of these petroglyphs in comparison to to other coastal California sites indicates a likelihood that the inscriptions relate to fertility ceremonies. Marin County's official Countywide Plan terms the Ring Mountain site as the "largest and most important petroglyph site in Marin". (Hinds, 2003)

GRINDING ROCK , MIDDENS AND CAIRN A notable feature of the Ring Mountain site is a site along a seasonal stream on the north slope. This location manifests a major metamorphic boulder with a large, deep and almost perfectly circular grinding indentation. Conveniently the boulder offers a suitable seating platform for the Native American grinder. Below this boulder extending toward the stream-bed is an obvious shell midden, indicating at least seasonal habitation of this site. There is visible whitish clam and other shell material visible at the surface, with similar material density observed at other Pacific coastal Native American sites such as the Los Osos (Hogan, 2008) and Elfin Forest sites.

Atop one of Ring Mountain's peaks is a curious and extensive ruined cairn, which is thought to be a Native American ceremonial site. The characteristic size of the metamorphic rocks comprising this feature range from 30 to 100 centimeters. While the ruin has certain elements of amorphism, its location and approach along the ridgeline are suggestive of an ancient ceremonial usage.

GEOLOGY The huge boulders strewn across and outcropping from Ring Mountain were formed tens of miles beneath the earth's suface. (Rademacher, 2007 ) In a subduction process these metamorphic rocks were formed under immense pressure and moved northeast by tectonic plate effects. After millions of years of subsurface pressure, the rocks were regurgitated upward by the lithospheric upwelling.

The greyish-green serpentine boulders here include about a dozen different platy elongated minerals including mica, amphibolite, iron pyrite and eclogite .These boulders are schist, which easily splits into flakes or slabs. "Turtle rock" is a particularly notable blue schist metamorphic rock, which Anderson thinks is partially carved by ancient peoples. This iconic boulder consists of a large base boulder with an unmistakable turtle shape atop, spanning a length of approximately three meters.

ENVIRONMENT Ring Mountain has commanding 360 degree views over San Francisco Bay, as well as Richardson Bay and the cities of Tiburon, Larkspur and San Francisco. The serpentine riddled upper slopes provide habitat for a wide variety of wildflowers including some species endemic to Ring Mountain and the Tiburon Peninsula. Most of these plants flower in the March to June season.

The ultramafic soil associations of ring Mountain provide an environment where certain rare and specialized plants can out-compete more cosmopolitan species; such exotic soils chemistry provides a substrate where many rare plants can out-compete common species, (Alexander, 2006) so that a higher concentration of rare species occurs on serpentine soils. Thus a number of rare and endangered species occur on Ring Mountain including the Oakland star-tulip and Tiburon Mariposa lily, the range of the latter being confined to Ring Mountain. The endangered Tiburon jewel-flower occur only on the eastern slopes of Ring Mountain. It is likely that the historic cattle grazing on Ring Mountain contributed to reduction of populations of some of these endangered plants and may have exterminated other whole colonies or species.

Wavy leafed soap-plant, used by local Miwok people to produce a usable soap, is found growing in sunny open areas. The laceleaf, Pacific and poison sanicles all occur on Ring Mountain. Miniature lupine is found as well as expansive stands of Sky lupine. In the woodfern family, Cup clover and Tomcat clover occur on Ring Mountain. Other vascular plants occurring here are Coffee fern and California buttercup Manroot is found in shady areas, used topically by Miwok to combat baldness. Species found whose common names are ambiguous include: "Nemophila heterophylla'‘ and "Camissonia ovata". There are vernal pools on Ring Mountain including some of the highest elevations. The Rusty popcorn flower is among the herbs found here.

The stream passing by the midden and grinding stone on the north face of Ring Mountain drains to Triangle Marsh at the base of Ring Mountain. This 31 acre (now restored) marsh was the prehistoric source of shellfish for Native Americans at this site..

PROVENANCE Ring Mountain was part of a large Spanish Land Grant encompassing the Tiburon Peninsula, given to John Reed in 1834. This grant known as the Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio was the first Mexican Land Grant north of the Golden Gate. The Reed family used the holding for cattle grazing well into the 20th century. The Ring Mountain Preserve is owned and managed by the Marin County Open Space District. The best way to see the Native American petroglyphs and other artifacts is through a hike led by the Point Reyes National Seashore field seminar staff; note, in particular, that the coordinates given herein are not those of the principal archaeological features, but are merely for a central ridge definition of Ring Mountain.

REFERENCES
* Ginny Anderson (2006) ‘'Circling San Francisco Bay: A Pilgrimage to Wild and Sacred Places'‘,
iUniverse, 240 pages ISBN:0595391915
* http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/CD/main/pdf/eir/CWP/Appendix1_G.pdf
Alex Hinds et al., ‘'Marin Countywide Plan: Cultural resources technical background Element" Feb, 2003
* C.Michael Hogan, ‘'Los Osos Back Bay'‘, Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham, Feb.6, 2008
* Horst Rademacher, "Ring Mountain Rocks: Marin's Exotic Geology Exposed", Bay Nature, April-June 2007
* Earl B. Alexander, Robert G. Coleman, Todd Keeler-Wolf and Susan P. Harrison (2006) ‘'Serpentine Geoecology of Western North America: Geology, Soils, and Vegetation'‘, Oxford University Press, 512 pages ISBN:019516508

The above content was prepared by C. Michael Hogan for the Megalithic Portal.
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Ring Mountain
Ring Mountain submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Large boulder with grinding basin on the Ring Mountain Preserve. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ring Mountain
Ring Mountain submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Close-up of midden material at a grinding site on Ring Mountain. The whitish shell remains are crisp and clear in the surface soil matrix. It is likely that this midden site was used by native Miwoks at the time of European contact circa 1800 AD; however, the earliest use of this grinding site and middens likely dates to several millennia before present. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ring Mountain
Ring Mountain submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Closeup of concentric ring carvings on a large metamorphic boulder at the Ring Mountain Preserve. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ring Mountain
Ring Mountain submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Ridge line of Ring Mountain looking toward the northeast, with the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge in the background spanning the San Pablo Bay. This bridge is considered the northernmost east-west span across San Francisco Bay. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ring Mountain
Ring Mountain submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : View of the Tiburon Peninsula spreading eastward as viewed from a point near the top of Ring Mountain. The water body evident is San Pablo Bay, the northern arm of San Francisco Bay.

Ring Mountain
Ring Mountain submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Turtle Rock along the principal ridge of the Ring Mountain Preserve. Note the turtle shaped rock atop the larger boulder.

Ring Mountain
Ring Mountain submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Cluster of pecked curvilinear nucleated rock carvings on a large metamorphic boulder on the Ring Mountain Preserve.

Ring Mountain
Ring Mountain submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Ceremonial cairn in ruin atop Ring Mountain. This is the view looking east-south-east. (1 comment)

Ring Mountain
Ring Mountain submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Large petroglyph boulder on Ring Mountain. This view is from the side least populated with carvings.

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