About NEARA

Ethics Statement

NEARA Officers & Contacts

NEARA State Coordinators

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Introduction

The New England landscape is filled with stone or "lithic" structures. Some are colonial stone walls and foundations, others are part of a Native American tradition that is more familiar in the prehistoric buildings of the American Southwest and the mounds of the Midwest. New England's rich heritage is mostly ignored and the origin of many of New England's stone structures is not known.

There are walls and aligned stone piles; perched boulders, standing stones, and underground chambers with winter solstice sunrise views; there are stone rings with astronomical alignments; vision quest embrasures and stone seats; stone effigies of turtles, bears and other animals; pictographs; rock inscriptions, and enough variety of material to suggests that New England has a long and diverse past. [See the Photo Gallery for some examples]

This past is at great risk of going to waste in New England because these sites are not recognized as significant by the public, by the government or, for the most part, by the professional archeologists. The conventional prehistory of New England extends back through the time of the Maritime Archaic and the "Red Paint People" who piled stones in small mounds over their burials; there are several accounts of stone structures that predate the colonization and, during the eighteenth century, mounds in New England were studied just as they were in the Midwest.  Yet somehow our sites have disappeared from view. Most people would not dream of studying lithic structures in their own backyards.

NEARA's mission is to discover, document, study and protect these lithic sites. Until public awareness reaches a level that sites are automatically protected by the neighbors and the local government, NEARA faces the dilemma of wanting to educate but not wanting to encourage vandalism. For this reason, detailed directions to known sites are not widely published. If you are interested in visiting these sites, you can contact a NEARA member, and are invited to join the organization. NEARA is an open minded organization and embraces all legitimate interests in these sites.
 

NEARA Ethics Statement

NEARA is a research organization dedicated to the study and preservation of sites comprising lithic features in their cultural context. We encourage visitation to these sites only with an awareness of their fragile nature, and we enjoin visitors to refrain from any disturbance which might violate their integrity. Any study under NEARA auspices must be conducted within the guidelines which NEARA supports.

NEARA Officers

Primary NEARA Contact & General Questions:

Roslyn Strong     207-882-9425     krosspt@lincoln.midcoast.com

Officers:

President	Dan Lorraine	dwlorraine@aol.com
Vice President	Rick Lynch	hstrclrsch@aol.com
2nd Vice President	Anne Wirkkala	awirkkala@nhctc.edu
Treasurer	Thomas Paul	cthomaspaul@sbcglobal.net
Secretary	Margaret Venator	mvenator2000@aol.com

Committee Chairs:

Research Projects	Bruce McAleer	vbmm@rcn.com
Publications	Suzanne Carlson	publications@neara.org
Newsletter Editor	Susie Thompson	susiejt@optionline.com
Membership	Lee McKenney	nearamembership@comcast.net
Library	Alice McNabb	aandbmcnabb@aol.com
Librarian	Anne Wirkkala	awirkkala@nhctc.edu
Meeting Registrar	Don Winkley	dwinkley@att.net

Website:

Webmaster	Daniel Boudillion	dvb@boudillion.com   978-486-0147
Assistant Webmaster	Terry Deveau	deveau@chebucto.ns.ca

NEARA State Coordinators

NEARA's site records and activities are coordinated within each of the New England states and surrounding areas by the following people:

Connecticut Douglas Schwartz P.O. Box 7274 Groton, CT 06340 860-437-7923 Email: thedougschwartz@gmail.com	New Hampshire Margaret Venator 20 Stark Highway South Dunbarton, NH 03046-4406 603-774-3577 Email: mvenator2000@aol.com
New Jersey Nancy Hunt 103 Fairview Avenue High Bridge, NJ 08829 908-638-0375 nhunt@ptd.net	New York Hudson Valley Polly Midgley 855 Sleepy Hollow Road Briarcliff, NY 10510 914-373-4247 Email: polmidge@optonline.net
Maine Roslyn Strong 94 Cross Point Road Edgecomb, ME 04556  Phone: 207-882-9425 Fax: 207-882-8162 Email: krosspt@lincoln.midcoast.com	Massachusetts Brenda Thompson Toomey P.O.Box 724 Spencer, MA 01562 508-885-0993 Email: brendatoomey@version.net
Pennsylvania Larry Mulligan 1562 Osbourne Ave. Roslyn, PA 19001 204-659-6200 Email: Mull1562@comcast.net	Rhode Island James Egan 150 Chestnut Street Providence, RI 02903-4603 401-331-6220 Email: jim@jimegan.com
Vermont Lisa A. Gannon 284 River Cove Road Williston, VT 05495 802-999-9699 Email: Lisa-Gannon@comcast.net
Canada Gerard Leduc 6 Chemin Equinoxe RR #3 Mansonville, Quebec JOE 1X0, Canada 514-292-3522 Email: leduc.potton@sympatico.ca	Canada, Maritime Terry Deveau 3 Shore Road, Herring Cove Halifax, Nova Scotia B3V 1G6, Canada 902-479-3398 Email: deveau@chebucto.ns.ca

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