07/07/2023
The Cape Cod shoreline changes with every tide. Yet dozens of timeless granite boundary posts, monuments, and humble gravestones are waiting to be rediscovered in the national seashore’s forests and swamps. They are survivors in a world of impermanence…portals to the Cape’s past – its people, places, and events.
For thousands of years before Europeans arrived, the Nauset band of the Wampanoag lived in Nauset Marsh in a thriving settlement. The ocean and marshes provided sustenance for these First People. The community sharpening stone is a reminder of that time.
Tools were essential to survival for early Native People, and they hand crafted every tool they used. This fine grain metamorphic rock is a remnant of Cape Cod's geological past. It provided a hard, abrasive surface for grinding, shaping, and polishing.
As the Nausets shaped their tools on the rock, over time it became worn. Today we see depressions in the boulder where they sharpened stone axes. We run our hands along narrow grooves once used to shape bone fishhooks. For today's Wampanoag and for all people, the sharpening stone is a direct connection to their past.
NPS Photo
